Rating: 
Summary: X-Fans Will Be Happy With X-2
Review: I've been a fan of the X-Men since I was around 9 years old. In recent years, the comics have gotten stale and almost impossible to follow (A situation that Marvel Comics has turned around lately), and despite giving the first X-Men film more than one chance, I really didn't think much of it. So I tried to keep my expectations low for X-2... The good news is- It's MUCH better than it's predecessor! X-2 doesn't need to bombard viewers with as much information (Since that was mostly taken care of in the first film), and can pretty much hit the ground running. We pick up right where the first film left off: Magneto is in jail, Wolverine is looking for clues to his past, and anti-mutant hysteria is running rampant. Enter William Stryker, a fanatical Government employed mutant-hater, excellently played by Brian Cox. He sends blue-skinned mutant Nightcrawler to tear up the White House and rough up the President in the awesome opening sequence, therby ensuring Presidential cooperation with the anti-mutant agenda. Stryker wastes no time at all setting up a covert forces strike team, and their first target is.....Professor Xavier's school. Seems like they picked the wrong time to visit, though; The kids are home alone with their "Babysitter".....Wolverine! Let's get ready to RUMMMMBBBLLEEEE!!! Before you know it, it's all-out war between Stryker and the assembled mutant faction; Magneto is sprung from prison, Xavier and Cyclops are captured and used by Stryker, and the stage is set for a winner-take-all brawl at Alkali Lake, where Wolvie just might find out some interesting tidbits about his Adamantium skeleton and claws..... Fans disappointed by the lack of action in the first film will be in their glory here, as the number of fights have been ratcheted waaayyy up, including an excellent throw-down between Wolverne and Deathstrike, played by the lovely Kelly Hu, and Wolverine's berserker rage in the mansion. Gotta love the way he dispatches Stryker's goons...! Director Bryan Singer has assembled an excellent cast, and each character gets his or her moment to shine. The new additions, Cox and Hu, do a great job with their respective roles, and the end sets the stage for X-3. Longtime fans will appreciate the appearances by X-Men mainstays like The Beast, Colossus, Siryn, Artie, and Kitty Pryde, and be on the lookout for mentions of Gambit and Franklin Richards, among others. Bad news...? The film starts strong but gets a little draggy towards the end; Maybe some tighter editing was needed. Also, considering how heavily the film relies on characters and situations developed by X-Men comic-book scribe Chris Claremont, including the plot lifted whole-cloth from his legendary graphic novel "God Loves, Man Kills", I was more than a little dismayed not to see him acknowledged in the credits. X-2 isn't a perfect film, but it's a BIG step up from the previous X-Men movie, and a great way to start the summer movie-going season.
Rating: 
Summary: The War Has Begun
Review: Building on the vast success of the first X-Men film director Bryan Singer has not only a hit with the second installment, X2, but he's hit it out of the ballpark. The first film was essentially an extended character and story introduction and in those regards it works very well, but here everything is bigger and better from the special effects, outfits, music score, characters, story, etc (and hair styles!). It's just brimming with confidence and it plays out to be my favorite comic-book film ever created. The White House goes under siege. With a "bampf" we see the teleporting blue-skinned mutant known as Nightcrawler take the president's life to the edge of a knife. Needless to say the strained mutant/human relationship is once again heightened and a mysterious military scientist William Stryker is all over the situation. He's been involved in the mutant issue as long as anybody, his son is a mutant it turns out, and knows about it all, even Xavier's School and Wolverine's history. There is a lot going on throughout, but the multiple threads never seem to get too distanced from each other and they all lead back to one man, Stryker, who now has kidnapped Professor Xavier and is well prepared to exploit his powers. The real strength of the film is in the actors. Even with the film featuring a dozen or so central characters there doesn't seem to be too much lack as far as building them and giving them something to do. The only real victim would probably be Cyclops, which is shame as he's one of the central leaders of the team. Ian McKellen plays Magneto with such a driven, menacing edge he's a thrill to watch. His escape from his plastic cell displays what true presence and awe the man can evoke. For the most part the returning characters are that much better with Halle Berry's Storm given her due leadership role, Patrick Stewar's Professor Xavier showing us why he's held in high regard, and especially Famke Janssen's Jean Grey who delivers the film's emotional climax quite grandly. The real surprise for me was the Mystique character, which here is brought much more to the front and for good reason as she's both the ideal eye-candy and morphing deadly assassin all in one. Allan Cumming too impressed me as Nightcrawler, who unlike the other mutants relies on his religious faith to guide him, not anger or hope. Of course, the real star is still Hugh Jackman's Wolverine who possesses such a animalistic power and presence, you'd swear he sweats testosterone. That's not to say he can't do the slower scenes (Wolverine and Jean Grey's time together especially are well done), but he's such a knockout in the action ones. Like I mentioned before, the big difference here is confidence and every inch of the film is brimming with it from the director to the cast to the story. Singer was able to get the budge this film deserved based off the first film's success and he and 20th Century Fox have used that to their benefit. The film appears to be made first for the comic fan, which is how it should be (there's a final hint at the end as to where X3 will be taking us). There's many quick shots and references to mutants that have yet to make an appearence in the film series. This film never insults the viewer, it's constantly raising the bar for the audience to keep up with. My favorite part is that they never sink down to make it more general audience friendly, they challenge you to become part of their world and it succeeds. It's the comic film for the grown-up, the thinking man's hero adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Bring on the Pheonix!!!!
