X2: X-Men United

This movie was great--much better than the original film, which was pretty standard as far as summer blockbusters go. X-2 skipped all the awkward and unnecessary attempts at a backstory (and I'm speaking as someone who knew next to nothing about the XMen when I saw the film) and went straight for an intelligent route. The characters were fascinating and the special effects were truly pretty good--and that's saying something, since I'm usually bored out of my mind by that kind of thing.Some of the acting was absolutely wonderful. Rebecca Romijn Stamos, Ian McKellen, Alan Cummings, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, and Anna Paquin more than made up for the mediocre attempts of Halle Berry and Famke Janssen.