X2: X-Men United is the most accomplished film in the Fox X-Men series and one of the great superhero sequels. Bryan Singer's 2003 follow-up takes everything that worked in the original and deepens it, expanding the franchise's world with a confidence and an ambition that the first film's more cautious approach could not have achieved. It is a film of real scale and genuine intelligence, with action sequences that surpass its predecessor's by a considerable margin and character work that gives the ensemble the depth and complexity that the original only gestured toward.
At a Glance
Director: Bryan Singer
Runtime: 134 minutes
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Alan Cumming, Brian Cox
Release: 2003
Critics Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5 stars, exceptional)
Audience Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5 stars, the franchise's high point)
Review Breakdown
Plot
When a mutant assassin attempts to kill the President of the United States, the resulting political backlash gives William Stryker the justification he needs to launch an assault on Xavier's school. The attack forces the X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood into an uneasy alliance against a common enemy. The plot is the franchise's most coherent and most dramatically satisfying, with a clear through-line and a genuine sense of escalating stakes. The alliance between the X-Men and Magneto is the film's most interesting dramatic development, handled with enough intelligence to make both sides feel principled. The climax, set in Alkali Lake, is the franchise's most emotionally devastating to this point.
Characters
The ensemble is given considerably more to do here than in the original. Wolverine's investigation into his own past gives the film its most personal dramatic thread, and Jackman plays the character's anger and vulnerability with a depth and conviction the original only hinted at. Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler is the film's most valuable new addition, a character of warmth and faith whose opening sequence is one of the franchise's most purely thrilling pieces of action filmmaking. Brian Cox's William Stryker is the franchise's most compelling human villain, a man of genuine intelligence and genuine menace. Famke Janssen's Jean Grey is given the franchise's most significant character development, with the suggestion of the Phoenix force handled with a restraint and a mystery that the subsequent film would not honour. Stewart and McKellen are as magnificent as ever, and Halle Berry's Storm is given more to do than in the original, though the character remains less fully realised than her prominence suggests she should be.
Tone
Singer maintains the serious, grounded register of the original while pushing the scale and the ambition considerably further. X2 is a more confident and more expansive film than its predecessor, with action sequences that demonstrate what the franchise is capable of when its budget and its ambition are properly aligned. The film's darker register gives it a weight and a consequence that the original's more cautious approach did not attempt.
Meaning / Themes
The film deepens the original's exploration of prejudice and the politics of difference. The forced outing metaphor, in which Bobby Drake's parents react to the discovery of his mutant status with denial and recrimination, is the franchise's most direct and most affecting use of the mutant allegory, a scene of emotional intelligence that gives the film's broader political concerns a human scale.
Direction
Singer's direction is at its peak in the franchise. The Nightcrawler White House sequence is a masterclass in action filmmaking, establishing the character's abilities and personality simultaneously while delivering a set-piece of extraordinary visual invention. John Ottman's score is the franchise's strongest, building on the themes of the original with a richness and a dramatic intelligence that gives the film a sonic identity as distinctive as its visual one.
Cultural Reception
X2 received outstanding reviews on its release and was a major commercial success, grossing over $407 million worldwide and significantly outperforming its predecessor. Critics praised the expanded ensemble, the Nightcrawler opening sequence, and Singer's confident direction, and it is now regarded as the gold standard for the Fox X-Men series and one of the most accomplished superhero sequels ever made. Its influence on the subsequent development of the franchise is considerable, and the forced outing scene is consistently cited as one of the most intelligent uses of the mutant metaphor in the series' history. The film set a creative standard that the franchise would spend the next decade attempting to match.
Who Should Watch
Essential viewing for superhero fans and a rewarding film for general audiences. X2 is the film that proved the X-Men franchise could be genuinely great, and it remains the standard against which every subsequent entry in the series is measured.
Final Verdict: The most accomplished film in the Fox X-Men series and one of the great superhero sequels. Bryan Singer expands the franchise's world with extraordinary confidence, the ensemble is given the depth and complexity the original only gestured toward, and the Nightcrawler opening sequence is one of the most inventive pieces of action filmmaking in the genre's history. The climax is devastating, the character work is exceptional throughout, and the film sets a standard for the franchise that it would never again match.
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