Review: This movie was awesome! I generally hate popcorn movies, but this just ruled. Way better than the first. Although there was still no Gambit (arggghhhh), I still loved this movie. I unsterstand there was no real place for Remy, so Mr. Singer better write him into the third movie.
Rating:
Summary: Better Than The Original
Review: Wow, I thought that the first X-Men movie was great. This completely blows it away. Almost all of the actors have returned (Pyro and Shadowcat being the exceptions) and they all gave wonderful performances, but once again, the special effects were the shining stars of the film. This time, the story is about a mutant hater who has devised a plan to eliminate every mutant on Earth, but he needs Prof. X to do it, so he kidnaps him. The X-Men are forced to temporarily side with Magneto and Mystique in order to save Xavier and themseleves from annihilation. A nice addition to the team is the teleporting Nightcrawler, and Rouge, Iceman, and Pyro get bigger roles. The script corrected most of the problems that the first movies had, so there were no flubbed lines, such as the lightning/Toad thing in X-Men. Finally, the fight between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike was amazing! If you liked the first movie, you will love this one. If you didn't like the first one, you may still like this one. I mean, the first one was great, but this one was so much better. You will love it!
Rating:
Summary: X-strodinary
Review: As I already saw the first one and thought it was pretty damn good I was expecting the follow up to be just as good as it's previous version, infact it exceeded all my expection. Wolverine gets to find out more about his past, all the X-Men are back from the first one and new characters are introduced such as Nightcrawler and Lady Deathstrike. It has a spectacular opening sequence and pure entertainment all the way through with a sort of biblical ending. So much action and special effects even romance you have to see this or you'll miss out even if you're not a fan watch it you wont' regret it trust me.
Rating: 
Summary: X2 Mars The Spot
Review: Less entertaining than the original but vastly derivative of it, X2 will undoubtedly please X and non-X fans alike. It's hard to dislike X2 because the film is so well packaged. It picks up right where the first film left off (the first comic adaptation to do that so winningly since Superman I and II). It boasts an additional round of mutants joining the fray who, thankfully, don't occupy a lot of screen time in terms of heavy backstory. And it opens with a kinetic frenzy with a siege at the White House that is arguably the best action sequence of the entire film. However, in summation, the film raises many, many questions that it either fails to answer or chooses not to. Such as ... (1) The President gives Striker an order to seize the 'mutant academy' so long as there's no violence involved, an order which appears to have been immediately tossed out the window. While some may not find this shocking as it only serves to advance the story, I kept wondering, "Isn't anyone going to check up on this Striker?" (2) Jean Grey and Storm are dispatched to Boston -- geographically not very far from New York -- to bring Nightcrawler, the X Men's newest addition, back to the school. They find him, get him to come along for the ride ... but they don't take off in the jet to head for home until the next day. What's the cause for the twelve-hour delay? Will it be explained in the DVD Director's Cut? (3) Cyclops is curious absent from most of the film -- after his abduction by Striker, who for reasons vastly unexplained, doesn't take Magneto into custody. However, once he reappears, he's clearly been brainwashed. Again, did the film need crucial trimming that left his experiences on the cutting room floor? (Incidentally, his brainwashing "wears off" almost as effortlessly as it appears.) (4) Striker is, perhaps, the film's second-most interesting character. He's obsessed with ridding the world of mutants, but yet he admits he's a scientist interested in creating them. This would've been acceptable if it had been for the purposes of better understanding them so that his task might become easier; instead, he takes the role of the stock villain who exploits his creations to serve his own end. (5) While intended for dramatic impact, the death of Jean Grey was almost silly. What she accomplished in saving the X Men could've been done from inside the safety of the jet as opposed to outside where she faced her own mortality. As creative choices go, this one was pretty forced ... and pretty campy. Still, there's no doubt that X2 will make a tidy X fortune. There's plenty of action, there's tinkerings with romance, the bad guys join forces with the good guys to make their 'united' stand, and the film has a wonderful sense of humor, largely thanks to Hugh Jackman who once again turns in a gangbusting performance as the mutant Wolverine. The special effects featured are an improvement over those in the original, and, plot holes aside, the film only slows its pace in a few places ... almost as if to give the audience the chance to catch its breath. If the movie proves any point it's that Bryan Singer and friends should trash the premise of an X Men film franchise and, instead, focus on Wolverine; Jackman is given the most to do here, and he brings a welcome campy chemistry that elevates these movies well above the ordinary.
