Jean Grey Walks into a Bar...

By the ocean there is a bar… They called it Hannah’s Roadhouse once… I don’t know what they call it anymore. I just knew that she’d come and bring that thing with her. That thing that to me, was so precious, so deeply moving that just looking at it would blind me. But I had to have it and I knew that I couldn’t have it if she didn’t show up today…

There she was red hair with a slight orange fleck in the Ocean’s sunrise. She wasn’t old, in fact, she was new, as if reborn, and she didn’t see me as she opened the door to the bar. I let her walk, I had no plans. She bought 2 drinks and sat at the bar…

Maybe she already knows I'm here, I thought to myself. I paused for a moment to gather my loose thoughts and braced myself for her mind games; approaching her would take more preparation than I first predicted.

It had already been ten minutes since her arrival, I was quietly confident that the extra drink was mine. I stood up, removed a dusty comb from my jacket and steadied myself. Seeing her again had an affect on me which I couldn't explain. I took the first step towards the bar. Then the second step. Every step forward felt like a leap as my nervousness began to overwhelm me. Take a deep breath, Scott, I thought to myself; she was only metres away, I had to pull myself together. What if she heard my every thought? The nervousness descended into blind panic; I couldn't stop my feet but I had already reached the bar...

"Relax Scott, I know how you feel."

I took a deep breath, and looked into her eyes,

"You know me too well, Jean." I picked up the drink that she had left on the bar and took a hearty swig. Jean looked surprised, but I thought nothing of it and continued the conversation.

We spoke for a solid twenty minutes about nothing in particular, most of the time reminiscing on past events. Being with her was so relaxing, I began to question my earlier emotions.

"Are you still modelling" I asked, noticing that she was still as slim as ever.

"I'm finished with that", she replied. "They fired me because I'm not as slim as I used to be." Her face lit up seemingly caught between two emotions; she appeared disappointed but amused by the situation. As she laughed, she showed me the thing most precious to me.

Her smile. I felt a surge of excitement shoot up my spine as I opened my mouth and joined in the laughter. What an amazing moment! Thoughts and feelings were flowing through my mind, I felt free of all tension.

Suddenly, the doors to the bar swung open and a brash voice echoed around the room.

"Hey, Four Eyes"

Huh? I instantly recognised the voice; I stood up and turned my body to face the door. "I should have known", I replied, as I looked him dead in the eye.

"That drink was mine, Scott. Move out of my way."

I heard the fast moving sound of metal scraping against metal as the claws were revealed.

"It's time, let's settle this Logan."

X-Men 2 / X2 Analysis

Three themes of X-Men 2 which advance the story.

ANGER
There was a lot of anger on display in the film, but it was an action film so the violence had to be stirred up from somewhere. :P

That aside, most of the anger in the film came from Magneto and his associates who generally wanted to erase all remaining non-mutants from the planet.

In contrast, the humans were also angry at the attempted assassination of their president by Nightcrawler, a mutant. It is safe to say that the majority of anger in the film stems from the constant disagreement between mutants and non-mutants.

LOVE
To differentiate from all the anger and violence in the film, there are relationships between the X-Men. Relationships are essential in developing the story and making the characters seem more realistic and more relatable. This is important because their abilities as mutants could distance them from the viewers.

The most obvious example of love was the long-established romance between Jean Grey and Scott Summers, which was potentially under-threat from beardy old Logan.

Other examples of love include Rogue and Iceman, and even possibly Storm and Nightcrawler; though this could be interpreted as motherly love rather than romance.

RIVALRY
The competition between Scott Summers and Logan seems like an obvious rivalry in the film as they spend almost every moment together arguing over Jean or staring each other down.

A less obvious, but equally as important rivalry, would be that of Professor X and Magneto; we see them going head-to-head due to a difference of opinion. They aim for the same goal, yet they want to achieve said goal in a completely different way.