Movie Review #53: X2 (2003)

I watched this movie for the first time about a year ago and the only thing that I remembered about was that I thought it was too long. Having now just re-watched it, my opinions have change drastically.

In X2, the X-Men band together with Magneto and Mystique to defeat a man who is controlling Professor X to wipe out all the mutants.

As I previously stated, the only thing that I remembered about X2 when I first saw it were:

1: I felt it was too long (which is weird because I have never complained about a films length).
2: The character of Nightcrawler stole the show for me.

Having now re-watched it, I now completely disagree with my previous complaint about the films run-time. Although my opinion about Nightcrawler still stands.

I'm not sure why I didn't realize how good of a movie this really is when I first watched it. X2 has everything we liked about the first X-Men and improved upon it!

The script is very well written. They got rid of the cheesy jokes from the first film which is a definite improvement. The visual effects in X2 look much better than in the first X-Men.

The characters get more fleshed out. X2 takes place after the first X-Men and they talk about how the events of the first film have impacted them in this film. I like when that happens. That personally was one of the best parts about Iron Man 3. They even introduce a few new characters, but the one that sticks out in my mind the most is Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is my favorite character because I just love the powers that he has. He also has a German accent which makes him even cooler. I really hope that in X-Men: Days of Future Past they will bring him back in some way. And on a side-note, Storm actually served a purpose in this film!

Final Report: It may have taken me a second viewing, but I have come to the conclusion that X2 is a sequel that is superior to the first due to the increased character development, intriguing story and another solid script.