When I was a kid, superhero movies sucked. No, not just in movies that were poorly made, but all of them. Comic-books presented the kinds of stories that just couldnt be made into movies, which is one of the reasons readers cherished them so much. Anything could happen in a world of ink and paper. Its no accident that just as the technology began to be invented that could portray these kinds of stories that filmmakers began to find ways to use this technology to portray comic-book characters. If technology had progressed a little more rapidly, its not too farfetched to imagine John Ford directing a Captain America movie, or Alfred Hitchcock toying with plots for a Batman feature. Maybe the reason that comic-book adaptations are so much better now is because bringing audience empathy to fantastic characters is so much easier now that showing what they can do doesnt involve so much "heavy lifting". Then again, maybe the comics as a medium had to be explored more fully before those stories could be brought to the movies. Or maybe its just a case of a lot of things coming together at once as executive producer Avi Arad points out in an interview, now the comics-reading "giks" are the people making movies.

In any case, we now have two terrific movies about the X-Men, when I never imagined when I was reading the stories that inspired them that even a decent cartoon could be based on them. Adapting a successful comic-book series to movies can be more difficult than adapting a novel or a play. A comic-book series can have decades worth of storylines produced by hundreds of different writers and artists in dozens of different styles, and somehow a motion picture version needs to represent all that in digest form. In X-MEN, we have a series that features dozens of characters as well, increasing the challenge even more. Thus, Bryan Singer and his crew are to be sincerely congratulated on bringing us an X-MEN franchise that not only remains true to the comics, but also serves the medium of movies just as well.

The sequel carries on in the thematic territory of the first movie, with thousands of mutated humans striving to deal with their own identities, while the rest of humanity tries to figure out what to do with them. Predictably, many humans react with fear to the potential dangers posed by the mutants now represented by a shadowy government officer named William Stryker (Brian Cox) while some mutants feel its their birthright to rule over humans namely, Magneto (Ian McKellen) and his evil Brotherhood. Though the Brotherhood has apparently dwindled to just Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), she works hard on an a plan to free Magneto from the glass and plastic. Magneto urgently needs to escape. Stryker has been working on plans for many years to deal with the mutant situation, and his implementation of a chemical mind-control agent has revealed all of the X-Mens secrets. This includes everything about the device called Cerebro created by Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), a machine that could be used to destroy every mutant on Earth.

Eventually, the escaped mutants on both sides of the issue unite on a quest to rescue their captured friends and stop Stryker and his doomsday device. Woven into this plot are subplots that advance the individual, interlinked journeys of all of the characters. And happily, every bit of the action and adventure is sold completely by wonderful production design, acting and special effects. In general, the rule that sequels must be bigger than the original is applied, but the characters dont get lost in the expanded surroundings, which is a key factor in this particular sequels success. Initially, I was bothered by the films climax, in which a major character is sacrificed, apparently needlessly. However, on second viewing, its more apparent as a choice and progression of character rather than an act of desperation, especially in view of the next sequels obvious choice of storyline.

Not to forget direction and cinematography. Singer and DP Tom Sigel, whove made four pictures together, collaborate again on a commentrak. Both being visually-oriented people used to communicating by shorthand, there are stretches where the two of them have trouble keeping the chatter going, but when they do speak they have some great stories. Some of these bits are repeated by some of the writers and producers in a separate commentrak, and with more people that are less familiar, conversation is a bit more lively.

The second disc is given over to a fistful of documentary featurettes and other extras that explore the movies comic-book origins and production history, with the centerpiece being a longer Making-Of documentary. Some of the material is obviously a rehash of stuff prepared for the first movie, or the X-MEN 1.5 DVD, but its all still germane to the sequel. Most of the extras are very well produced, keeping it all entertaining for a general audience while providing plenty of detail for film scholars and fans. For example, the section focusing on the Wolverine/Deathstrike fight scene cuts out all boring talk and simply cuts together shots of the stunt people performing this standout sequence.

Its interesting to note that all of the deluxe DVDs of Marvel movies pay plenty of attention to the comics that spawned them for example, here we have not only a talking head featurette about the X-MEN comics, but a sidebar interview with one of the series current writers, and in particular the NIGHTCRAWLER movie prequel comic he wrote. In an example of good DVD production, the next item in the default menu scheme is an examination of the introductory scene, Nightcrawlers attack on the White House. Unfortunately, though its nice to see a DVD find a use for the rarely-accessed angle button on your remote, this feature doesnt really allow you to "switch your point of view from camera to camera" as advertised in the menu and box copy its actually just a comparison of four different levels of production on the sequence.

Of course, one of the biggest draws of a deluxe DVD is getting to see more of the movie than could be included in the theatrical release. A section on production design gives us a look at the mutant museum exhibit and other parts of sets that were built but not seen in the finished film, the section on costume design shows Phoenix-themed clothing and jewelry made for Jean Grey that are likely too subtle to be noticed, etc. The deleted scenes section shows a bit more, but not much other than a sequence showing a more complex version of the illusion trapping Professor X, not much appears to have been trimmed. Oh, and lets not forget the lone gag scene included, which gives a wink to X-MEN 3.

Hey, is it just me, or does Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) look just like a younger Bryan Singer?

DVD Shopping List is our weekly DVD column. Brian Thomas is the author of the massive new book VideoHound's DRAGON: ASIAN ACTION & CULT FLICKS, available now!