I saw X2 (X-Men 2, for the uninitiated) Saturday, and I’ll say right off, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was better than the original, which is a bold thing to say for a sequel, but it’s true. And I quite liked the first movie.

About the only thing I didn’t like about it was the title; the subtitle to X2 was X-Men United, which didn’t really make any sense and certainly didn’t add anything to the movie; sort of like Star Wars Episode II‘s subtitle. At any rate, they could have just called the movie X2 and left it at that; it has a nicer ring to it, I think.

Things I liked:

• The overall plot and script was better than the last movie, too, much more coherent and sensible (well, as sensible as fantasy can be).
• The special effects are spot on. I think we’re finally at the time where there’s pretty much nothing that can’t be done or depicted on the screen.
• Consistent use of actors and characters. Nothing bothers me more than when a character in one movie was played by a certain actor, only to then pop up in another movie being played by a different actor. Not a problem here. Minor roles from the first movie are played by the same actors here.
• Halle Berry does a much better job of portraying Storm this time. Her wig looks real, too.
• Magneto is dangerous and more ruthless this time around, which is appropriate, but they haven’t elevated him to ridiculous power levels or made him a savage lunatic like they tend to do in the comics.
• Wolverine kicks SO much ass. The way Wolverine should be done.
• The School for mutants is actually a school (like in the first movie), not just a mutant paramilitary training ground, as it was almost always portrayed in the comics prior to the first movie.

Overall, great movie. Go see it.