Bryan Singer’s X2: X-Men United carries die-hard fans through a nostalgic 2-hour collage of 50-years-worth of X-Men comic books and TV episodes, but leaves the casual movie goer left in a tangled mesh of poorly developed subplots that require far too much prior knowledge of the comic book and television series.

Though X2, doesn’t nearly do justice to its revolutionary prequel, as the Empire Strikes did for Star Wars: A New Hope, it does provide an awesome display of special effects and individual acting talent.

Created around the time of the Holocaust and World War II, Stan Lee’s Marvel original work focused on the social themes of persecution, oppression, and societal hatred for the minority. However, Singer shifts the moral focus to the actions of a "Big Brother" government and its attempts to homogenize society through the excuse of national security.

X2 starts off where its predecessor left off, following clawed bad-ass Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) on his search for answers to his past. It quickly shifts to Washington, D.C. where a seemingly vicious and gothic Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) makes an attempt on the president’s life. This leads to wide spread chaos and incites misguided military action against the mutants in the form of a raid on Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), the psychic idealist, and his school for the gifted. The rest of the plot hops up and down New England, via X-Jet and a very well-placed Mazda RX-8, finally ending back at the school where almost everything is back to normal, minus one X-woman.

The overall plot is exceptionally orchestrated, but the disjointed subplots interrupt its fluidity and confuse the viewer. The movie relies heavily on viewers having seen the original or some of the television series to fully appreciate the character development, as little of it as there is, and interpersonal relationships. For example, Wolverine’s search for identity and closure on his foggy past, which is probably the single largest attraction of the movie, dominates the plot and distracts the viewer from the greater story of the oncoming war between man and mutant and the moral commentary accompanying it. The newly introduced subplots, such as psychic Jean Grey’s eventual transformation into the legendary Phoenix, distill the movie to a teaser for an even grander plot and an inevitbale sequel. In a word, the plot development and management is, well, mediocre. Singer tried to do what the Lord of the Rings series does so well, managing subplots, and he failed.

A major draw to the first X-Men movie was the outstanding use of special effects, and X2 does not disappoint. A few of the returning spectacles are Wolverine claws, Storm’s (Halle Berry) weather control, reaching its climax when she summons hundreds of tornadoes to shake off tailing fighter planes, Pyro’s (Aaron Stanford), well, pyrotechnics, Mystique’s (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) shape shifting, and Cyclops’ (James Marsden) eye-beam, all of which are executed flawlessly.

Regardless, the best effects are those unique to X2. For example, Jean Grey’s (Famke Jannsen) deflection of a torrent of water from a broken dam to save the other X-Men, is an exceptional feat of computer generation. But, without a doubt, Nightcrawler’s teleportation takes the show. The seamless execution of this breathtaking effect is truly the centerpiece of many, if not all the scenes in which it is included.

Fans will be primarily drawn by X2‘s vast array of physics-defying, gravity-resistant character chameos. Notable mentions are Colossus, a giant White Samoan character who can turn his body into metallic armor at will, and Jubilee, who has a small appearance as a kidnapped X-kid. Die-hard fans may even find a cameo appearance by Dr. Hank McCoy, a.k.a. Beast; that is, minus all his blue fur.

The only truly disappointing facet of X2 was its lack of good fight scenes. Though the battle between Lady Deathstrike and Wolverine is intense and well-choreographed, its length and importance to the plot is minimal. Nothing matched up to the Statue of Liberty fight, in the original, between Wolverine and Sabertooth (Tyler Mane), or Wolverine and Mystique, or Wolverine and Magneto, and well, you get the picture. Though the assault on the mansion includes several quick "hack ‘n slash" scenes with Wolverine, it hardly qualifies as a "battle."

And even-though the only reason fans ache to see this Marvel spectacle is to learn the truth behind Wolverine’s past, Wolverine cut people up, and Wolverine execute well-crafted PG-13 profanity, Singer’s array of special effects and intricate story-line doesn’t fail to please either.