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Superheroes, supersized

X2: X-Men United piles on the superheroes, a new bad guy and a real plot. Can you say megablockbuster?

Marvel Comics turned into movies are inevitable since Spider-Man saved Hollywood last year. But it takes more than snazzy costumes and very special effects to make them work. Get too serious and the result is a dull Daredevil. Stay faithful to familiar origins and you get a Spider-Man that feels like a preview trailer for the sequel.

The key is choosing a comic that's somewhat mysterious to the masses, as director Bryan Singer did with the first X-Men movie in 2000. Then create a new milieu of mutants with deeper problems than secret identities. X-Men offered good and evil personalities motivated by such uncommon tragedy as the Holocaust, and superpowers finding any loving physical contact deadly. We're all mutants, the movie allegorized, one way or another.

X2: X-Men United is less a sequel and more an adventure that Part 1 didn't have time to create with all its back stories. Personal crises among the superheroes and archenemies are continued, with a nice balance of what moviegoers remember about the original and Singer's brisk remediation for anyone else. More mutants with superpowers and a new villain - that even the first film's villain hates - keep things from seeming repetitive. A bit strained at times, but not repetitive.

The movie begins with a terrific action sequence in the White House where a new mutant named Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) invades the Oval Office to deliver a threatening message on behalf of all mutants. Nightcrawler is simply a great piece of imagination, teleporting himself from one place to another, leaving a vapor trail and piles of pummeled Secret Service agents. By presenting a seemingly unbeatable antagonist right off the bat, Singer makes us curious about how the X-Men would handle him.

It turns out they don't need to, and the movie's shortage of Nightcrawler kicking butt later is lamentable. The mutant is really a nice German circus performer duped by Gen. William Stryker (Brian Cox), who is itching to wipe out all mutants by scaring the president into a war. Human paranoia is widespread after Magneto (Ian McKellen) attempted genocide in the first film.

But not all mutants are as destructive as Magneto. Dr. Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Professor X (Patrick Stewart) runs a secret prep school for budding superheroes, teaching them values and how to harness their paranormal gifts. Telekinetic Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), her boyfriend Scott "Cyclops" Summers (James Marsden) and Ororo "Storm" Munroe (Halle Berry) are instructors when they aren't cleaning up bad-mutant problems. The loner Logan (Hugh Jackman) a.k.a. Wolverine is still an amnesiac and ready to rumble.

Students get more screen time in X2, adding variety to the action. Bobby (Shawn Ashmore) is a sensitive type with an Iceman touch. John (Aaron Stanford) is a hothead earning his nickname, Pyro. Marie (Anna Paquin) returns with less to do, mostly fretting about the life-draining touch affecting her love life.

The plot in X2 takes some interesting turns, uniting Magneto and Professor X for worthy jousts between McKellen and Stewart's regal line deliveries. Wolverine's continuing identity crisis is deftly woven into the central crisis, and hints of what will occur in part three - bet on it after this opening weekend - are nicely underplayed.

Singer and his co-writers Michael Dougherty and Daniel P. Harris understand that movie-speak should be more detailed than what fits into comic-book dialogue balloons. (Though seeing the human devastation mentioned in the third act would ratchet the tension a notch or two.)

The special effects are much improved over the original film and its below-average budget since nobody believed in comic-book movies three years ago. Magneto's escape from a plastic prison is smart thinking and smartly done. Nightcrawler's powers are the most memorable visual tricks. A jet chase through tornadoes created by Storm and the climactic dam disaster provide new angles on old situations.

That is what filmmakers are supposed to do, although Singer deserves more credit for doing it within a genre already smelling stale. (And we still have The Hulk coming this summer.) X2 is an interesting fantasy, always aware of its need to remain that way. Considering today's Hollywood, that may be its most amazing power of all.

Grade: A-

Director: Bryan Singer

Cast: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Brian Cox, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Alan Cumming, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, Kelly Hu, Anna Paquin, Bruce Davison

Screenplay: Michael Dougherty, Bryan Singer, Daniel P. Harris

Rating: PG-13; sci-fi violence, brief profanity and sexuality

Running time: 135 min.