The first X-Men movie was burdened with having to set out the stall for an intended franchise; this sequel capitalises on the original's groundwork and pays the audience back in spades. This is what a mega-budget comic-book action movie should be - from its breathtaking opening assault on the White House, the pace never lets up. Former nemesis Magneto (played with relish by Ian McKellen) is now allied with the X-Men against Brian Cox's ruthless military scientist, Stryker. Our Marvel heroes, again led by Hugh Jackman's cigar-chomping Wolverine and augmented by Alan Cumming's camp shape-shifter and a handsome new intake of students, are pleasingly, fallibly human, and a sharp script leavens the dark melancholy at the tale's core with soap-opera romance and comic one-liners. Director Bryan Singer skilfully keeps multiple subplots spinning while moving inexorably towards a climax that puts the first film's Liberty Island sequence in the shade. It's overlong, but feel the quality.

Professor Charles Xavier and his team of genetically gifted superheroes face a rising tide of anti-mutant sentiment led by Col. William Stryker. Storm, Wolverine and Jean Grey must join their usual nemeses—Magneto and Mystique—to unhinge Stryker's scheme to exterminate all mutants.