"You picked the wrong house, bub."

Rating: 8/10 (31 May 2014)

Fantastic sequel that is regarded by many as superior to the original. I don't particularly agree but rather than wade into that argument I'll just say that I love both movies. Where this movie is obviously stronger than the first is in its action scenes. It has some especially strong sequences, such as the opening Nightcrawler scene at the White House or the assault on the X-mansion. These scenes and others like them are much more cinematic and well-staged than the action scenes from the first movie.
Most of the first movie's stars shine here as well. Jackman and McKellen lead the pack again. Janssen, Romijn, Berry, and even Marsden improve upon their roles from the first film. Also returning from the first film with a significantly larger part is Shawn Ashmore's Iceman. He's really good. New to the cast are Alan Cumming's wonderful turn as Nightcrawler, Aaron Stanford's enjoyable Pyro, Kelly Hu's sexy and deadly Lady Deathstrike, and Brian Cox lending some weight as the villainous human Stryker. There are also a slew of fan-pleasing cameo appearances from comic book characters such as Kitty Pryde, Siryn, and Colossus.
Where the movie does suffer some is that, in adding the new characters and giving them a lot of focus, it takes away from some characters from the first movie that I liked a great deal. Patrick Stewart's Professor X is sidelined for a large part of this one. Anna Paquin's Rogue is stuck in a romantic subplot that gives her little to do for most of the film. Worse, her plot never goes anywhere. It's in the same place at the end of the movie as it was at the beginning. Sadly, things would get even worse for her character moving forward in the series. A crying shame considering how important she was to the first movie.
Bryan Singer's direction is even more polished than the first movie. The script, while a little more involved than your average comic book film (at that time especially), is intelligent and full of memorable lines and scenes. The special effects are very good. The music is better than the first movie as well, although still lacking a definitive score like Batman or Superman had. Judged on its own merits or by comparison, it's a great movie. It's a shame that Singer didn't return for the third film. We all know how that turned out without him. At least when he did return with Days of Future Past, he brought back the old magic.