Barnes & Noble

This spectacular sequel to X-Men outdoes its predecessor in virtually every way, presenting viewers with a dizzying array of thrills while further developing previously established characters, introducing new ones, and setting the stage for an explosive conflict to come. Threatened in the first film with genocide, the mutants and their advocates -- unofficially led by Dr. Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) -- find their right to privacy threatened by the newly proposed Mutant Registration Act, which enemies like General William Stryker (Brian Cox) hope to use as a means of tracking and eventually eliminating them. The noble Xavier and his team of X-Men still labor against evil, while the sinister Magneto (Ian McKellen) -- although imprisoned -- remains bent on subjecting humanity to mutant control. It wouldn't be easy for any director to do justice to this film's multiplicity of characters, relationships, and subplots, but director Bryan Singer is growing into the challenge: He hurls the viewer headlong into the narrative, which zips along at breakneck speed and pauses only to introduce such new characters as Pyro (Aaron Stanford) and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), who falls for the beautiful but deadly Rogue (Anna Paquin). Halle Berry, returning as the weather-controlling Storm, doesn't get as much footage as she probably deserves; nor does James Marsden as Cyclops or Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as Mystique. But Famke Janssen's Jean Grey is showcased and plays a pivotal role in the proceedings, while Alan Cumming has a showy supporting part as the Scripture-quoting Nightcrawler. Judged on the basis of eye-popping special effects and spectacular action sequences, X2 would be an eminently worthwhile sequel, but the emphasis on characterization and underlying plea for tolerance make it more than a typical popcorn movie. As comic-book movies go, this one is, well, X-cellent in every way. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

When a failed assassination attempt occurs on the President's (Cotter Smith) life by the teleporting mutant Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), it's Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his School for Gifted Youngsters who are targeted for the crime. While Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Storm (Halle Berry) try and locate the assassin, Cyclops (James Marsden) and Xavier (also known as 'Professor X') seek answers from their old foe Magneto (Ian McKellan) in his glass cell...Little do they know they're walking into a trap set by the villainous William Stryker (Brian Cox), a mysterious governmental figure that figures into Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) secretive past, along with information about the X-Men's operation, supplied by Magneto through a mind-controlling agent. Meanwhile Wolverine, just home from a failed mission to regain his memory, is in charge of the students when a crack-commando team led by Stryker infiltrates the school by order of the President. With a mansion full of young, powerful mutants and the ferocious Wolverine in babysitter mode, can he defend the school against the one man who can answer his questions? What roles do the sinister Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) and Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu) have in all of this? Why does Stryker want Professor X and his Cerebro machine? With the war between humanity and mutants escalating to extremes, can the rest of the X-Men trust their old foes to help them? Director Bryan Singer returns and raises the stakes in this sequel to the highly lauded 2000 adaptation of Marvel Comics' X-Men. Jeremy Wheeler

Entertainment Weekly

X2 sparkles with a lightness of spirit that was missing from X-Men. Lisa Schwarzbaum

Washington Post

The fantastic and at times deliciously nihilistic world of X2 is fully, believably three-dimensional. Michael O'Sullivan

Product Details

• UPC: 024543904854
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français, Español
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 2:14:00
• Sales Rank: 15,150

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Day After Tomorrow / X2: X-Men United
• X-Men Trilogy Pack
• Marvel Heroes Collection

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