Joins the small group of sequels that surpass the original movie...

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2003)

I trusted the young genius called Bryan Singer when he started 4 years ago what was going to be the best comic book adaptation saga of all time. X-MEN had been dwelling through years as an ambitious project, very difficult to recreate on the big screen and lots of fans easy to be disappointed... It was in 1999 when Bryan Singer, the director of the acclaimed "The Usual Suspects" started the first chapter of the X-MEN. Everyone was quite skeptical about the success of the film, so FOX didn't risk into an astronomic budget production. Only $40 million were avaliable to create a movie which was supposed to be full of SFX, CGI and incredible action...

The director wasn't very popular, nor the acting crew: probably, the most known actor in all the crew was Patrick Stewart, whose popularity in 1999 was because of his role as Cpt. Jean-Luc Picard in the STAR TREK Universe... But that changed after perfoming as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men. James Mardsen (Cyclops), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Halle Berry (Storm), Famke Janssen (Jean Grey), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Rebecca Romjin-Stamos (Mystique)... "Who the hell are they?", people said. Well now, 4 years after the film, all the "X-crew" is well known in the cinema industry, most of them performing in blockbuster movies such as "The Lord of The Rings" (Ian McKellen as Gandalf), "Swordfish" (Hugh Jackman) and "Monster's Ball" (Halle Berry).
"X-MEN 1" astonished the audience, not because the SFX: it's the humanity which is present through the movie. When Stan Lee created the X-Men in the '50s, his main purpose was to reflect the ideals of the afroamerican revolution which was happening in those years... Malcom X, Martin Luther King, they fought for their people in order to defend its rights against the oppression and rejection from the white people, only because they were different. Singer took this idea and put it in front of the audience. Instead of making a popcorn comic flick such as Spider-Man or Blade, he made a complex plot, worked characters and incredible stylish action.
All the skeptics shut their mouths at once after watching the movie and the audience requested out loud a sequel. 3 years after the first movie, X2 is a reality. And what's the difference between the two movies?

First, the budget. This time, FOX let Bryan Singer spend about $150 million to create a decent sequel. In consequence, you have more special effects, more action and more style. But before thinking X2 as a popcorn-SFX only film, made only to make money (which in fact, it is :P), the plot is much better than the first movie, the characters are much more evolved and worked. Nobody is a second rank character. Even the school mutant kids have their part in the main plot. The "main" character is still Wolverine, though.
New characters? Well, you'll see Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming, great performance), whose first appearance is one of the best action sequences ever seen. Then there's Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu), a threat for Wolverine... Colossus, Banshee, Jubilee, Prof. Hank McCoy (Beast), the Mastermind... They all make their short appearances.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BEWARE SPOILER BEWARE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't read the spoiler if you haven't seen the movie. If you do, it will ruin you the end sequence... ^_^

Jean Grey gets more involved in the action and in her main comic book story. The X-MEN comic fans will know about the Dark Phoenix Jean Grey. Well I don't know how Singer will adapt this event of the comic book, but in the last take of the X2, when the camera pans down to the water where Jean Grey has died, you can see a blurry shape, a fire bird shape emerging from the water... Just before it's becoming clear and revealing, black screen with the letters "Directed by Brian Singer" appears...

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When the credits start to roll up, the X-MEN Fans will shout: "F*CK!" lol If you hate the "opened endings" or a "Wait for the next movie" end type, leave the film before it ends. I saw the movie yesterday at night and right now I'm wandering how X3 will be.
Great work, Bryan, great work, actors. If you keep on like this, the X-MEN saga will be remembered as the best comic adaptation films ever made.

Worth Look! 9/10