Z/Web

A decent sequel, though not as innovative as the first. This time we know the characters so we don’t need time to be introduced to their powers, etc., which should make the film stronger, but it doesn’t. It feels like there’s less action. I also didn’t like that the film resurrects the same villains as the first film. Sure, this time the mutants are “united” against another enemy, but it would have been much more interesting to see some cool new mutants. The film’s climax was anti-climactic, and a bit of a downer (one of the main X-Men dies) in a way that seemed completely pointless to me (just while watching it I thought of four or five alternate escape methods and the film never did explain why that person couldn’t escape with the others). The ending did leave a lot of openings for a sequel, which, while I’d like to see it, weakens this movie by making it feel unfinished. The story, while it gave every character a brief moment to shine, didn’t focus enough on any of them (though again Wolverine appears to be the star). I was disappointed in the screen time for Patrick Stewart (Professor X) who’s barely in this. Also, the movie feels long at over two hours. And there weren’t enough new mutants.

All that negative stuff aside, however, the film’s still interesting, and I enjoyed all the different characters. There were some neat scenes and cool special effects. The Wolverine-Kitty fight was excellent, but the film really needed two or three more of those. Not bad, but I liked the first one better.