Following on soon after the first X-Men film, X-Men 2 (sometimes called X2 or X-Men United) has William Stryker, a mutant-hating covert government operative, working to control and destroy all the mutants on the planet... and an unprovoked mutant assassination attempt on the President gives him the opportunity to carry out his plans.
X-Men 2 has the advantage over the original X-Men film that it doesn't have to introduce a lot of the characters or provide the whole world back story and it uses this advantage to the fullest. Not to say it doesn’t introduce new characters... oh, it does, but by weaving them into the ongoing plot, rather than giving them plots of their own (too many characters with their own full plots is what let down the third in the trilogy) it stops them overwhelming the film and means that the viewer can enjoy the new blood without being confused as to who is who. Of course comic book fans also have the bonus of spotting the new characters before they're named but the film doesn't fall into the trap of this knowledge being a requirement.
The story moves along at a terrific, though never rushed, pace throughout the two and a quarter hours of the film with fantastic action set pieces, with excellent special effects, at regular intervals all following on logically from the plot which is slowly revealed, often in a creative and exciting manner rather than through simple exposition. The characters are all well used and the pretty much all potential "Well couldn’t character X use their power to...?" questions cleverly addressed and simple short-cuts nullified. The writing also makes sure that each character is not just a 'power'; they're all real people with their own personalities and agendas… agendas which see 'villains' and 'heroes' on the same side even when disagreeing on methods. In fact there is significant blurring of the lines between what makes one a hero or another a villain when sometimes it just comes down to the means rather than the end... prejudice and hatred are the real bad guys here.
Four characters I'm going to give a specific mention (not including Sir Ian McKellan who is, as always, magnificent as Magneto); three positives:
Wolverine, of course, holds a lot of the focus of the film and is excellently played by Hugh Jackman as he protects the younger mutants (and it's great to see him really going to town with those claws even though the resultant blood is missing to keep the film at a more child-friendly 12 classification) and continues his quest to find out about his past.
Mystique, (played by wonderfully unselfconscious Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, despite her costume being practically just blue paint in places) with the ability to shapeshift into any person she wants, is used brilliantly to push forward the plot, also adding a touch of tension throughout as the viewer never knows whether who they are watching is her in 'disguise' or not; I actually wish we'd got to know the 'real Raven Darkholme' even better than we do rather than just through her actions in disguise.
Nightcrawler, new to this film, is played excellently by Alan Cumming and his ability to teleport is brilliantly realised on screen - it is just how this fan imagines it would look like based on the comics.
The fourth is sadly a small negative; Lady Deathstrike was really not introduced enough before her 'climactic' battle with Wolverine, taking away from the scene a little because it wasn't made clear how powerful a foe she should be… still, nothing's perfect!
In summary, though, X-Men 2 is one of those rare films which is a sequel that is better than the original with a plot that keeps the viewer engaged without being so convoluted it becomes muddled, top-notch special effects all the way through and 'believable' (in a superhero way) characters each with their own personality and place, adding to rather than diluting the plot, which all adds up to probably the best realised Superhero film made to date.
The Blu-Ray Disc (UK, Region Free)
The 2.40:1 ration image was very good if not quite up to the sharpness of some more recent films released on Blu-Ray, and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 was of a similar standard.
Extras (which I haven't watched yet... sorry!) on the main disc are 2 commentaries (one by the director and director of photography, the other with screenwriters and producers) and 'Bonusview' picture-in-picture interviews and stills as well as some Marvel Universe trailers (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men, X-Men: The Last Stand, Daredevil and Fantastic Four).
A second disc has sections on History of the X-Men (2 featurettes, 23 minutes total), pre, during and post production featurettes (29 1/2, 102 and 28 1/2 minutes respectively), 12 minutes of deleted scenes and a stills gallery.
This is a good chunk of extra content but, to be fair, apart from the Bonusview stuff it was all on the original DVD release so don't expect anything new... though to be even more fair I must point out the US release didn't get the Bonusview material so has nothing new at all!
Additional audio tracks are Hungarian (Dolby 5.1) German and Spanish (both DTS 5.1) and there's also a simple English Dolby 5.1 in case your set up prefers that to the DTS signal.
Subtitles are available in Danish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish as well as English (for the hard of hearing) and for the Commentaries.
Purchase Tip:
At about £4 a film on beautiful Blu-Ray even the lesser ones have got to be considered a bargain!
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