The biggest drawback of the first installment of the X-Men franchise was its obligation to introduce the comic book series’ numerous characters and their personal histories. A good deal of action and plot development was sacrificed so that mutant after mutant could be paraded across the screen, accompanied by brief biographies and demonstrations of their superpowers. While crucial for filmgoers who had never before explored the X-Men universe, the novelty of seeing each ability on the big screen eventually wore off, and the audience was left with too much hype and not enough pay-off.

X2: X-Men United heaves aside concerns about the recurrence of similar problems, with the sequel immediately plunging the viewer into an intense, thoroughly gripping action sequence: the president is under attack by a mysterious creature that has broken into the White House. Unfortunately, the creature can dodge secret service guards’ bullets by disappearing into thin air and reappearing elsewhere moments later, an effect that is pulled off seamlessly. Director Brian Singer never forfeits his trust in the moviegoers’ attention spans, preferring the long, focused shot to the edit-crazy butchering of a Jerry Bruckheimer film.

The assassination attempt kicks off a series of subplots that conveniently breaks up the team of X-Men. Familiar characters Storm (Halle Berry) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) take off for Boston to retrieve the would-be assassin, while Cyclops (James Marsden) and Professor X (Patrick Stewart) pay a visit to the still-imprisoned misanthropic villain Magneto. Meanwhile, the frightened President is confronted by a McCarthy-like figure named General Stryker (Brian Cox), whose goal, we later learn, is to eradicate mutants from the face of the earth. Stryker is more powerful and knowledgeable than he seems and may even hold the key to the blurry past of the principal X-Man, Wolverine.

The performances by X2’s cast are fairly spotty, with many of the actors sitting through their roles, but the highlights give the film much of its creative energy. Ian McKellen sheds the nuances of his role as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and digs into his portrayal of Magneto with gusto. Hugh Jackman again embodies the tortured hostility of Wolverine, right down to the ferocious snarl. Perhaps the most unusual casting decision was to consign the eccentric, effeminate Alan Cumming to the role of Nightcrawler, a blue-skinned mutant who can teleport himself and anyone he holds, provided he can see his destination. However, Cumming’s performance defies even the most doubtful critics, charging his character with layers of spiritual and emotional depth.

The dialogue, in true comic book fashion, leans towards the unnecessarily dramatic. After the president views surveillance photographs of the X-Men’s jet Blackbird, he asks Stryker what it’s used for. Stryker, with an expression of utter gravity, replies, “I don’t know. But it comes out of the basketball court.” Adding a tongue-in-cheek quality to such lines would probably have worked much better than playing them straight. But Singer otherwise handles the material admirably, juggling a crowded script and executing the most complex special effects with ease. With X2, he delivers an appealing popcorn movie that may lack the freshness of the original, but successfully avoids its narrative and visual shortcomings.