Sequels seem to be breaking out of the stereotype of being not worth your time or money unless you're a diehard fan.

X2 opens with a startling attack on the President, committed by a mutant new to the movie incarnation of X-Men, and certainly new to the puzzled "teachers" at Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Children. Storm (Halle Berry) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) are dispatched to collect him. Meanwhile, Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) returns to the school, after a fruitless search into the mystery of his true identity.

Mr President isn't sitting idle either. The attack on his person sent a fresh wave of fear over the human community, and the President consented in letting Colonel William Stryker - played to succulent perfection by Brian Cox - do something about it. Stryker knows exactly what he wants - Cerebro, the machine that allows Prof. Xavier to locate any mutant, anywhere in the world.

After unscrupulously obtaining the necessary information forces from the imprisoned Magneto (Ian McKellen), Stryker kidnaps Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Cyclops (James Marsden), then launches an attack on the school in the dead of the night, sparking a nail-biting action scene that gives us a rare glimpse of the other young mutants in the school - namely what happens when they panic or lose control. (This is a great scene to play 'Spot the Mutant'.)

Stryker's war against mutants forces the good and the bad to join forces and fight back. Once again, we see blue-skinned chameleon Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), who executes various missions with her trademark cool. Oh, and her most excellent powers. She breaks Magneto out of his sterile plastic jail in a way that is so clever, it has to be seen for yourself.

Rogue (Anna Paquin) is all grown up and has a boyfriend in tow. Logan asks the obvious question, "How do you...."

"We're working on that," answers Bobby (Shawn Ashmore), the aforementioned boyfriend. Bobby, of course, is Iceman, one of the new young mutants who plays a bigger role in this movie. X2 also introduces Pyro (guess what he can control!), played by John Allerdyce; and Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), the teleporter with blue skin, a taste for ritualistic scarification ("one for every sin"), and an endearing personality that belies his appearance. Lady Deathstrike, played by Kelly Hu, only had one speaking line in the entire movie that I can recall. Working under Stryker, she possesses retractable claws and self-healing powers - similar to that of a certain other mutant. Appropriately, she faces off against Wolverine near the end of the movie.

The special effect and story did not disappoint, but there were one or two points in the movie where I had to wonder why certain characters didn't think of solutions that were quite obvious to moviegoers. Perhaps it's because my exposure to the X-Men franchise is limited to both movies. It's probably a good idea to watch the first X-Men movie again so both the characters and dropped hints are still fresh in mind.

The plot for X2 screams "setup for X3!" Choices were made by several characters. We only want to see where it takes them next.


Rating:
Produced by: 20th Century Fox
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Alan Cumming, Anna Paquin.
Official Website: http://www.x2-movie.com

Based on the comic book series created by Stan Lee.