Certainly a Step Up From the First One

Rating: Null/10 (8 June 2013)

X2 (2003)
*** (out of 4)
After a mutant attempts to assassinate the President, the X-Men must unite to try to defend themselves against a military attack. There's really no point going into great detail about the plot because does it really matter in the end? There's certainly an entertaining story being told here but at the same time there's no question that it's best to just turn your brain off as the movie starts and sit back and just have a blast. There's no question that this sequel is a major step up on the previous movie for a number of reasons. For one, this one here doesn't need a lot of character introduction and instead we're just given one great action scene after another. Whereas the first movie had some good stuff, all of the action scenes are made ten times bigger and ten times better. This includes a wonderful sequence where the mutant school comes under attack from the military. This is preceded by an excellent opening where one of the mutants sneaks into the White House and takes out a number of men trying to reach the President. I'm certainly not going to give away the ending but it too is pretty exciting and full of wonderful effects. Oh yeah, just check out the sequence with the police to see another perfectly directed scene by Bryan Singer. There's no question that the director is much better here as all of the scenes contain some real power and manage to be quite original as well. The actors are all at the top of their game as there's no doubt that the casting was perfect for these roles. This includes Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Halle Berry as Storm and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as Mystique. X2 is certainly an above average summer blockbuster that's only real flaw is that it runs on a tad bit too long. Still, this here is very much worth seeing if you're a fan of the genre.