X-men 2 is a high-class film

The first shots in the Summer Blockbuster Wars are being fired with the return of the X mutants ... and as far as X-Men 2 director Bryan Singer is concerned his collection of decidedly curious characters has no fear of the opposition.

Take just one rival - actually, take just two, for there will be a couple of back-to-back sequels - the mega-hit The Matrix, and Singer says: "We're in a different world to The Matrix, and we're exciting in a different way, and we have different characters and a different tone. We operate in our own universe ... so we don't need to worry about rivals like The Matrix, Spider-Man, The Hulk, or anything else."