Just wanted to say that I thought it was a friggen fantastic. I think it makes a new benchmark for the quality of a sequel.
That is all.
it good
I liked it a lot, too. The benchmark for sequel quality is The Godfather, Pt. II, which nothing touches. But I can buy it as a benchmark for action sequels, and it was a lot of fun.
Whaaat? Maybe you haven’t heard of a little movie called “The Empire Strikes Back”? 
I heard that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was a pretty good movie, too.
Plus, didn’t Peter Jackson make a sequel to that little movie of his about some miniature people and a piece of jewelry?
Empire Strikes Back should be disqualified since it was part two of a planned trilogy.
I nominate Toy Story II.
If you’re disallowing The Empire Strikes Back on the basis of its being part of a planned trilogy, then you’ll have to disallow X-Men 2 also. The ending makes it crystal clear that they’re planning on an X-Men 3.
Terminator II was an excellent sequel as far as action movies are concerned.
That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. A sequel is a sequel. Hell, a lot of the best sequels are probably of this variety.
Good point, since it was always planned for three. That’s why Xavier says, “I feel sorry for the poor soul who comes to my school.” at the end of the first one.
I vote for Matrix Reloaded, unless we are agreed that all trilogies are out.
I’d say they’re planning on X-Men 3 at least. Although who knows how much further they’d be able to keep going with the salaries they’re paying and the increasing number of cast members.
Then you’d also have to disallow The Two Towers, obviously.
how 'bout Aliens then???
And how!
I finally just saw (rented) X-Men 2 this weekend, and I got all goose-bumpy at the end. The story they alluded to at the very end is perhaps my favorite run of the X-Men comics.
The whole movie was pretty darn good… better than the first one. But the ending left me seriously wanting more, in a good way.
Well, here’s my thing: since all three of those movies were made at the same time, one could argue that the trilogy is one long movie cut into three parts (like Kill Bill) and that TTT and ROK are therefore technically NOT sequels.
Whaddya think?
No, no, the idea is to think of good sequels. 
Well, I think it’s up there in the pantheon of sequels-even-better-than-the-original. (The only others I can think of are The Wrath of Khan and Aliens, because the original Star Wars is still my favorite.)
But I think it does even more to raise the bar on comic book movies as a whole. Since Superman there’s been a long dry spell of comic book movies that just suck. (The first two Batman movies had fantastic art direction but terrible, awful scripts.) It could be because I was never a huge fan of the X-Men comics, but I thought the movies were done exactly as a comic book movie should be done – include all the action and powers and everything, and have fun with it, but don’t make it as “a comic book movie.” Make it with the idea that you’ve been given a bunch of characters and a basic situation, and then make a movie of what it would really be like to be those people and to be in that situation. And then cast Famke Jaansen, because she’s so damn hot.
Ok, I have a lot of comments because I am a huge Xmen comic and movie fan. When they made Xmen they left it open for a sequel but a sequel wasn’t planned until it did well in theatres. Xmen 2 is one of my top 25 favorite movies (probably 25 but still…), it is the best comic movie ever made (with the first superman movie in close second). The third movie will be amazing! Obviously, by viewing the ending of 2, that the 3rd will follow the plot of the Phoenix saga, which is one of the best story lines in Xmen ever.
Halle Berry has made it clear she doesn’t want to play Storm again, which will make one less huge celebrity to pay. I didn’t like her as storm anyway, so her loss. Nightcrawler was a great addition. Alan Cumming is a great actor, nightcrawler is a great character, and they are both sexy if you ask me ^_^.
Did anyone else think that the actor that plays Scott/Cylcops, James Marsdyn is a horrible actor? Scott isn’t a very eccentric character or anything but he had such a small part in this movie (probably because of his bad acting in the first) and his few major lines were acted horribly!!!
Personally, I want to see Gambit swoon, possibly angel, and the underratted character maggot in the next movie. What characters do you all want to show up?
I forgot another thing. Matrix Reloaded was a really good movie in my opinion. A lot of people said they didn’t understand it or the ending was horrible but personally, I understood it the very first time I saw it and you had to watch it like it was half of a sequel and not a sequel, the ending is appropriate in that sense.