A good sequel is hard to come by but X-men 2 did.

Rating: Null/10 (6 August 2011)

Rating: 7.5
An assassination attempt has been made on the president's life. The X- men get together once again to find out who did it and for what reason. While, the Mutant Academy is attacked by military forces and Magneto is locked up in a plastic prison. Is Magneto behind this or is it someone else?
I had high expectations before watching X-Men 2 after the critical success of X-Men. I expected good action sequences, good character development, and good story. And I was not let down. After the success of the first intro movie, X-Men, the writers had the opportunity to add more storyline to the plot; hence why this movie is 2 hours and 13 minutes long.
As of performances in this film, everyone is good as usual. Everyone is on their A game. However, I found the outburst scene at the end of the movie of Cyclops, played by James Marsden, a little funny. And this is due to James Marsden's performance. I'm not going to spoil what happened. But if you've seen the movie, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
I had the same trouble watching X-Men 2 as when I watched the first film, the soundtrack and sound effects in general. I don't know why but the first two X-Men series seem like movies from the 90's not the 00's. The music during the action sequences is incredibly lame. Maybe this is just Bryan Singer's style of directing, I don't know. But it really annoyed me throughout the movie.
The other problem I had while watching X-men 2 is I can't seem to root for the characters in the movie. I couldn't careless about what happens to the characters in the film. There's a point in the film where I realized that I'm supposed to root for them to rescue Professor X and Cyclops. But that didn't happen. I was just kinda going along with movie, thinking everything is going to turn out okay in the end. I even felt bored at times.
Enough with the bad stuff, we get to see really cool sequences in this movie. There's a scene involving Magneto which I find to be very well made. The action sequences are perfect. The character development is perfect. We get to see a lot of stuff happen in this movie. The bad guy becomes the good guy. The bad guy helps the good guys and etc. And it was good, the story was well told.
X-Men 2 is a step better than X-Men 1. We get better action sequences and character development. It's always good to see a sequel out-performance the original film these days. Although, X-Men 3 and Origins are apparently not very well made and I won't even bother watching them. Overall, X-Men 2 is a good action movie but I hope it would involve the audience with the story a little bit more.
Just like the first film, X-Men is the kind of movie that you would forget in about 2 days. It's nothing more than a good time with your friends. If all you want is a good time with your friends, however, check out X-Men 2. And if you liked the first film, you will love this film. It has a much better plot, character development and a very emotional climax at the end.