Fun, but very overrated.

Rating: 6/10 (18 September 2008)

I'll keep this short and to-the-point. I am a life long reader of comic books. I love them and passionately anticipate and enjoy most of the recent motion pictures based on them. DC and Dark Horse comics have always been my favorites, and aside from The Punisher and Ghost Rider, I do not care too much for Marvel. However, despite that, I enjoyed the original X-Men very much. I think Bryan Singer is one of the most talented directors of his generation (see The Usual Suspects.) Yet, I was really disappointed by this sequel. Don't get me wrong, X2 is a very well done comic book adaption when compared to shameful misfires such as Hulk and Elektra, yet I do not believe it to be nearly as wonderful as everyone says. The whole film just feels so muddled and pointless to me. The ending drags on forever, and doesn't really have much of anything new to offer. Perhaps I missed something, but other than the addition of the awesome Nightcrawler character, this felt very routine and meaningless. I can't say I have very high hopes for X3 either. I do highly recommend the original X-Men, but I don't feel either of these films come close to the real masterpieces in the genre, such as Batman Begins, Hellboy, V For Vendetta, or Sin City.