X-Men 2 took what was good about the first X-Men film and expanded the storyline as well as giving the fans what was lacking IMO, a well-paced film with little Set Pieces along the way to an ending that was both satisfying and exhilarating to watch. In X2 United, the story continues from the first one with the growing threat of a war between Mutants and Humans. But the main arc for this one was all about Wolverine and Stryker and what their relationship was in the past. Namely, Stryker (Brian Cox)was the man behind the transformation of Logan into Wolverine. Although we don't get all the answers we want here, they do set it up nicely for future films (X-Men Origins).

Loved the addition of Nightcrawler (Alan Cummings) and Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu) to the cast. But the biggest surprise for me, only in the fact that it's been at least 5 years since I have watched this was seeing Aaron Stanford as Pyro. I had completely forgotten the character was in this one and I never made the connection between Aaron in this movie to where I know him better as Birkhoff on Nikita.

This is a very entertaining film and definitely the best X-Men film to date. I highly recommend this as a Buy.