Considerably less satisfying than the first

Rating: 5/10 (30 May 2011)

I saw the first X-Men film shortly after release. It didn't strike me particularly, and I found it easy to skip X2's theatrical release. By the time 3 had arrived on DVD, I was completely unmoved when a friend told me what a disaster it (3) was.
BUT. Having seen the positive reviews for X2, I sought out the first two movies on Blu-Ray. I found the original to be a very pleasant surprise, the situation and characters intriguing, the direction hit all the right notes. It had mood, panache and hinted at real substance. I found myself thinking 'Forget the special effects, there is real cinema here, maybe this sort of Hollywood picture has more to offer than some would have you believe'.
So I ventured into X2 in a positive frame of mind. Oh, how wrong I was.
The script is a monstrosity. The first half an hour sets up new developments for the characters, building on the good work of the first film. The other ninety minutes ruins them beyond repair. Each and every character starts off down an interesting path, then is hurriedly shunted off-screen so we can get down to some silly, unsatisfying action. Rogue falls in love, then err... nothing. Her boyfriend is subjected to a terrible rejection by his family, then err... nothing. In the end it's his friend (otherwise a complete waste of screen space) who reacts badly to nothing at all and runs off with the bad guys. Cyclops is just arbitrarily removed from the story only to arrive back on screen as a bad guy who, apropos of nothing, remembers he is a good guy in seconds flat.
McKellan and Stewart are a formidable double act, but McKellan's motives and methods seemed to be a series of straightforward contradictions that only served to expedite the narrative, and Stewart was emasculated and muted. Wolverine's situation is not intriguing, it's just the product of a terribly confused script.
The Evil Genius's son is yet another complete non-character that failed to evoke sympathy, pity, disgust, fear, intrigue, mystery, ANYTHING.
It's no surprise that his death was another 'no cause, no consequences, no significance to the characters or the movie-world, no audience feeling, in fact, lets not even show it, LETS GET BACK TO THE ACTION' moment.
The clichés and incongruences pile up on each other. It was almost ruined from the moment Xavier and Jean Gray turn up for a friendly visit to a jail off limits even to high-ranking government officials... this happens shortly after it has been established that Xavier is no friend of the government, even less a friend of the megalomaniac who runs said jail.
Countless other moments seem designed to disrupt any continued suspension of disbelief. Towards the end the abducted children suddenly appear back on-screen just in time to escape.
It saves the worst for last. Many have noted that the signposting of the ending is laughable and yet another extreme example of how to undermine any tension. Yet my personal favourite moment came with the deus-ex-teenager of Rogue arriving with the jet. It's a triumphant moment, right, you cared about this character once, she's not done anything for ages, ( and lets show you once again how little we care for her development by immediately showing her once again as a little girl who has lost the power of speech)... but wait, we're not quite there yet... just in case you don't get that it's A TRIUMPHANT ESCAPE... lets make it clear how triumphant and brilliant a moment this triumphant, brilliant escape is... let's make this particular jet engine emit the sound of a crowd cheering.
WOW.