An Honest Review

Rating: 10/10 (20 November 2016)

X-Men 2, X2, it's really not the right title is it? At least not for comic book fans. It should have been Weapon X, that is really the story-arc that they were depicting and, honestly, it worked just as well on film as it did in the comics.
Although, I would consider it one of the best X-Men movies, it does have more of a comic book feel that seems a little less serious and more fantasy than then reboots...and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
In other words, not matter how serious the first Singer films get, there is still an element of fun that is hard to really capture in a franchise that is lately trying way too hard to bank on dark and often times failing.
The focus in this is Wolverine.
Was it Steve Jobs that said "Find out what the people want and then give it to them?" In any case, that is exactly what they did with X2, just like in the comics, the audience wanted more Wolverine and they gave him to us in X2, an entire plot that revolved as much around him as it did the rest of the team with the promise at the end of more Wolverine to come.
It brings us to the heart of the Weapon X program with a plot that hinted, if vaguely, at the 1990s tumultuous story arc that brought about the Age of Apocalypse and instead promised to continue the franchise with the Dark Phoenix Saga from the 80s.
The movie was great, it was honestly a ton of fun and remains one of the best of X-Men franchise, the set up for the continuation was perfect...unfortunately they switched Captains after X2 and almost killed it entirely.
Now it remains a shining example of what could have been. Even then, this remains that one, if you are only going to see one X-Men movie, make sure it's X2, it sits at the top of the franchise.