Directed by Bryan Singer
Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen,
Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos & Brian Cox

Quick Rating: ****

This is one of the best comic-book movies ever.  Taking off from where the
first one ended, this sequel continues the story of the mutants, both good
and evil, in a humans' world.  The opening scene (which kicks ass)
introduces Nightcrawler (the teleporting, blue-skinned, tailed, religious
mutant) as he infiltrates the White House, and eventually, the Oval Office.

A powerful general, Stryker (Cox), uses this event to push his anti-mutant
agenda.  He has information on Professor X's school in upstate New York, and
sends an attack force there.

I don't want to get too far into the story, hoping you'll watch this one
yourself, if you haven't already.  But in general, the X-Men need to team up
with the evil mutants (lead by Magneto) in order to stop the increasingly
malicious anti-mutant movement.  Sprinkle in sideplots involving Wolverine's
origins, Ice-Man / Roque love story, Stryker's past and his mutant son, the
Wolverine / Cyclops / Jean Grey love triangle, the X-Men's attempt to find
Night Crawler, Pyro's difficulty with being a mutant, and many more, and
this is one deep, well told, well paced action movie.

The special effects are flawless (with a few X-jet scenes excluded), the
acting is top notch, with almost everyone giving great performances.  The
action scenes were great, but the story was so solid, especially for a comic
book action summer movie, that it's what puts this film above so many
others.  Singer even worked in some laughs and some serious scenes that are
really effective (Wolverine with the cat, Bobby telling his parents about
his "secret" and their reaction, etc).

Yes, there is a lot of Wolverine, but honestly, Hugh Jackman made the first
movie, and it's a popular character, and he drives a lot of this movie
forward.  I don't have a problem with it at all.  But we also get scenes
with many other mutants, and are introduced to plenty more.  There are many
references to the long-running comic series.  I'm not a reader of the X-men,
but I knew enough about them to catch a few of the references.

Overall, this is a great comic-book movie, surpassing the first X-Men, in my
eyes.  This film was free of the long introductions, since we already knew
the characters and were familiar with the world.  X2 could just get down to
business, and it does.



 

Quality: 7.0  Visuals: 8.0  Intensity: 7.0  
OVERALL RATING: 7.3