The X-Men series has always demonstrated more promising opportunities for deeper poignancy than the typical superpowered slugfest, a trait which director Bryan Singer embraced for the first film adaptation of the timeless comic book series. And while the fear that the unique gravitas and social scope of the first film might be lost in a flurry of mindless action associated with the typical sequel, X2 exceeds any seemingly insurmountable expectations by exemplifying and even expanding upon every successful element of the first, making its mark as one of the few sequels to not only match but surpass the quality of its predecessor.
With X-Men, Brian Singer introduces us to the mutants with great conviction and admiration in the spirit of the politically and socially complex comic book series; bringing them all to stunning life. In X2, Singer not only expanded upon established material, but improves upon it with some very great ideas.
I loved the first X-Men and have always loved the comic books and cartoons. This movie amazing for an X-men fan and it's almost as good as the first, not to mention one of the best sequels of all time.
My Take: Better than the original and the best in the series. Bryan Singer's big-budget sequel X2 (X-MEN UNITED) learns from the past to create a better, more streamlined comic book adventure that has a sharper script with just the same wallops of action and special effects.
A tastefully dark, serious superhero film = pure gold for me. Having said that, am I glad that I believed in the hype for X2.
I'll keep this short and to-the-point. I am a life long reader of comic books.
X2 is everything a movie sequel should be. It takes all the good parts of the original X- Men movie and makes them better, while virtually eliminating the flaws.
What did fans of the original wanted in a sequel to make the "perfect" super hero movie? More characters.
As great the original X-Men was, X2 topped it, much like Spider-Man 2 over Spider-Man. They certainly up'd the ante on action, story and character development.
