There's a sense of continuity between the original two Brian Singer X-Men films that we've only seen superhero cinema replicate once in the years that followed with the MCU's Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. X2 picks up the thread exactly where its predecessor left off. There's not even really a new threat here. Rather we're just seeing the next natural evolution of the conflict they were already involved in. This quality of telling one ongoing story, whereas its peers from Marvel and DC treat each successive release as an entirely new adventure, is one of the aspects that make the early entries in this series stand out from the pack. Another is how the real enemy these heroes fight against isn't the supervillain Magneto's "Brotherhood" or even the crazed military colonel trying to weaponize and annihilate them. It's the ignorance, fear, and close-minded nature of the world they live in. It's easy to draw parallels between the mutant's plight and that of real life issues like racism and homophobia. The interesting thing about this property is that its approach to exploring these issues has always shown the evils prevalent on BOTH sides of discrimination. Obviously the humans are at fault for their treatment of a people they don't understand, but the X-Men franchise also condemns those who would seek to meet intolerance with an aggression that only reinforces negative stereotypes and puts further walls between us. The message these characters have tried to teach us over the years is that the only way we will all be able to achieve a sense of unity and harmony that transcends our differences is through understanding, patience, and education. A moral that makes the original comics and movies even more significant today in a time where so many are attempting to combat hatred with even more hatred. Like any good sequel, X2 dives deeper into its world and characters. Which is compelling and interesting from a narrative standpoint, but all of this extra storytelling makes for a less exciting watch overall. There are essentially three different plot threads going on. The main one is great, but the other two leave a bit to be desired. We get to learn more about Wolverine's origin, but none of that ever feels terribly substantial and kind of ends up going nowhere. We also get some obligatory sequel setup centered around Jean Grey that will likely leave anyone not familiar with the source material wondering what the heck all that nonsense was about once the credits roll. Of all the X-Men movies this might be the one that nails the whole team dynamic the best. Hugh Jackman still basically carries all of the action sequences, but the rest of the time his role in the story feels no larger than that of his peers. This is the first time I've actually found myself somewhat overlooking Wolverine in one of these films because of how many impactful moments were written for the other characters. X2 proves to still be a solid blockbuster after all this time and may even be more relevant than ever due to its themes and underlying subtext. It definitely suffers from being a definitive middle chapter (meaning nothing of real consequence actually happens) and is perhaps not as action-packed as its predecessor overall. Yet, it still does a lot that modern superhero flicks could stand to learn from, and because of that held up better upon this revisitation than most of the MCU and DCEU catalogue will be able to when the same amount of time passes for them.