Wolverine:"It's good!" Magneto:"You have no idea!"

Rating: 10/10 (27 May 2003)

That's precisely what, in the end, resumes all of this magnificent journey into the world of mutants for the second time. The sequel that took three years to make, with an ensamble cast of 12 leading characters had all the ingridients to fail; but Bryan Singer knew what he was doing. It isn't too much to say that this X2 actually manages to surpass the original movie in every single aspect you can point out. For our luck, both of Bryan Singer's versions of the X Men are, as Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart said, worthy of being Shakespearian. All the characters have depth, are given a background, and enough room to move around and show off without clouding anyone else. This time, the storyline goes in deeper than it was three years ago, so the plot isn't quite just an underlining matter for the special effects. While all the action movies lately that were worhty of recognition first built up in the first part of the movie so they could "burst" in the other half. Well, X Men 2 starts with that "burst", with one fo the best action sequences in recent memory: an homicide attempt on the President of the US, by the new mutant around, Nightcrawler, played by the surprising Alan Cumming. What we could all fear whereas the movie would drop down from there on, it didn't happen. It kept the pace, never leaving the plot behind. Anyway, the movie's big winner is once more leading star Hugh Jackman, that walks away once more with an extraordinary performance and a character compositing that makes us like this Wolverine personna even more. So we wait anxiously for the hopefully upcoming sequel with the whole cast returning, and Hugh Jackman's next leading role on Van Helsing. PS - It is a great start on a movie summer, when the first blockbuster is as greatfully rewarding and mind uplifting as X MEN 2! 10 out of 10