X-MEN 2 UPDATE: Awesome, brain-fodder-type post and comments thread from Will Wilkinson. I will add only the tiny comment that the extra-special mutants (the Xaviers and Jean Greys), plus the vast abilities of a bunch of small-time mutants who band together (Storm + Iceman + Pyro + Rogue, say), make plot and suspense extremely difficult. It’s really hard to come up with a believable reason that a mutant group could ever be foiled. You’ve got a guy who can teleport, several mindreaders and thought-manipulators, a naked blue lady (SIGH) who can look like whatever she wants to look like, plus characters who control various natural/elemental forces. How can you actually make their lives dangerous enough to be interesting? I thought the first movie handled this difficulty better than the second one.

Anyway, if you want to connect “X-Men 2” with neoclassical economics and the pressing question of individual nuclear weapon ownership, click here. Fun stuff about morality and power relations.