Pyro (Aaron Stanford) shows off his fire power. Photo credit: CINESITE.

But…
So why didn’t the sum add up to as much as — or, even better, more than —its parts?

Well, for starters, there’s the team’s leader, Professor X — actually played even better this time around by the man who really was born to play the role, Patrick Stewart. But, despite being “the world’s most powerful telepath,” Xavier is played as a passive, ineffectual figure. One can understand that, as founder of and — literally — the mind behind the X-Men, he would be a vulnerable target and the one the bad guys would focus on. That he would spend so much of the movie as a victim, and not even be allowed to contribute much to his own rescue or the events that follow, is a letdown.

Xavier (Patrick Stewart), seated in the wheelchair and seen here with Storm (Halle Berry), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Cyclops (James Marsden), is portrayed as too much of a victim in this sequel.

Then, equally well-cast and well-played, Ian McKellen’s Magneto is also relegated to a sort of auto-pilot villainous role, betraying little of the complex motivation he was allowed in the first X-film. McKellen, too, is given precious little screen time, and little chance to have much real interplay with Stewart.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine is, again, the real star of the movie. Jackman — and writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, as well as director Bryan Singer — indeed brings a lot to a role that could be just another killing machine type. But I wonder how the slowly unreeling mystery behind his origins will sustain itself over the course of several movies. It’s not like a weekly TV series where the pieces add up to something by the end of a few months, and you have the full story within a reasonable time frame.

Endings Are Always Toughest
The biggest problem with the movie, for me, and it seems to happen with a lot of action films, is when the filmmakers try to bring all the elements together for a rousing ending. There’s something about a team of anything — football players, dancers, horses — that makes you want to see them act together at the climax of a story. Sure, one or two of them will stand out, and maybe many of them will be reduced to looking on and acting impressed. But, much as you may love Derek Jeter, it’s the New York Yankees — the team! — you want to see win, even if Derek gets to be the hero of the game. And you want to see him win as part of the group. In basketball or football, this need is even more clearly expressed and satisfied. The quarterback throws the ball and the receiver catches it and makes the touchdown. But the rest of the team is out there making sure no one gets in their way. They don’t just watch and grit their teeth.