God, anyone who doesnt like it should die

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2003)

I was privelidged to be at the first public screening of x-men 2. Well i was excited about this movie, i loved the first one, i thought it was a great film, entertaining, had its own tone, and had wolverine. As an X-men fan or fanboy of comics, i usually love these films but i also have great expectations but am always satisfied, cos i know i cant do any better. I thought what the first one lacked even though it didnt really bother me, was that it didnt have enough comic book elements, it didnt feel totally like x-men, whereas spiderman felt like reading 70's spiderman comics, and daredevil felt like reading frank miller era daredevil. There wasnt enough berserker rage, wolverine said bub twice and you couldnt hear it. Cyclops didnt have that leadership aspect. Well there was fan response, and it wasnt backlash, it was just suggestions to make the next film better and more entertaining, Bryan Singer being an x-men fan, listened to these suggestions and went one step further, not only including all of them but delving deeper into the comic and making it one of the greatest adaptations ever. Fans complained that there wasnt enough berserker rage, it needed a deeper background story and more violence. Woaahh Bryan Singer does listen.
The story is great, the script is uber strong and it flows amazingly. But in adaptations of comics its about visuals and characters. The camera shots are unbelivable and perfect, the effects are God. So yeah the whole film aspect is amazing. But were gonna look at the comic side.
We get a new character nightcrawler(who is in one of the greatest opening sequences ever in film, mix matrix and marvel), we dwell deeper into the lead characters of the first film(wolverine,storm,jean, prof x) and we focus alot more on the minor characters of the first film(iceman,pyro). we also get villains, stryker a militant mutant hater and lady deathstrike(a female esque version of wolverine, who in the comic was partially cyborg like) and the return of the mutant malcom x - magneto
The film is great in bringing the characters to life, also including alot of wit and humour, alot with wolverine. But a big impact is the amount of violence, taken up a big notch, its x-men in full glory. Not witholding what wolverine can and will do.
Wolverine clearly steals the film again because even though there is a little less focus on him, his character is so strong but also due to Jackmans amazing and perfect portrayal of wolverine. He looks like he could kill you and take on an army, which is what i loved, apart from being way more buff than the first film, we get my favourite aspect, berserker rage, this comes into full effect when strykers team invade the mansion and bang! wolverine goes off. Screaming and aggressive fighting with unquestioned stylistic brutal killings, wolverine is what he is supposed to be. Brutal
The film also includes alot more of jean grey and for the next film we are shown that it involves mainly her as phoenix which is also in this film.
Even though cyclops isnt that involved, his character is so much better than the first, he is cyclops.
An amazing aspect of the film and script is the amount of great ideas they had in mutant powers, the way they can use them and the way they are shown, such as magneto extraditing iron from a guards blood. Its total post 90's X-men.
For an adaptation to be amazing, it needs to be faithful to the comic, it needs to be entertaining, and it needs to flow like a comic. Whereas books are more direct, X-men has more than 40 years of narrative so only the main and important aspects are needed. Spiderman went godlike and did it perfectly. Daredevil went even further and might as well of been written by Frank Miller. X-men 2 is its own film but the triumph of the film is that it feels like X-men. So go watch it Bub.