Rating:
Summary: Obviously X-Men 3 is coming
Review: I already wrote a review of this movie,but yesterday I saw the movie and I have to say it just rocks!!! You discover a whole lot of Wolverine's past,and you see wolverine's new nemesis,Lady Deathstrike. Mystique plans a way to get Magneto out of jail and then they go to see the X-Men who were about to crash in the jet into a forest. When Magneto saves the X-Men from crashing,he explains that Stryker persuaded him into revealing the secrets of cerebro. Then,they go to Alkali lake to stop Stryker's evil plot to kill all mutants with cerebro. Then,wolverine rediscovers his past and fights Lady Deathstrike and supposely kills her(believe me,Deathstrike is not dead). Later,when Magneto and Mystique stop cerebro,they reverse it to kill all humans instead of mutants. Of course the X-Men stop it. Then Pyro joins Magneto and leaves with him to become part of the brotherhood. Jean Grey supposely sacrifices her life to save the X-Men,but at the ending you see the form of a pheonix under the water. What could that mean? Of course it means Jean is still alive. So at the end it's obvious they're going to make X-Men 3. And the real war will come between Magneto's brotherhood and Xavier's X-Men.
Rating: 
Summary: Are they stealing from the Star Trek movies now....?
Review: I could not belive how much of Star Trek II; The Wrath of Khan was revisted in X2. It had everything. A villian, General Striker, who looks like he saw both Wrath of Khan and Space Seed, for his performance and his motivation for wanting to destroy all mutants. Much like Khan wanted to destroy everything that Captain James T. Kirk held so dear. And the villian is defeated but a beloved character has to die to save the others. I think Spock did it better. The whole movie was a [copy] of Star Trek II. I can only hope X-Men 3 will be it's own movie, and have a better script to work with. Meantime I'll keep watching the first X-Men movie instead.
Rating:
Summary: Woah Boy....
Review: The first comic book I ever bought was X-Men #130, way back when I was 12. I collected every issue as they came out up to about #300, and hunted down and bought issues back to #100. I was an X-Freak. Then I went to college and kind of forgot about them. X2 thrilled me to the core. Even if it doesn't follow the comic books exactly (shouldn't Iceman be much older than Rogue? Why doesn't she have Ms. Marvel's powers? Why isn't Pyro British?) and even if I can't identify some of the younger mutants (I recognized Syren and Kitty Pryde, but who the hell is the kid with the blue tongue? And who is this Gambit that everyone mentions here? Was he even in the film?) it was stunning to see the action unfolding on screen. The opening Nightcrawler attack sequence was amazing. Magneto's escape sequence was awesome to behold. I do have a few quibbles - Cyclops could have been used more effectively, for example. He could have even not been in the film and it wouldn't have changed too much. I wanted to see a lot more of Colossus. The Wolverine/Deathstrike battle was over far too quick. Two hours felt too short and rushed. And would that much extra iron in your blood just kill you or shut down your liver or something? Ah.. comic book logic. But the end... my skin was tingling and I got goosebumps (never - NEVER - have I gotten goosebumps at a movie before!) when I it gradually sank in exactly what they were setting up for X3. (HINT - look at the issue number I started my collection at, and add about, oh, seven.) I have no idea HOW they'll do that in two hours though. All I know is I can't wait.
Rating:
Summary: Great story, great action, great movie.
Review: Better than the first movie. X2 has all the original characters, plus some very interesting new ones. A kid who manipulates fire, another who can freeze things, and a demonic looking guy who has the ability to teleport--just to name a few. Magneto, who wants to wipe out all non-mutants, meets his just as evil human counterpart--who, of course, wants to wipe every last mutant off the planet. Wolverine learns more about who he is. And we wait semi-patiently for X3 to arrive. Without doubt of any kind, there has to be one more movie.
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