Good but X1 was better

Rating: 7/10 (5 May 2003)

While a lot of people are giving the theatres a miss due to the SARS scare, X2 was a show that I just had to watch on a big screen.
I was not disappointed...well, not that much anyways. X2 is a good show - the cast seemed to have more chemistry with each other (no less because most of them were cast from X1 reunited) and there were more action sequences. I was entertained throughout the show, which is a good thing.
However, what I thought made X1 great was missing in X2 - the human aspect of the X-Men. While X1 was wonderful because of the relationship between Rogue and Wolverine, X2 suffered because of the lack of such a relationship. It came close though, through Storm and Nightcrawler, but unfortunately, this relationship did not get the amount of time that was given to the earlier relationship.
Cast performance was not too shabby. While Hugh Jackman was decent, I somehow found his performance as Wolverine in the first installment better. To me, Wolverine epitomizes the devil-may-care attitude, besides brutal animal rage. While the latter was abundant in X2, Jackman as Wolvie in X2 was not so I-don't-give-a-damn. Perhaps this was due to the script. The person who stood out for me in X2 was Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler. Despite the tons of blue make-up on his entire body, not to mention the coloured lenses, he was able to portray the sensitive soul within a gargoyle-like body that is Nightcrawler. Ian McKellen continues to improve in his role as Magneto - somewhat more sinister (and more vulnerable) in X2 and less angry, compared to X1.
On the whole, an enjoyable film on its own. As a sequel, it's not too shabby but I didn't think it was better than X1 (I'm betting that the Matrix sequels would be better than the original film though). Nonetheless, I look forward to further X-Men sequels, hopefully with better exploration of the human aspect of the mutants. I was thrilled on seeing Colossus...perhaps he'd become the focus of the next installment of the movie.