X-Men

Rating: 7/10 (23 October 2019)

It was way back in 2008 when Iron Man first suited up and the Marvel Cinematic Universe caused an irrefutable shift in the cinematic landscape, for better or for worse.
It's easy to forget that 8 years before Iron Man there were still solid Marvel movies. For it's time, X-Men is a really solid flick that, in a sense, prepared the way for The Avengers by telling a story while juggling numerous characters at once. Before Downey Jr embodied Tony Stark, Jackman had done the same thing with his portrayal of Wolverine. Before Killmonger or Thanos managed to steal a film through proper and engaging portrayals of villains, there was Magneto's, well, magnetism.
It was all still in its infancy then and it lacked the polish and richness that would come later. There is some clunkiness, lightning toads come to mind, and there are a bunch of underused characters, poor Cyclops, but it's still a fun movie, even years later.