You thought you were different

At times we have all felt different, that in some way we didn't fit in. These are common moments of isolation: not being athletic enough to be picked to play in gym class, not having anyone to dance with at a party, not knowing anything about a certain type of music, having blue skin, a prehensile tail, yellow glowing eyes and being able to teleport through walls.

X2, the second installment in the X-Men trilogy, revolves around the escalating conflict between mutants and humans. Tensions are high, and there are more than enough humans that want to see the mutant population controlled, possibly by enforcing a mandatory mutant registration law, or even better, killing them off entirely.

This anti-mutant sentiment was perpetuated in the first movie by Magneto (Ian McKellen), who possesses an all too magnetic personality, and a posse of badass mutant cronies, who would like nothing more than to squish the life out of every human on the planet. However, X2 opens with Magneto confined to a plastic prison, where there is no metal for him to manipulate.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Professor X (Patrick Stewart), a powerful mind reader who wants to improve human/mutant relations and runs a prep school for mutants. This school is the base of operations for the good guy X-Men, who are also badass, and is home to cerebro, a device that allows Professor X to find the location of every mutant on the planet.

Unlike the first movie, X2 finds few mutants battling other mutants. Instead the enemy comes in the form of William Stryker (Brian Cox), a malevolent general, with a background in mutant experimentation, who would love to get his hands on cerebro.

All the plot details are well and good, but people really care about watching mutants kick butt, and there is certainly plenty of that to go around. All the old favorites return, along with some new faces to form a veritable mutant orgy that must once again make the world safe for mutants and humans alike.

Alan Cummings is delightful, although campy, as the German teleporter Kurt Wagner, who was known in the Munich circus (and the pages of comic books) as Nightcrawler. While Nightcrawler's cartoonish German drawl and fanatical religious zeal tend to push one's patience, his teleportation is intensely awesome and more than makes up for it. He proves to be a very useful addition to the team.

Pyro (Alan Stanford) and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) also show up as students at Professor X's school.

The special effects in this movie, probably because of the larger budget, definitely outdo the first, and provide some very cool visuals. Magneto's powers at manipulating the largest to the smallest metal objects are strong as ever. Pyro is all too eager to turn the smallest of flames into raging fireballs, Nightcrawler cannot stop teleporting, Storm forms tornadoes out of a clear blue sky, etc, etc.

Unfortunately, however, the X-Men had to contend with dialogue, that at times was so bad no mutant power could save it. The only two actors who pulled it off flawlessly were Stewart and McKellen, but to their credit they could read a shopping list and make it dramatic. Fortunately, a good portion of the script revolves around the pair and highlight's their past friendship and how they slowly drifted to become enemies.

Hugh Jackman also returns with a standout performance as the quick healing and razor sharp clawed Wolverine AKA Logan, who served as a centerpiece in the sequel. Logan continues in his role as the renegade uncontrollable, but hunky good guy who is torn between his loyalties to the X-Men, his desire to discover his past, and his feelings for Jean Grey, Cyclops' wife. Logan comes closer than ever to discovering who he is in X2 and even discovers that he is not unique when he encounters Deathstrike, a beautiful but deadly female version of himself, complete with five claws that shoot out of her fingertips. Their fight seen is one of the most intensely ferocious fight scenes ever seen on screen -- they both refuse to die.

For X-Men fans, comic book fans, and action movie fans, X2 will not disappoint. No, Wolverine does not don the yellow uniform and Gambit is nowhere to be found, but there are plenty of mutants and comic book references to go around. Unfortunately, the film does not have the time to delve enough into each character and the script is weak, but the characters are, nevertheless, highly entertaining.