Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijin-Stamos, James Marsden, Kelly Hu

Plot Summary The X-Men have opponents new and old to face this time around. Magneto is back, but there is also a threat to Professor Xavier's school for mutants led by a human named Stryker, not to mention a vicious woman named Yuriko who has it in for Wolverine.

Scuz:

X-citing! X-treme! X-traordinary! X-quisite! X-ceptional! Just freaking X-cellent!!!

Ok, now that I've made every stupid "X" synonym joke there is, let me X-press (oops, just kidding!) my undying love for the X-men series. My Saturday mornings consisted of basically this and only this as a kid (ok, and maybe Garfield and Friends, that show rocked too). I grew up with these characters and watched at least 70 of the 76 episodes over their 5 seasons. Quite possibly the best comic franchise ever, the X-men featured a magnanimous amount of kick ass characters. Good characters too, not lame ones like "Sweaty Palm Man" or the nefarious "Rugmuncher of Doom." Ok, I'm suddenly thinking XXX versus XX. Anyway, when someone decides to make a movie of one of your favorite comics, you get worried...and I was. Luckily Singer, quelled the fear by releasing a pretty decent first installment, getting us into the groove of seeing these super "humans" on screen. Well, if you liked the first (which I did, but wasn't like *HEARTTTTTTTS*), then you are going to love the second. Bigger, better, gorier, but most of all, a lot, LOT deeper.

So, we basically pick up where X-men left off. Rogue is getting cuddly with Bobby (Iceman), Wolverine goes to Siberia or whatever to find out about his past, and Magneto is in a plastic playpen. Oh, and there's still that pesky war between the humans and mutants going on. Once again, there is a crazy bad guy, except this time he wants to eliminate all the mutants from the world, instead of the humans. In the process, he kidnaps Professor X to activate his nefarious plan and raids the mansion capturing a bunch of the young mutant hopefuls. Luckily Wolverine has just returned and unleashes some major kickass (with the help of a shirtless Colossus on hand). Ultimately, they discover that the professor is missing, Wolverine is linked to the psycho villain, and that they need Magneto's help in finding them. Mutants Unite!

So, now that we don't need to intro the characters we can just jump right into the meaty good stuff. This means more action. In fact, a lot more action as each of the characters show a much greater extent of their powers than in the first one. Wolverine's more brutal, Storm shows that she can just about handle anything (versus just sizzling a Toad with a bad one liner), Mystique morphs...and morphs and morphs, and Jean Grey demonstrates some of the mega powers brewing inside of her. They do limit Cyclops though, which kind of miffs me because that man is like the self proclaimed leader of the group. But then again, if you’re not Halle or Hugh, you’re going to get sidelined. Besides enhancing the originals, they also introduce a decent mix of new blood as well. Nightcrawler, played by the flamboyant Alan Cumming, is an excellent addition with his ability to teleport at any given instance (as long as he can see where he's going). His character's opening scene will rock your world, and yes you may just wet your pants, but in that good kind of wetting way. Heh. There's also Pyro, who's a little prick, but has powers that are absolutely "incinerating," and Lady Deathstrike, whose story they bastardize but since the amazing Kelly Hu plays her, (and quite hotly does) we’ll let it go.

Though it doesn't sound like that many additions it’s definitely enough for the film. In fact, I like it this way since they can fully develop the other storylines that they have going without more intro explanation. Though the plot is similar, its played out so much better than the first one and feels like an awesome movie not just for subject matter alone, but for the inherent quality as well. Accredit this to Bryan Singer, who I know people have been saying is a jerk on the set, but look, it paid off didn't it? He ties everything together beautifully, builds up the right amount of angst and emotion, and knows how to add comic relief at the same time. In addition, you really feel that he was an X-men fan as a kid and is trying to convey his love for the comic versus just some guy who’s being paid millions to do it (which he is too). As usual, he gets major assistance from superb editing and particularly choreography! Walla! Movie magic baby.

I highly, HIGHLY enjoyed this film. I really did. I mean it was 12:30AM and I was bright and bushy tailed the whole way through…but, (Uh oh the dreaded “but”) I don’t know if it was necessarily the best comic book adaptation I’ve ever seen quite yet. I think the comic book phase is just starting and there is a lot of potential brewing, not to mention monumental attempts in the past. For one, I really liked “Spider-man”. For a first installment it was absolutely perfect and kept true to the spirit of the character and the series. (Red and Blue tights baby!) It had great pacing and intermingled the two stories of love and crime fighting perfectly. Now, before I get hate mail, let me establish that it’s not because of my bias to Spider-man. If anything I have a greater affinity by 100000x for the X-men series, as I never even followed Spider-man as a kid. But, this is good news! That only means that the “X-men” series can further improve (and oh it will, wait till you see what’s lined up for X3) and create undying love! For starters let’s toss in my favorite character GAMBIT please! The sexy Frenchman’s name came up in this one, but it was just a momentary tease. If they get Gambit in there (with appropriate casting please…Charlie O’Connell anyone?) then I’m sure it’ll be like “Spidey who?”

So, the bottom line is that the X2 sequel delivers. It more than delivers. It drives up to your doorway and hands you the damn package for goodness sakes. This will not disappoint guys!!! In fact, I only see a brighter future for the next installment. But, you know what this means? Summer has officially begun. Let the games begin. *Muhahahah* _________________________________________________________________

Frey:

Let me just say...I LOVE the X-Men. The first X-Men movie was a bit disappointing, but the second installment definitely redeemed the franchise. X2 is filled with more action, better dialogue, and better story. It was 132 minutes of pure joy. Bring X3, X4, X5, ....X20489234!

So X2 pretty much picks up where the first one left off. Magneto is in his plastic prison, Senator Kelly died and Mystique assumed his identity, and the X-Men are still struggling to find their place in a world that hates them. In this movie, the X-Men team up with Magneto's Brotherhood to stop William Stryker's plot to kill all mutants.

With the tedious task of character building behind him, director Bryan Singer
had free reign to dive right into the material and show what his mutants can
really do with his bigger budget and longer production period. He made excellent use of every cent and every minute. And with an already bloated
cast of characters, he introduces the badass Nightcrawler, Stryker, Deathstrike, and gives more screen time to Iceman and Pyro. Nicely done Singer!

The acting, however mediocre, was just fine. Movies like this aren't done for Oscars. The excitement of every scene was enough to cover the fact that Deathstrike, played by the oh so sexy Kelly Hu, had pretty much no lines. One minor flaw, which I can't really say is a flaw, is that Singer doesn't really stay true to the original storylines. There is no mention of Rogue being Mystique's adopted daughter, the absence of Beast and Angel, who were part of the original X-Men, and Wolverine's history with Deathstrike. However, the comic book stories tend to get a bit too complicated so I can see why certain things were omitted. The movie was X-cellent all the same.

So for future X-movies, I would love to see the appearance of Gambit. Although they did show the name Remy Lebeau on the list of mutants, he's one of the coolest X-Men! And how about Psylocke?? Kelly Hu would have made a good Psylocke, but too bad she's Deathstrike. If X3 is going to be what I think it is, (what they hinted at throughout the whole movie) I would love them. Although it is a very complicated story, I'm sure Singer will handle it nicely. I'm trying not to give away what it is, you'll just need to watch X2 to find out. =) Go X-Men!