Just as good as X-Men...

Rating: Null/10 (26 October 2003)

I didn't think that much of the original movie and so I wasn't expecting much from this overly hyped sequel. My expectations were sufficiently met.
I'm not a huge fan of the X-Men per say, but the comic and the current cartoon series are so much better than these movies. Perhaps it is because there is not enough scope to tell the whole story properly in the time of the movie. Perhaps it is the huge overuse of pretty standard special FX, which are more boring than dazzling these days. I suspect it has more to do with the general malaise in the screenplay itself. Although there was a story it seemed to be a case of connect the dots between the big set-piece sequences than a properly developed narrative. This gave the movie a bit of a directionless, aimless sort of feeling.
The photography was superb in a safe Hollywood sort of way but despite this in its favour the movie still lacked something important, namely a soul. There is a glut of Marvel comic heroes that have been brought to the screen of late and while I feel Daredevil and Spiderman are definite successes, the X-Men franchise is an absolute failure.
4 out of 10.