Rating (1 to 10) : 7
Summary: The X-Men are back and this time, they cooperate with the evil X-Men (Magneto and Mystique) to stop a rogue military scientist, William Stryker, from using the Cerebro machine to kill all mutants on Earth.
Not many sequels are better than the predecessor – I can only think of one (“Terminator 2”) offhand. This sequel is one of those rare movies that is better than its predecessor.
The previous film had the X-Men led by Dr. Charles Xavier (Capt. Picard in “Star Trek: First Contact”) try to stop the X-Men led by Magneto (Ian McKellen, Bill Kraus in “And the Band Played On”) from metamorphosing all humans into mutants. This time, both sides have a common enemy - William Stryker, a military scientist who plans to kidnap Xavier and use him and his telepathic machine, the Cerebro, to find and kill all mutants on Earth.
Xavier’s assistants - Storm (Halle Berry), Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Cyclops, and Rogue (Anna Paquin) - try to rescue Dr. Xavier and to stay a step ahead of Stryker’s military units assigned to hunt them down. They team up with Magneto to face Stryker. But as they do, there is a twist and the ending has a touch of sadness.
The main reason this is better than its predecessor is the plot. It has somewhat of a plot twist at the end and its ending isn’t campy like most action flicks. We also see some depth of some of the characters as we see a romantic rivalry between Wolverine and Cyclops (James Marsden) vying for Dr. Grey. The movie also has a moralistic tone about people accepting others who are different – in the movie, it’s the mutants but it can be applied to gays, minorities, or the handicapped. And it doesn’t hurt that some new mutants, like the Nightcrawler, who can teleport to different locations as if he has a personal Star Trek-transporter.
Why you should or should not see this movie:
If you liked “X-Men” or just like a well-written and entertaining sci-fi/action movie, this is a good one to watch.