X2: X-Men United

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

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

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

A diverting mix of insight and spectacle, human and superhuman. This machine is built for kids, but rarely do words like "noble," "Hollywood" and "rawkin'" all apply to one movie.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

An altogether more viscerally engaging film, from its relentless pacing and slam-bang effects work to the fine, appropriately heroic score by John Ottman. That the movie has an obvious gay subtext neither adds nor detracts from the film’s smashing popcorn appeal.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

A follow-up with as much artistic integrity, complexity, humor and well-designed action as the original.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

One of the things that makes this movie such a great rush is that while you’re watching it, it seems a good deal more subversive than it really is.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Captures the feel of a first-rate comic book. It puts the pop back into Pop Art: It blows viewers away with a blast of kinetic energy.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It also boosts the punch of the movie that so many of its action scenes evoke the Iraqi War news footage of the past month, and the "X-Men" premise -- people persecuted because their difference makes them seem threatening -- carries even more relevancy and weight than it did three years ago.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

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

Film Threat Clint Morris

Sit down, Shut Up and Hang On, because Marvel's indifferent crew of uncanny power are back, and they're bigger, badder and super-charged. Let the fun begin. Again.

Variety Todd McCarthy

About twice as good as the original...bigger and more ambitious in every respect, from its action and visceral qualities to its themes.

Slate David Edelstein

My chief complaint is that these mutants are a little--well, vanilla. I wish the X-Men had a touch of kinkiness to go with their weird abilities.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Brisk and involving with a streamlined forward propulsion, it's the kind of superhero movie we want if we have to have superhero movies at all.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Funny, reasonably crazy, and unpretentiously faithful to its source.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Directed with depth, efficiency, and wit by Bryan Singer, the film suffered only from a tendency to seem like a setup for an even bigger movie...Fortunately, bigger usually equals better here, and when it doesn't, it equals just as good.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

As it is, most of X2's action is restricted to the Northeast Corridor, with a climactic face-off in the western Rockies, where, in typical blockbuster fashion, everything goes kablooey and ka-bam.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

This movie lets the characters and tropes borrowed from the original Stan Lee comic live and breathe.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Perhaps in the next generation a mutant will appear named Scribbler, who can write a better screenplay for them.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

As irresistible as movie-theater popcorn - a lavish, reasonably intelligent, well-acted sequel with kick-butt effects that outdoes its predecessor, 2000's "X-Men," in almost every department.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A sleek, rousing contraption, a comic-book movie with a sense of playfulness, a welcome streak of humor and just the right touch of gravity.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Visually, X2 is a sight to behold, with impressive special effects and a dynamic sense of place.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A summer firecracker. It's also a tribute to outcasts -- teens, gays, minorities, even Dixie Chicks. It's not without thought or feeling, except when its mind gets bent by the gods of box office. Then it's craven and empty.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Mr. Singer and his collaborators grasp that comic books, for all their obligatory fights and explosions, are at bottom about their brave, troubled, impossibly muscled characters.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

In some ways, X2 is an obvious improvement on its predecessor: It looks more expensive, and its special effects seem to swoop out of nowhere...But "X-Men" was undoubtedly the most elegiac comic-book adaptation of the past few years.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

As in the first movie, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are trotted out periodically to add a little gravitas.

Time Richard Corliss

Wants to contain multitudes -- high ideals and high tech, the poignant and the silly. Doing so, it becomes a lexicon of modern filmmaking. It could be its own creature: Super-Generico. That's not the worst thing for a movie to be, but it's not quite Marvel-ous either.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

The combat visuals that follow are as powerful as those of any war film.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

An engaging spectacle of energy and special effects built around a doomy mood and an ensemble cast vigorously pursuing a story line that isn't nearly as snazzy as the dressing.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It's scenic, confidently directed and performed, dutiful, faithful, revelatory, informative, and largely involving. Rarely, however, is it any fun.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A substantial improvement over "X-Men," in many ways, especially in visual and specialeffects departments.

USA Today Mike Clark

The longer the movie goes, the more its 133 minutes prove wearing. The story tries to develop a love angle between Jackman and Janssen, but it doesn't begin to take. And the finale is particularly weak.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

There's a continuing delicacy to [Singer's] direction that gives the audience room to breathe and reason to linger. This may not be a grownup movie but -- unlike the Star Wars franchise or the Batman sequels -- it is a movie that grownups can watch minus the requisite bottle of Excedrin.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The best new addition to the corp is Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

There are simply too many characters to get a handle on, and the sheer proliferation of special effects offers Singer a license so unfettered that most of the mutants act not according to their natures but purely on the ground of what, at that juncture, looks most groovy. [12 May 2003, p. 82]

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Singer's approach to X2 is very much of the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" school, resulting in a movie that, even at its best -- a thrilling jailbreak scene that's the closest thing in either X movie to a rousing set piece -- seems tame and unmemorable.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

All the same, X2 and recent action adventures like it constitute a mutation in their own right: fast-paced, slow-witted movies in which the impact is the message; impersonal movies that deny any need for characterization; disjointed movies that make no apologies -- and pay no penalties -- for making no sense. Their special gift is giving little and getting a lot.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Of the many comic book superhero movies, this is by far the lamest, the loudest, the longest. Good Lord, what an epic sit. My rear end deserves a medal...I wish I could say it wasn't so, but for most of us, this "X" marks a splat.

Film Threat Jim Agnew

What the movie needs more than anything is a script. The story is very disappointing and near the end, things start to get weirder and weirder.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The movie is overplotted, a soulless maze of special effects and relentless action.