X2 is a follow-up to the hugely successful X-Men that cost a whopping $120 million, much of which must have been spent on Alan Cumming’s brilliantly effective costume as the creepy-looking (but deep down, he’s sensitive) mutant Nightcrawler, who kicks the film off in bang-crash style by trying to kill the American President.
Which is just the excuse military man General Stryker (Brian Cox) needs to target the mutants that live among us. (If you remember from Part I, there are nice mutants who are peaceful and led by Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, and nasty mutants who hang around with Ian McKellen’s witty Magneto.)
Once again the special effects are great and there are some terrific set pieces to behold as Wolverine flexes his claws, young Pyro (Aaron Stanford) starts fires and Storm (Halle Berry) whips up a few weather problems.
All the mutants are well cast, from Jackman’s brooding Wolverine to Rebecca Romijn’s eye-catching Mystique, and it all looks so brash and amazing on screen that you’ll probably not notice the lack of coherent plot.
Is X2: X-Men 2 suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
This movie is aimed at children over 12. There are lots of battles and scary bits as with the first film, and younger children will be scared during the early scenes featuring Alan Cummings’ Nightcrawler.
If you like this, why not try: X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Spider-Man,