The Best of the Best, indeed

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2003)

This is the best movie of the Summer, hands down!!! I'm just posting this review right now coz i wanted to veiw all the other potential contenders for that title and I'm very happy to say that X2: X-men United is best of them all. Yes. I saw Terminator 3, Hulk, and the much-hyped The Matrix Reloaded and none of them comes even close to X2 in overall quality.

I saw X2 on the second day of its release with my parents and two sisters(one younger, one older). I,personally, loved the movie and I'm a diehard fan (ie. the hardest to please) of the comics even before the first movie came out. The restof the family tho, where novice to the mutant world and they (with the rest of the sold-out theater)laughed, ooohed, ahhhed, cheered at the right moments. Even after the film, everyone was abuzz especially regarding the ending of the movie (re: one character's ultimate sacrifice and her inevitable evolution into Phoenix).
The best scenes are Nightcrawler's attack on the President, mansion raid by the rogue military, Magneto's escape scene, Nightcrawler and Mystique's little moment (they're mother-son), the whole jet chase scene, the whole Dark Cerebro scene, Wolverine vs. Deathstrike, and foreshadowing to Jean's inevitable Phoenix, etc.
I also happen to think that this has the best ensemble cast in recent memory. Patrick Stewart as Prof. X (Star trek films), Sir Ian McKellan as Magneto (Gandalf in Lord of the Rings), Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Halle Berry as Storm (Monster's Ball), Famke Janssen as Jean Grey (Golden Eye), James Marsden as Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as Mystique, Anna Paquin as Rogue (The Piano), Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler (Anniversarry Party), Brian Cox as Col. William Stryker (The Ring) and Kelly Hu as Lady Deathstrike.

I highly recommend this to anyone who just wants to have a good time. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to rent the first movie first (i recommend the X-men 1.5 with plenty of X-tras).