neumu [ cinematronic ]




	X2: X-Men United
	Bryan Singer Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Alan Cumming, Brian Cox, Bruce Davison, Shawn Ashmore, Kelly Hu, Aaron Stanford 2003		It helps to have seen the slammin' good "X-Men" film, based on tales of the famed Marvel Comics superheroes, to completely luxuriate in the sequel "X2: X-Men United." But "X2," reuniting director Bryan Singer and most of the fine "X-Men" cast, is even better than its predecessor — a sci-fi vision of our world in the near future, when human mutation takes a quantum leap. Some men and women begin to manifest super-powers. The mutants aligned with telepath Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) at his private school for the "gifted" wish to live in harmony with normal people. Alas, not all mutants or regular folk agree with Xavier's utopian ideal. Master of magnetism Magneto (Ian McKellen) and shape-shifter Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) scheme against good guys Xavier, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Cyclops (James Marsden), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) .... until evil ex-Army man William Stryker (Brian Cox) threatens all mutantkind. There are ecstatic eruptions of action, the acting is crisp, and, despite a pageant of characters, the script expertly juggles its main plotline, anti-bigotry theme and back stories.