This is how you do it!

Rating: 9/10 (11 January 2005)

The best comic book/superhero movie to date. Singer et al takes an already good first film and improves it on every level. A rather simple story - mutants must unite in order to fight off crazy general Stryker, who's out to kill them all - works excellent, and is all you need to hold the film together.
Before I saw the original X-Men, I knew nothing of the characters. This is, however, not a problem in any of the two movies. I can totally buy the myriad of characters and the universe which they inhabit. And let's face it - there are a lot of characters. X2 has a huge number of participants and the real miracle is that everyone (even Halle Berry) works so good. I was never lost, but could easily follow what was happening on screen.
This really is an ensemble piece, and everyone steps up to the challenge. The two "blues", Nightcrawler and Mystique, rightly have a lot of screen time. The mix of veterans like the wonderful McKellen, and newcomers like Ashmore creates a nice dynamic to the film.
The bigger budget has allowed for better and more effects that certainly are impressive. The opening attack on the White House is one of the best individual action sequences I've ever seen. Overall, the film looks fantastic and it has a nice dark tone to it. The two-hour-plus runtime whisks by fast, and if it wasn't for a slight lag in pace towards the end of the film I would have given it a ten. Bring on X3! [9/10]