Great Fun And Highly Intelligent

Rating: 8/10 (14 September 2010)

What made X-Men great was its intense action, fantastic characters, and wonderfully intelligent screenplay. What makes X2: X-Men United great is some intense action, fantastic characters, and wonderfully intelligent screenplay.
X2 gives audiences a lot of new ideas that the first movie offered, with some added bonuses as well. The characters are even deeper here, and the film isn't quite as Wolverine heavy (even though I didn't think he was overly done in the first film either). But this film also takes its time with its characters a little bit more, which is what is so endearing about both of these movies.
There is a surprising amount of tension in this film, especially concerning Xavier's cerebro, which I didn't expect. The tension builds beautifully during the action sequences (and these sequences did not disappoint).
I also loved what they did with the villains here. Magneto, the main villain of the previous film, switches sides in X2 a couple of times, since he cares more for the rise of mutants than he does the well-being of average humans. But X2 introduces a new villain in a Lex Luthor type role. He's an average human with no special powers, but who pulls a lot of strings to get what he wants. In fact, I felt like this film played out more like Luthor than Luthor did in the Superman films.
Every one of the X-Men has a big role in this film. Every one of them was played out very well and written in with a firm hold onto the story. Each one of them has his or her own story that is told fully and completely and that the audience can follow exceedingly well.
In short, I liked X2. I'm not sure if I liked it more than the first film, but both of these movies do a lot with characters that I think a lot of superhero films (and action films in general) can learn from. Great fun and highly intelligent, X2 is an excellent film.
9/10