X2 (2003), directed by Bryan Singer, stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Halle Berry, James Marsden, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Rebecca Romijn, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Kelly Hu, and Daniel Cudmore. The film is the sequel to X-Men (2000) and once again follows the X-Men as they work to quell tensions between humans and mutants. When an anti-mutant colonel named William Stryker (Cox) rises to power, he enacts a plan to kidnap and manipulate Professor Xavier (Stewart) so that he can achieve human supremacy. After an attack on the X mansion, the remaining mutants form an uneasy alliance with Magneto (McKellen) in order to rescue Xavier and foil Stryker’s anti-mutant plans. Meanwhile, Wolverine (Jackman) struggles to uncover the secrets of his mysterious past which Styker is privy to. 

Just like the first film, X2 is overstuffed with characters, but I suppose that’s the unfortunate reality of trying to do an X-Men film in 2 hours or less. Characters such as Cyclops (Marsden) and Storm (Berry) are again relegated to being nothing more than glorified side characters which is very unfortunate if you’re a fan of the X-Men. That being said, this film does a much better job of balancing these many characters compared to the first film, resulting in notable improvements in how the portrayals come across. The relationship between Rouge (Paquin) and Iceman (Ashmore), though still not entirely convincing, is a step up; The Banter between Cyclops and Wolverine is once again a ton of fun even though it’s the only thing Cyclops has to offer; and Mystique (Romijn) receives a lot of focus which begins a new tradition for the series. Due to her unique powers, this choice makes sense.

Wolverine has more edge than the first film and is given a backstory that fleshes out the character in interesting ways. Both of these corrections/additions are satisfying for a fan of the character. Storm receives a bit more focus, but not much. Thankfully the change of making the character a bit more sensitive works better here than it did for Wolverine in the first film. This is built through her relationship with Alan Cumming’s memorable outcast, Nightcrawler. Speaking of Nightcrawler, some of the less important mutants such as as Pyro (Stanford), Colossus (Cudmore), and Lady Deathstrike (Hu) are also welcome additions that provide a lot of fun fanservice. 

Even though Magneto naturally has a much smaller role, he’s used in ways that take advantage of his fun powers and complicated moral nature. My only huge issue with these characters in general has to do with the “love triangle” between Cyclops, Jean, and Wolverine. It’s once again completely one-sided and results in a much less interesting dynamic than its source material. 

The special effects are a huge improvement and the script holds up much better by today’s standards. Even though the sets are generally a bit bland, the setpeices are not. There are some surprisingly cool action sequences that carry a decent level of dramatic weight, feeling like a true sequel in the sense that there are some strong payoffs to mysteries presented in the first film. 

The film isn’t large scale by today’s standards and loses a bit of steam in its second act, but closes on an extremely high note that people have unoriginally compared to The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

Overall this is a massive improvement over X-Men (2000) and it’s no wonder this is considered one of the better comic-book movie sequels. This fixes a lot of problems featured in the first film, but there are still a handful of glaring ones that remain. Although this isn’t a mind-blowing superhero film, it sure is a competent one. B