Entertaining but a little chaotic

Rating: 6/10 (11 May 2003)

I did enjoy this sequel I admit, but I think I'm the minority when I say that its not quite as good as the first film. The first X-men introduced us to a handful (Or two) of mutant characters and we learned about each one of them. The focus of the story was aimed at one thing but here in the sequel they have added so many more mutant characters that the main story is almost forgotten in a windstorm of action scenes. Anna Paquin as Rogue has hardly anything to do here except be frustrated at not being able to be intimate with her boyfriend. This film is definitely geared at a young audience with a lot of the characters being of the teen variety. Halle Berry as Storm is another casualty where her big mission in this film is to get children out of a tunnel. She is absolutely wasted and didn't director Bryan Singer have a better written character for this Oscar winner? The things that I think help the film for me is the mutant Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) who is so sexy and strong that even when she's just standing there doing nothing you can't take your eyes off her. If they ever do a film with just her, I'm sold! Their is two performances that stood out for me and the first one is by Famke Janssen who plays Dr. Jean Grey. Its the best written role in the film and she shows real human complexities, she's not just a comic book figure. She's having problems with her telekinetic abilities because of the dreams she's been having and she's also torn between her relationship to two others. The other performance is by Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier who runs the school. He doesn't just posture and allow special effects to run his character, Stewart is too well trained an actor to allow that. In a scene at the end of the film his character is staring out a window reflecting on what has happened and what the future may hold. Even with all the impressive special effects in this film, that scene of Stewart leaves the most indelible image for me. I hope if or when they make another sequel that they try and keep just the main characters as the focus so the overall point of the film doesn't get lost like it seemed to in this film. Of all the new characters introduced here the one I liked the most was Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler played by Alan Cumming. Entertaining film but has way to much going on in such a short amount of time. Lets hope they tone everything down the next time.