X-Men 2 (or X2to credit its "hip" form) has undoubtedly been looked upon as one ofthe most highly anticipated films of 2003. With the sequel to the blockbusterhit of summer 2000 seeing gifted composer John Ottman reunited with directorBryan Singer, in what has always been a highly regarded partnership thus farspanning four films, the score itself has been just as hotly anticipatedamongst X-Men and Ottman fans alike.
The sequel picks up almost precisely whereits predecessor left off. What the film manages so impressively is to buildeven further upon characters introduced first time round, as well as bringingcompletely new characters into the fray. Singer's skilful direction alongsideJohn Ottman's talent as a film editor save X-Men 2 from being a structuralmess on screen, but the tasks set upon Ottman as composer were gargantuan, yethe delivers In fact, he often delivers in spades.
The CD release sees various cues from thefilm's score presented in a non-chronological order. Depending on one's pointof view, this is either a bad thing or simply something not worth worryingover, and this reviewer falls firmly into the latter category. It's difficulttoo for any keen lover of sequence to re-arrange the CDs sixteen tracks intofilm order, but the CD begins nicely with the "Suite from X2," a cuewhich in actual fact accompanies the greater half of the film's end titles. Iremain unsure if it was a good idea to actually place the suite as the firsttrack. It surely contains the most blatant and bombastic renditions of Ottman'sX-Men theme that you will hear throughout the entire score, but given he tookto playing down the theme (more on that in a moment), hearing it in such agrand form at the very start may perhaps leave a longing in the listener who cravesfurther use of such a dramatic motif.
In many ways it should actually beconsidered a smart decision on the part of the composer to have never let thetheme outstay its welcome and be overplayed throughout the score every time oneof our heroes were to have walked into a room. It's often customary for asequel to a blockbuster movie to completely overload the film with as much ashumanly possible now that the "establishing nonsense" is out of theway. Musically, and as a movie in general, X-Men 2 smartly understandshow far is too far and never dares attempt to throw so many dozen things intothe pot at any one time. Again it's a fine example of the partnership Ottmanand Singer have, with the music of X2; things may often certainly taketheir time but rarely miss their mark in setting the mood.
The X2 CD rates itself at anincredibly healthy length, clocking in at just over an hour and containing agood bulk of the film's most memorable, moving and thrilling cues. There aresome notable moment's from the film's score missing from the CD of course, asis to be expected, and it is of particular shame for the release not to haveincluded a delightfully beautiful piece of music that scored the movie's finalscene.
A surprise, and a delightful one at that,was the discovery of how truly charming many of the moments in the score are.The film's main titles remain another cue left out from the CD release, andwhilst essentially a glorified rendition of the main theme, it was a cue sowhimsical and elegant in its opening that it firmly set the tone for whatOttman and director Bryan Singer were really trying to go for with the music.
The middle section of the album certainlyplays host to the strongest cues on the disc. A single highlight of the albumwould be hard to pick, though may ultimately fall down to a straight fightbetween "Mansion Attack" and "Magneto's Old Tricks". Theformer, being the longest cue on the CD at around seven and a half minutes, isa glorious musical concoction of real danger and excitement. It's a thrillingpiece of music, and if you've dedicated any time and money into your musicsystem at home, the cue really lets the excellent mixing of the score andmastering of the CD shine. "Magneto's Old Tricks" ushers in almostthe same sense of menace, but differs vastly in its execution. On screen, theevents underscored by this cue are nothing short of ingenious in what isfrankly a delightfully evil scene. Some of X2's better choircontributions are to be heard here (although some suitably haunting choir workis to be found in "I'm In").
X2 is, withlittle doubt, John Ottman's biggest score to date. The size of the orchestra isimmense and its scale registers with the listener both in the movie and here onthe CD too. Whilst in some ways the album may perhaps leave X-Men fanatics andgeneral superhero score lovers somewhat disappointed in the underplaying of themain theme, there is little doubt that the majority will see the score for whatit truly is: a wonderfully satisfying score to an equally satisfying movie.