X2 (2003)
★★★½ — X2 (2003)
There's a moment near the start of X2 where a mutant tears through the White House, flipping between shadows, leaving Secret Service agents grasping at thin air. It's breathless and beautiful and slightly terrifying, and it tells you immediately that this film is operating at a different level to most of what the genre was offering in 2003. Bryan Singer had already proved with X-Men (2000) that there was serious dramatic potential in Marvel's mutants. Here, he cashes that promise in full.
X2 is, for my money, the best film the X-Men franchise has produced. And I'll go further: it's one of the strongest comic book films ever made, full stop. That's not nostalgia talking. It's the simple fact that very few superhero films, before or since, have managed to balance action, genuine emotional weight, and a coherent political argument as well as this one does.
The engine driving everything is Colonel William Stryker, a military fanatic whose hatred of mutants is dressed up in the language of duty and protection. His plan is monstrous, but Singer never lets him become a cartoon. He's the face of institutional fear, the kind of man who convinces himself that cruelty is a form of care. And that idea, that fear turns people into monsters long before mutation ever does, runs through every scene. It's not subtle, and it isn't trying to be. It's a superhero film with something to say, and it says it clearly.
What strikes me every time I revisit this is how well Singer manages the ensemble. Hugh Jackman's Wolverine gets the most substantial arc, his forgotten past pulling him towards answers he may not want. It gives Jackman room to do more than growl and fight, and he takes full advantage. Ian McKellen's Magneto remains one of the great screen villains, a man whose methods are inexcusable and whose grievances are entirely understandable, and the film refuses to let you forget either of those things. Halle Berry's Storm is given genuine authority here, something the first film denied her. And Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler is quietly extraordinary: devout, haunted, hunted, the kind of character most superhero films wouldn't know what to do with. Cumming makes him one of the most sympathetic figures in the whole series.
The action sequences are top-notch throughout. Singer directs with real confidence, building suspense rather than just throwing noise at the screen. The home invasion sequence is tense in a way that feels almost unusual for the genre. John Ottman's score gives the whole thing a soaring, operatic quality that suits the material perfectly, never overwhelming it but always lifting the moments that need it.
Is it perfect? No. A few plot points require you to squint a bit, and some of the visual effects have dated in the way early-2000s CGI tends to. But those are small complaints against a very large achievement. The film earns its emotional beats. When characters face real consequences, you feel them. That's rarer than it should be.
It's worth saying, because the franchise that followed never quite managed to recapture this, that X2 set a standard. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) fumbled it badly, and while later entries found moments of brilliance, for me only Logan (2017) comes close to matching the genuine dramatic seriousness on display here. X2 understood that the X-Men work best not as a power fantasy, but as a story about what it costs to be different in a world determined to make you afraid of yourself.
A benchmark for the genre when the genre dares to care. Three and a half stars.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2003 | Watched: 2025-09-23
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Bryan Singer: X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) · X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) · X-Men (2000)
More with Hugh Jackman: Logan (2017) · Van Helsing (2004) · X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) · X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
