The series has evolved...

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2003)

After the character establishment that was the first movie now comes the serious work of getting down to the nitty gritty.
Without a doubt the casting of Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler was spot on. He vies with Wolverine as who is going to steal each scene the most. I thought Wolverine was great in the first one and that nobody could capture their character so well (though most of the others do a bloody good job too) but along comes Cumming and knocks me for six!
Not a bad story, though Marvel purists will notice that they have taken liberties with certain characters (but then, don't we always? ;-) ). But even as somebody who can spot these admittedly geeky flaws (or maybe not flaws per se but shall we say, continuity lapses), I was blown away.
I can't imagine them not doing an X3 but with such a cast on-board it's going to be tough to get them all together again, especially when somebody like Rebecca Romjin-Stamos admitted she didn't want to do it because of the make-up but had to because she had signed a contract. In the end I think she admitted that she enjoyed it, if only because Cumming had to suffer too and misery loves company.
I doubt she would do another if she doesn't have to. Which would be a shame but not the end of the world.
All in all a great action film and still the undisputed champion of Comic-to-film conversions.