Pass the Popcorn! review

Rating: 8/10 (23 May 2014)

The first X-Men movie was, in a way, a revolutionary movie. It was, more or less, considered a low budget movie and nevertheless it managed to earn a ton of money, making way for future movies. Not only did the movie turn out to be a huge financial success, but it was also quite a decent superhero movie which managed to perfectly combine action and drama. After the first movie's financial boom and positive critical reception, a sequel was bound to happen. 'X2′ was a much bigger movie then its predecessor – it had a bigger budget ($110 million), it earned more money (over $400 million) and was overall a better movie.
The movie opens with a mutant, later identified as the Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), attempting to assassinate the President of the USA. This failed assassination triggers a harsh human response against the mutants, and the Presidents goes with the plan of one William Stryker (Brian Cox), an army colonel who wants to storm Professor Charles Xavier's (Patrick Stewart) School for Gifted Youngsters. At the same time, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) wants to learn more about his past, and Magneto (Ian McKellen) is still in his plastic prison, but Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) has her own plans for busting him out.
'X2′ is the ideal example of a sequel done right. The movie contains everything which made the first one good (the social commentary, the acting, the memorable characters), and it upgrades some things that didn't really work in the first one (some of the dialogue, Halle Berry has a significantly smaller role), but still has a voice of its own. There are several newcomers to the franchise who are properly introduced and developed throughout the movie, but the one who stands out the most is Brian Cox as the movie's villain, William Stryker. Cox, aided by two other veteran actors (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen), makes for one impressive triumvirate of actors. This movie is worth seeing because of acting alone, but when you add to that the great fighting sequences, the amazing set pieces and strong writing – you get one really remarkable superhero movie.
'X2′ is not only better and bigger than its predecessor, but it's also 30 minutes longer, which may be its biggest problem. Not that the movie is boring, but there are so many subplots in the movie that 'X2′ sometimes feels like two movies crammed in one, thus being somewhat overcrowded (especially in its third act). Nonetheless, 'X2′ is still an impressive entry in the genre of superhero movie and the whole X-men franchise. Unfortunately, right after this movie, things went south for the X-men franchise.
Rating: 8/10 Read more reviews at http://passpopcorn.com/