Generation X-Men

X2: X-Men United

By Lucas Land

Ok so I went to the opening of X2: X-Men United. Now, I don't go to the movies often, but this was an experience. It was the opening night of a much-hyped movie so the theater was packed and the energy in the room was buzzing. Even though I think movies are the literature of my generation, I am often bothered by the passive nature of sitting and watching a movie. There is not usually interaction, between you and your friends, you and the movie… but you and your girlfriend, well, that’s a different story.

But the intensity of a crowded theater on opening night was incredible. The crowd cheered the good guys, laughed at the jokes and suddenly the movie experience was no longer passive. It was like watching a great basketball game, your adrenaline pumping and you can’t help but jump up and root when your team scores.

What I found most interesting was how the movie reflected the state of our culture today. There were a lot of mixed messages and signals. The movie really was an amalgam of many of the ambiguities and tensions that make up our culture. Some of these tensions are materialism and a longing for deeper meaning, anger at religion and hungering for spirituality at the same time, doubting and wanting faith.

As soldiers are invading the School for Gifted Youngsters, Wolverine and friends escape through a series of tunnels. When the lights come on they are in a room filled with fancy sports cars. This morality tale about dealing with differences is suddenly interwoven with the materialism of our culture. I had the sociological luck to be sitting next to a pair of teenage boys during the movie that brought the point home. As the four mutants jumped into the Mazda MX6, the boy next to me exclaimed, “Awesome!!” A hushed conversation about luxury vehicles ensued. Just like James Bond, the X-Men have access to an endless supply of cutting edge technology. This leaves the boy next to me (and myself) drooling for the “cool toys” and latest gadgets that will improve our lives.

X2 also touches on how the quest for new technologies can be abusive, destructive and evil. William Stryker spends his life developing technologies for the military and his own purposes that are used for control, power and greed. This reflects our own ambiguity about technology and progress. Advertisements tell us that the newest cell phones, palm pilots, software and on and on will improve our lives and leave us smiling into eternity, but we see on the news the devastating effects of military technologies. We feel uneasy about genetic engineering, cloning and a host of other issues we face as the future world of science fiction is now arriving.

The film also highlighted for me the train wreck phenomenon our culture participates in so earnestly. When the soldiers are invading the school, Wolverine is trapped. His admantium claws spring from his knuckles and the carnage begins. The initial reaction of the crowd was to cheer wildly. Both my fiancé and I felt uneasy about the crowd’s reaction to such violence. As I ponder the Wolverine character further, I find that our feelings about violence are almost incarnate in him. Wolverine is the product of a military that is set on dominance and power and not benevolence (fictional, of course). This military uses intimidation and violence as a means to its end (what that is we’re not sure). Because of Wolverine’s (and maybe our own) amnesia about his past, he is uncertain about who he was and even more about who he is or wants to be. This reflects our own ambiguity about the violence of our culture. Just turn on daytime TV and you can see people solving their problems through violence, outrage and improper control of their emotions on any number of talk shows, Jerry Springer being the epitome of them all. We are both outraged and fascinated by these displays. We are both de-sensitized and overly sensitized to the violence in our world, both in reality and on screen.

The tension that fascinates me the most however is the tension between Storm and Nightcrawler. The initial interaction between Storm and Nightcrawler highlights this ambiguity. Nightcrawler tells Storm about life after he left the Munich Circus. He speaks of the compassion he feels even for those who despise and hate him for being different. Storm feels anger and indignation at the way mutants are treated. The injustice of the world makes her angry, and causes her to question the goodness of people and the world. Nightcrawler responds to her protests by saying that he has faith.

This is the same tension in our culture at the moment. People have been wounded and hurt by religion, the institution and the fallible people. There is distrust among many towards institutions in general and often religious institutions. At the same time, there is also a deep desire and need for spiritual food. Even in Storm’s doubt, she is seeking something more. Later in the movie, she tells Nightcrawler that she has “faith” in him to get her into Cerebro. This may be a misappropriation of the term, and confuse the meaning of religious or spiritual faith. It does, however, reveal to us the openness of people to spiritual realities even while being cynical and skeptical of the religious institutions that claim to “own” these realities.

Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner, is portrayed as a devout Catholic seeking to earnestly live up to his professed faith. He scars his body, because of his own sinfulness and at different points in the film prays the rosary, the Lord’s Prayer and the 23^rd Psalm. These are classic and clichéd uses of religion in the film, but they tell us something about what our culture thinks of religion. The re-appropriation of religious language, symbols and rituals outside the context of religious institutions highlights the distrust of these institutions. There is an interesting tension between distrust of the religious establishment and the glorification of an almost individual ascetic or monastic lifestyle in the Nightcrawler character.

People who are knee deep in our postmodern culture are comfortable with all these tensions. They understand them, because they have the same feelings towards these aspects of our culture. As these elements of postmodern thought continue to spill over into pop culture we would be wise people to listen and see.

“Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?” Jesus.