Just to start I will say this film is much better than the first, the effect of a bigger budget is very apparent on the screenand in the special effects, in addition the increase in confidence of the director Bryan Singer shines through.

For starters the superhero battles in this movie are top notch and are some of the best ever depicted on the big screen. The film had good moments throughout the following are a few.

The opening sequence of Nightcrawler attacking the whitehouse is worth the price of admission alone! The depiction of Nightcrawler's power was incredible the special effects where top class, and for once the curse of dodgy CGI was avoided.

The scene of Magneto's escape from the prison was another great scene that left a silly grin on this fanboy's face.

Then we get a dog fight between the X-plane and two fighters which gave Storm a chance to shine and included another great scene when we saw a rescue act from Nightcrawler.

The scene with Magneto holding aloft the Blackbird with his powers was iconic!

Then we get the attack on Xavier's school, now this is the wet dream of all X-men fanboys. We have soldiers attacking a school full of mutants with different powers. I loved this scene especially for all the little cameos from various mutants that only fans of the comic will be able to spot and name. The appearance of Coloussus and his transmutation to metal drew a great cheer from the crowd at this opening day showing,. If only this sequence could have been the climax and extended by an extra 10 minutes with more power display from the other mutants in the school then the score for this movie would have been 10/10.

The plot of the film is about a US Military general who has a personal agenda against mutants and intends to wipe them from the face of the Earth. This involves him getting hold of cerebro and making Professor X use it to destroy mutants, there is a side plot about Jean Grey's power growing faster than she can control which leads to an ending that means more to the fans of the comic than non-readers. Bobby Drake better known as Ice-Man has a great interlude where he comes out to his parents about being a mutant.

The acting for all the charcters was top notch and the newcomers especially where excellent, Alan Cummings Nightcrawler was spot on and Shawn Ashmore as Iceman shows that he is not just a pretty boy but has some acting chops.

For me Aaron Stanford as Pyro was outstanding as the mutant who revelled in the use of his powers and felt constrained by Professor's X philosphy of using powers responsibly, his seduction by Magneto was very subtle and very believeable .

The established characters carried on from where they left off in the first movie, this time round Halle Berry had a bit more to do though.

Hugh Jackman is once more the focus of attention and is charismatic as ever and this time round we get to see Wolverine go into a berserker rage and the claws are used to more deadly effect!

Brian Cox shows why he is a respected actor with his protrayal of a man who has let personal tragedy lead him down a dark path. One of the great things about Singer'ss movies is that his villians are always believable and not the standard insane megolanamanics that seem to populate all other superhero movies. Thank god for small mercies.

What lets this film down in my opinion is the last 30 minutes of the film, the best action sequences in this movie all happen in the first hour and half and the ending battles are kind of a damp squib in comparison. There is a fight between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike that was okay but in my opinion could have been better, and all the scenes with Professor X and Cerebro seemed to drag the movie to a screeching halt.

The last third of the movie should have been the middle and as I said earlier the attack on the mansion should somehow have been the climax.

I cannot wait to see this again which is always the good mark of a movie.

And yes to all the comic geeks out there that was the Phoenix we saw in the end!!

Bring on X3! and Bryan why not do a "Matrix" and film X3 and X4 back to back? It may be the only way to keep the cast together for these movies.

This is the film earns an impressive 8.5/10

See ya later,

Shazam!