More explosive but just as character-focused as the first

Rating: 9/10 (11 February 2009)

Before "X2: X-Men United," there was always this dreaded fear of sequels. Finally we see how follow-up films can really outdo the original.
There was nothing that wrong with "X-Men," in fact it was a great imagining of the comic by Bryan Singer and it brought our attention to the importance of character development in a film with so many to follow. "X2," however is more explosive, has slightly more characters and the plot blows the first film out of the water. The reason is story.
The first film was a pathetic plot to turn world leaders into mutants by X-Men nemesis Magneto, (Ian McKellen) who believes in mutant supremacy. This installment is a brilliantly conceived plot that successfully interweaves various story lines like Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) mysterious past and Jean Grey's (Famke Janssen) suddenly irritable powers into the main plot. While some of the subplots--not unlike the first movie--are under-developed, the ones that matter the most work fluidly.
In "X2," the president of the United States is attacked by a teleporting mutant, later to be revealed as famed comic character Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming). From the first scene you can tell the special effects budget is going to yield a film more visually awesome than the first. Nightcrawler evaporates into puffs of purple smoke and reappears to stylishly kick butt. First film shape-shifter baddie Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) also gets more CGI attention as does flame-thrower Pyro (Aaron Stanford). The attack puts the country on high alert and the president authorizes a man by the name of William Stryker (Brian Cox) to raid the X-Men Academy. Of course Stryker is a little more intimately tied to the mutant controversy than anyone realizes, soon forcing both evil mutants and good mutants to team up to defeat him. It would be shameful to spoil any more of Stryker's plan, but it's brilliantly drawn up by the writing team that includes director Bryan Singer.
Singer brings the same style to this film as he did the first and the bigger budget just gives him more room to deliver great action in addition to character-driven story. He's really a great director for the franchise--not too over-the-top but capable of filming in that action movie style.
Another great choice by Singer and story writers Zak Penn and David Hayter was not to go overboard with new mutants. Nightcrawler is the only substantial addition to the X-Men and Pyro and Iceman (Sean Ashmore), who made appearances in the first film, get further development. On the villain side, Magneto has no cronies other than Mystique, to account for Stryker and his deadly assistant Deathstrike (Yuriko Oyama). This basically allows the script to dig further into the existing characters, even if some of them (Halle Berry's Storm and James Marsden's Cyclops) still get glazed over.
"X2" is just more exciting and clever than its predecessor. Knowing that "X-Men" was a hit but not a critical success, it seems the producers decided to be careful even with the film getting fasttracked by the studio. It definitely paid off.