A Gripping Saga Continues...

Rating: 9/10 (11 May 2003)

As others have said, an all-round excellent movie. From the available film evidence accumulated over the past century or so, it seems to be extremely hard to make a sci-fi movie that doesn't come across as shallow and unbelievable, perhaps because we have trouble relating to fantastic situations portrayed on screen. However, X-2 succeeds admirably in these respects, delivering a deep, compelling and all-too-familiar story of mistrust and fear between two alienated groups of humans. The result is a considerable improvement over the (already good) first movie.
The one caveat is that if you haven't seen the first movie then much of what happens here will not make sense. This dependency allows the film makers more freedom to develop story and spend less time introducing characters, but if you haven't seen X-1, go see it before you go see this one. You've been warned!
Fans of the comics will find much to like here as well, including an obvious (perhaps over-obvious) setup for a third installment involving what is probably the most famous story arc from the paper version. I won't say which to avoid spoiling your experience, but if you're a fan you can probably guess what I'm talking about anyway..
I'd give this a 9/10. In it's category it's pretty much right at the top, but you won't find anything here the redefines a genre, or that you will find yourself still puzzling over days after. It's "just" a great action story, executed extremely well. Go see it!