If you want to know my explicit feelings,
the movie did not do anything for me. I recognize that opinions will vary, possibly drastically and no one is right other than by majority opinion. Therefore I know I'll lose, but no matter, my feelings are the correct ones. Kidding to some degree.
My knowledge of the original stories colors my views somewhat, but my intent to keep the focus of this discussion on the merits of these movies as good entertainment, not a condemnation of how far they deviate from the original comics. If that was the criteria, I'd have to trash all of them.
After the disappointment of
X-Men Last Stand and how they short changed the
Dark Phoenix Saga, I was muttering, but I still bought the DVD, which is the ultimate expression of a movie that meets my approval.
And then the joy of watching the
Wolverine Origins movie! Every single character in that movie was alive and full of character. Fantastic, I thought X-Men is back! Then this movie arrives having miscast several characters, who almost all come off flat, and a director who just can't pull off a story that tries to place the X-Men in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis. So sad.
Xavier- miscast.
Mystique- compared to the original portrayal by Rebecca Romijn, this character was SUCH a disappointment and they mentioned something in passing of her being Xavier's sister? (I may not have caught that correctly).
Hank McCoy (Beast)- as compared to the original portrayal by Kelsey Grammer, no comparison and the young Beast looked like a big fuzzy kitty whose personality was not the Beast I know from the comics.
Sebastian Shaw- I don't know, Kevin Bacon just did not carry this character.
Emma Frost- Completely two dimensional.
Magneto- Of all the characters Magneto was pretty good.
How I can go from loving every mutant in 3 X-Men movies (X-Men 1,2, and Wolverine Origins) and loath every character in XMFC except for a 1 min cameo by Wolverine? Every single character in the good movies, light up the screen. In comparison, the 5th movie in the series, is like week old cola. Don't even try to compare these XMFC characters to Sabertooth, Gambit, or Dead Pool. They breathed more life into their characters in 1 min, then the young X-Men could manage in an entire movie. (This is not prejudice against young talent)
Something has to be said for the Director's vision, Brian Singer for the first two and Gavin Hood for the Wolverine movie. In comparison, Matthew Vaughn, director of Kick Ass (an ok movie), dropped the ball so badly, please keep him away from any future X-Men installments!
X-Men: First Class
Original X-Men
X-Men2
X-Men Origins: Wolverine