Mindblowing, utterly fantastic- Enjoy! **spoilers**

Rating: Null/10 (3 May 2003)

It seems like this year has been the year for sequels. First Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets burst forth in November, funnier, wittier, and more delightful than its predecessor. Then Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, in perhaps the least popular book, proved it could live up to its expectations- and even exceed them. And now, with all the candor, excitement, and intensity (and MORE!!) of the first X-Men movie, X2 adds a new level to the saga of the X-Men.
The main thing I noticed about the second movie was that everything moved a lot faster than in the first one, and this was to be expected, whereas the first movie is mainly introduction and exposition, the second movie actually grabs a hold of a plot that its characters embark upon. The opening scene with Nightcrawler at the White House was perfectly done, with tight, intense editing and extraordinary choreography and special effects. The sound in this movie was incredible! I recommend that everyone see this at the theatre, for seeing it home on a small screen doesn't do its mastery justice.
As with many sequels, this one was funnier than the original! Everyone had great lines, especially the new character Pyro and our homeboy Wolverine. :) It was cool seeing the characters with their new looks- Rogue's maturity in dress and style, Jean's nifty hair cut, etc.
Acting was all-around fantastic, too. I felt the actors understood their roles better. Jean Grey, my favorite mutant, got a bigger part, and I was so happy! In the first movie she got a bit of the shaft. Speaking of getting shafted, Cyclops/Scott Summers got really shafted! He only had a few scenes central to the action of the plot, and though one of these was outstandingly done e.g. Jean's death scene, I think we needed more of him. More of Rogue/Bobby/Pyro camaraderie, too. I loved that scene in the food court, hehe, it was great! :)
I can't go on enough about the action and the special effects. They didn't look cheesy AT ALL. They were brilliant and perfectly done. The sound was amazing, editing was fabulous, everything came together so nicely. The only nitpicks I have are with the plot, and that is that I wish we could've learned more about Wolverine's background, since the first movie set all that up.
Brian Cox played Stryker, who was so awful and scary, I really loathed him in the movie. Cox did a great job. I liked his scenes with Hugh Jackman. :) Kelly Hu did really well, too. There's that one scene with her and Hugh that is sooooo intense! I heard it took three weeks to film, and it was really well-done.
Word of warning, though, I wouldn't recommend taking your kids to see this, at least if they're under eight or nine. The movie is definitely PG-13, PG-15, and it skates under the R belt. I heard it was R before Bryan Singer toned down the violence. There were several small children in our showing, and a lot of them were getting tittery and a little sniffly during some of the violence, and very restless during the romantic, tender scenes.
All in all, what a great movie! 8/10