Superior to first installment and possibly best recent 'comic'-based film

Rating: 8/10 (4 May 2003)

I have never read an X-Men comic nor did I know much of anything about the themes of the series until the first film debuted. I knew some of the characters from playing a Genesis game but beyond that - nothing. I had high hopes for the first film due to the direction by Singer, but after seeing it I felt that it was fairly well-constructed but nothing was incredibly notable about it to set it apart from most other action films.
This second film is a vast improvement in that it took the few things that did really resonate with me in the first film (interesting characters and interesting theme of humanity's fear of the different or unknown). In the first film the foundations of the characters and the 'what if' themes of X-Men (eg What if there were humans who evolved with these abilities alongside we the normal humans...) were present; in the second film they are deeply explored.
Basically not to give any drastic spoilers, the plot centers around the frightening power that the mutants posses over those that do not share their unique abilities and the question these mutants must invariably ask themselves...what responsibility do I have in wielding this power. That question is then complicated by the basic human nature to fear and despise the Other and the ordinary humans reaction to the Mutants power. We find that the 'ordinary' humans are perhaps more frightening then the mutants.
Despite a large dramatis personae the film focuses remarkably well on the key players...and each actor shines in their respective scenes. The performances by actors such as Patrick Stewart and by Sir Ian McKellen are probably expected to shine brightly - but notably all the other actors (and respective characters). Halle Berry and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos were given a good deal more of quality material to work with as compared to the first film and those were the most gratifying character improvement to me. The new characters were also well portrayed (especially my favorite Nightcrawler). Like the first film, a good deal of development was given to the popular Wolverine and again Jackman's performance was golden!
The only complaint I can make about this film given its target genre is that the characters of General Stryker and his 'assistant' were not as deep as I may have liked.
At the end of the film I was left wondering what exactly the consequences of the plot would be both for many of the characters, especially Prof X <>(how will he deal with the frightening things he was made to do) and Cyclops (does he blame himself in any way for what happened?) These issues make the inevitable next installment of X-Men even more anticipated for me.