Am I the only one who preferred this over the first?

I remember when viewing the first XXX on DVD, I thought it was garbage and watched it again many years later and had the same feelings.

XXX is way too long. While I've grown to appreciate Vin Diesel in the right roles (the Pitch Black films, Boiler Room, Saving Private Ryan and the Fast & Furious sequels), his performance in this film acts as a checklist of all of his worst aspects as a performer. Xander Cage also tends to come across as an arrogant douchebag than someone we should be rooting for. The romance between him and Asia Argento never clicks and the film just feels horribly dated with the EXTREME stunts in every scene and the cheesy nu-metal soundtrack (complete with a Rammstein cameo!).

I certainly won't defend State of the Union as a great film, but I find it to be a more entertaining experience. Ice Cube and Willem Dafoe are more engaging as the hero and villain than Diesel and Generic East European Badguy from the original. Unlike the attempts at humor in XXX, some of the attempts here actually worked for me like Cube gobbling down some burgers while exclaiming Who's Your Daddy? and the banter between Cube and Samuel L. Jackson.