Good incomprehensible nonsense

Rating: 6/10 (23 April 2006)

The plot is incomprehensible, the special effects superb and the imagination unbridled, (though some may say it could do with some bridling). Bryan Singer's follow-up to the first "X Men" movie has the characters already established, (though newcomers may find it hard to figure out who's who), so he gets straight down to the plot. Thematically that could be written on the back of a postage stamp, so it's action all the way. The problem isn't so much that it doesn't make sense but rather that there is so little to make sense of. And we have the right to feel cheated that potentially serious themes like racism and ethnic cleansing are given such short shift, (am I reading too much into this nonsense?).
However, for most of it's length it's highly entertaining in a baffling sort of way. It moves at a cracking pace which unfortunately means that characters are never long enough on screen to develop. This is particularly true of Wolverine who this time round is reduced to a cypher. On the other hand, Alan Cumming's fallen angel is a blast and Cumming is the best thing in the movie. The fact that Ian McKellen's Magneto disappears before the end is an obvious indication that "X Men 3" was already in the offing.