Good 2nd chapter in the X-men saga

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2003)

When we left the last story of X-men back in 2000, Wolverine had very little clue into the origins of his adamantium skeleton but was on a quest to find more Rogue had decided to make her home at Xavier's school of the gifted, and we had the benefit of meeting the further characters of Cyclops, Dr. Jean Grey, Storm, Professor Xavier himself, and of course his arch nemesis Magneto.
After being introduced the characters of X-men from the 2000 movie, the story continues in this year's X2 with the addition and cameos of a few new characters.
One such character is in the opening sequence. We get introduced to Nightcrawler. Born Kurt Wagner, this mutant turned to a life of a circus-freak side-show exhibit, but a bizarre twist turns him into a vigilante who has infiltrated the White House.
Logan's (aka Wolverine) story picks up where it left off in the previous chapter looking for some more clues at Alkali Base in Alberta where his fateful procedure' seemingly had taken place.
We further find Charles Xavier visiting his now captured enemy, Erik Lehnshherr (aka Magneto) in his custom built non-metal prison, and Rouge has found her place at Xavier's school in the arms of love interest, Bobby Drake (who goes by the alias Iceman).
These serve as a reminder of what was left for us to contemplate at the end of 2000's X-men while eagerly waiting this sequel, X2. And now, with Magneto behind bars, there is new enemy to fear this man is William Stryker. His motives parallels Magneto's from the first chapter... however instead of uniting the planet into a mutant population, Stryker sees fit to eliminate mutants entirely, and goes through the Washington as his first steps to do so.
There is plenty of action in X2 and the story is full of surprises that one might not necessarily expect. There are also some very clever events that take place without revealing them here, suffice it to say, I found them to be pleasantly and interestingly thought out.
We got most of the character development in the first film, and this leans on our knowledge of that, with only a few subtle reminders. I might have wished for more character development, but the realm of X-men is huge and the list of characters is too long to involve EVERYONE and still have a substantial story line, so I forgive it for that.  plus we DO get some good insight into Nightcrawler, who seems to be the largest new character this time around.
Logan (Wolverine) doesn't seem to be as sarcastic as he was the first time maybe he's learning to adjust to the ways of mutant life. But I also had wished for more banter between him and Scott Summers (Cyclops) but that is also justified near the end.
X2 is definitely worth the price of admission, but I would say that a review of the first film on DVD is worth a watch before going to X2 for nothing more than the affect of continuing the story.