Warning: Contains spoilers!

I recently saw the sequel to "X-Men" (given the slightly confusing title of "X2"), and I am pleased to report that it's at least as good as the 2000 original, if not even better!

The sequel picks up where the first film left off, with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) searching for answers about his mysterious past (of which he has no conscious memory, but is haunted by nightmares) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) still in that plastic prison. Meanwhile, his evil cohort Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) is scheming to free him.

In Washington, the mutants' worst nightmare becomes a reality when the U.S. military gets the green light to launch a covert assault, led by the evil William Stryker (Brian Cox) against Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart)'s School for the Gifted, AKA the X-Men's headquarters. Of course, the X-Men fight back, and even team up with Magneto, who has now---in one of the film's best special effects sequences---escaped from prison. Mystique is by his side.

"X2" has more of an epic feel than its predecessor, due mainly to the fact that it's longer (about 2 hours, versus only 1 hour and a half for the first movie). Its budget was also considerably bigger, which is evident on the screen---its special effects are at times quite awesome! The only area where the film suffers somewhat is the plot. The storyline is rather thin, but still efffective overall.

The adventure takes our heros to the Canadian Rockies, where they battle Stryker at his base, where he built a "dark" Cerebro, which he intends to use to kill all the mutants the world over. Wolverine gets a lot of the action sequences, notably an elaborate fight scene against a mutant with retractable adamantium nails (Kelly Hu), who's even stronger and more vicious than he is. (!)

The film ends on a sad note: Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) sacrifices herself to save her fellow X-Men. But did she really die? Fans, of course, know that Jean Grey died in the comics only to be reborn as the powerful Phoenix.

The adventure comes to an end with an obvious nod to "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", giving us a long foreshadowing view of the ocean and a vague shape in the water where Grey (supposedly) drowned, and Famke Janssen doing Patrick Stewart's "Evolution" monologue from the beginning of the first film (echoing Leonard Nimoy's "Space: The final frontier..." monologue at the end of Star Trek II, after we see Spock's coffin on the Genesis planet.), before the screen goes black and the credits start rolling.

I'm already anxiously awaiting "X3".