"X2" (2003)

After watching the first "X-Men" more than 2 months ago, I decided it would be only fair to see the second one. Since someone has been on my butt to finally see it. I wasn't ever scared to see "X2", I just kept forgetting to watch it. The first movie did so many things right that it only got me even more excited to see X2. And now with the year coming to a close, I really need to finish off the series I've started while trying to catch up with all the classics I haven't seen. I honestly don't think I am going to make it but there is no harm in trying.



The world is at a state of tranquility with Magneto in his plastic prison, Prof. Xavier still head of the School for Gifted Youngsters and Wolverine hasn't lost his mind in while, all is good. All up until a mutant by the name of Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) attacks the President, this creates a huge backlash by the public. Mutants were treated with some amount of respect before, and this just makes it all the worse. But the trouble doesn't stop there, a scientist by the name of William Stryker (Brian Cox) has a plan to totally annihilate every mutant on Earth. But I'm sure the X-Men can stop one human scientist right? Well it goes from bad to terrible when Magneto escapes, Professor X is held captive and Stryker knows all of the X-Men's weakness.

Magneto still controls the world with his finger tips.

Everything I liked about the first movie is still awesome in the second movie. The action and combat are still top notch with Wolverine dishing out the scars and my personal favourite Mystique still whopping ass and ninja-ing her way through all the tough situations. It was sad to see the lack of Cyclops in this movie, but it allows to really show off more mutants. Nightcrawler, Pyro, Iceman and even Jean Grey get more screen time to show off how amazing they are.

And thanks to the technology, the special effects did their job and were vastly improved. Even though it wasn't a big complaint, the special effects were the weakest leg of the movie, it stuck out like a sore thumb. The effects were well done and made the movie feel more of a whole.

Being gorgeous doesn't make Lady Deathstrike any less dangerous. 

Though I had one complaint and it isn't that serious. I loved the beginning of the movie, it started off with a bang with the brief reintroduction of the mutants at their current state. And I really liked the scene when the SWAT invaded the School of Gifted Youngsters. But then the movie started to lose my interest when the mutants infiltrated the base that Stryker had. I wasn't sure why I felt bored, but it started to become a bit predictable. Where the first movie build up to the amazing Liberty Statue scene, it seems the second climaxed a bit to early and just half-assed it's way to the end. With the exception of the battle between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu), what a great battle that was!

Even with that said, I still very much enjoyed the movie. It kept the quality of the first movie when it came to the acting and action. They improved a lot on showing more mutants on screen without taking away from the main cast. The story was nice and set up for a few interesting plot twist that I enjoyed. I am not entirely too sure if I am going to see the third movie, I've been told to stay away for my good. But it wouldn't be fair not to see it.