X-Men 2 / X2 Analysis

Three themes of X-Men 2 which advance the story.

ANGER
There was a lot of anger on display in the film, but it was an action film so the violence had to be stirred up from somewhere. :P

That aside, most of the anger in the film came from Magneto and his associates who generally wanted to erase all remaining non-mutants from the planet.

In contrast, the humans were also angry at the attempted assassination of their president by Nightcrawler, a mutant. It is safe to say that the majority of anger in the film stems from the constant disagreement between mutants and non-mutants.

LOVE
To differentiate from all the anger and violence in the film, there are relationships between the X-Men. Relationships are essential in developing the story and making the characters seem more realistic and more relatable. This is important because their abilities as mutants could distance them from the viewers.

The most obvious example of love was the long-established romance between Jean Grey and Scott Summers, which was potentially under-threat from beardy old Logan.

Other examples of love include Rogue and Iceman, and even possibly Storm and Nightcrawler; though this could be interpreted as motherly love rather than romance.

RIVALRY
The competition between Scott Summers and Logan seems like an obvious rivalry in the film as they spend almost every moment together arguing over Jean or staring each other down.

A less obvious, but equally as important rivalry, would be that of Professor X and Magneto; we see them going head-to-head due to a difference of opinion. They aim for the same goal, yet they want to achieve said goal in a completely different way.