X-Men mutates into something better

Rating: 8/10 (22 October 2011)

X-Men 2 was the original Dark Knight. A superhero sequel that steps up everything from the first and becomes one of the all time superhero greats instantly. It's a much better tale than the first one and becomes a more complete and satisfying story.
It works better than the first one mostly in that it's plot is a significant step up. The first one chose to spend as much time as possible on Rogue and Wolverine and whilst Wolverine is a genuinely interesting character, Rogue is not and the entire first movie felt like a slog through her life and her rather boring life-story. However in X-Men 2 they scrapped this and made every character get a similar amount of screen time and aside from a few (Cyclops) they all get time to expand and do something on the screen. The other significant benefit is the sophisticated villain and plot, whereas the first one had a villain, who was slightly under-developed, and a plan that for a movie of its magnitude kind of lacked much imagination or sophistication whereas here the clues are presented from the beginning, the plot takes a dark turn and the storyline is not as clichéd as the original.
Another benefit is that whilst the first one had to waste time developing and introducing characters this one just starts and runs with it and here is the best thing about this movie: character relations. Magneto develops more than his bad guy stance in the last movie. Wolverine becomes more like we've always him to be: violent and dark, but fundamentally good. Rogue has a role but is not as significant, Bobby has some great scenes. Jean Grey has a great transition throughout the movie. Storm doesn't do much but is constantly present. Pyro has a nice development and minor twist. Professor X becomes a far more deeper character. The villain is thoroughly evil. His son is a dark and depressing character and provides one of the biggest atmospheres a mute character can create. Cyclops goes missing half way through this movie but soon pops up again rather randomly. And the star of the show is ... Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is an amazing character, well thought out, interesting, greatly used and really well developed.
But the best thing about this movie is that whereas the first one was "sort-of-wow", this is non-stop "cool". Magneto's escape is genius, other metallic deaths are worthy of a cinema ticket in itself and practically every other character has an awesome power used to awesome effect here.
So, is this movie perfect? Hell no. Sophisticated plot aside, the ending is far too simplistic. The twist is also a pity, ruining a hell of a lot of character development. Problems also arise around through a few plot holes, both early on and late in the movie - and the most frustrating things about these plot-holes, some of them are in the start of the movie and could be sorted with one line of dialogue later on! Overall, every way a superior movie to X-men, not without it's fault but it's got to be one of the top 5 superhero movies of all time.