With more confident direction, a more ambitious story, and impressively realized action set pieces, X2 is the rare sequel that improves on every aspect of the original - while also working as a great stand alone movie in it's own right.

This movie was great--much better than the original film, which was pretty standard as far as summer blockbusters go. X-2 skipped all the awkward and unnecessary attempts at a backstory (and I'm speaking as someone who knew next to nothing about the XMen when I saw the film) and went straight for an intelligent route. The characters were fascinating and the special effects were truly pretty good--and that's saying something, since I'm usually bored out of my mind by that kind of thing.Some of the acting was absolutely wonderful. Rebecca Romijn Stamos, Ian McKellen, Alan Cummings, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, and Anna Paquin more than made up for the mediocre attempts of Halle Berry and Famke Janssen.

When I decided to watch this, I thought it would just be a fun diversion for a little over 2 hours. Turns out, it was a highly entertaining 2 hours that I do not regret. The movie may seem a little silly for non-superhero fans, but I think any veteran superhero fan will find it enjoyable; it is one of the best superhero films (maybe top 3 when it came out, now it's probably somewhere between 5-10). The film is more enjoyable if you've seen the first, but if you have to watch it without seeing the first, it probably would just seem mediocre. This is because it focuses on developing new characters more, while the story relies on characters developed more in the last film. In addition, the humor does not seem misplaced or overused (one of my problems with current superhero movies). People may not also like how there is not a clear cut protagonist, but I think that's kind of the point (hence the title). All in all, a really enjoyable movie that I definitely recommend.