I think MGS2 was a great game, and I'd say it is on par with the first, if not better. The main reason why people dislike it is because of Raiden, and those people are really too fed up with "Why is the main character Raiden, not Snake? And Raiden looks too much like a girl, and talks to Rose way too much...."

The way I see it though... Snake has always been a Legend, but we've never really looked at Snake from an other person's view. With Raiden, you can see that Snake IS a Legend. From the way he talks, the way he handles enemies... you get to see it from Raiden's point of view.

Also, the cutscenes are essentials to the game, really. If you want to know the plot, you will have to watch the cutscenes and movies. It is a really lame reason to hate the game just because of movies and cutscenes that you can skip.

Of course, there are things that don't make sense in MGS2.. like the whole Ocelot thing. But sometimes it is a good thing to leave something unanswered so that the gamers will have to guess and second guess the rest. MGS3 tied up quite a lot of loose ends, though.