Of the myriad comic book movies announced for this year, the one I've least anticipated is X-Men 2. Saw the first 'un, of course, and while I wasn't bored watching it, I can't say I was totally wrapped up in it either. Sure, X-Men had beaucoup character and story to introduce - but so did the first Lord Of The Rings chapter, and that puppy moved. X1, on the other hand, just sat there, most damningly in its rote Good/Bad Mutant showdown at the Statue of Liberty.

I've never especially been an avid X-addict: the original Lee & Kirby series was a decent start, but compared to their stint on Fantastic Four (where the team had several years to stretch the material), it never fulfilled its promise. When Chris Claremont retooled the group - adding former Hulk villain Wolverine to the mix and making the cast more multinational, I was only fitfully interested. Perhaps I was the wrong age for 'em, but arcs like "Dark Phoenix" (Jean Grey turns into godlike baddie - a plot that's been replicated too many times since) didn't work for me. Too strained; too contrived.

These days, Marvel's X-books are a cottage industry by themselves. I've sampled a few - including Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men and the first year of the Ultimate book - but have limited working knowledge of all the presentday fannish minutia. So I had that strike going against the movie, too: part of the fun after all, with a flick like this lies in picking apart the difference 'tween source comic and finished film.

And so it was a more-than-pleasant surprise to find myself actively enjoying X2: X-Men United. Unlike the first outing, director Bryan Singer and collaborators put together an action film with a fully fleshed conflict. After squandering so much screen time in the first flick with back story, Singer just jumps into the action and assumes the audience has all memorized their X-Men DVDs (not a bad assumption to make for the opening weekend crowd, at least). So when we see the liquefied Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison), we know something is fishy long before the figure gives us a conveniently revealing flash of mutant eye coloring.

The film's basic plot is straightforward. Fanatical Army guy William Stryker (Brian Cox) is out to eradicate all mutants. Using a scantly explicated brainwashing drug on captured mutants Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Kurt "Nightcrawler" Wagner (Alan Cumming), he strives to foment war between human and mutant, first by sending agile teleporter Nightcrawler on an assault against the president, then by kidnapping kindly Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and some X-kiddies from Xavier's School for Gifted Youth. Left to fend off Mutant Apocalypse: returning grown-ups Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Jean (Famke Janssen) and Storm (Halle Berry); half-formed students Rogue (Anna Paquin), Bobby "Iceman" Drake (Shawn Ashmore) and Pyro (Aaron Stanford); plus ee-vil mutant allies Magneto and the shape-shifting Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos).