Don't bother if your age > your shoe-size

Rating: 3/10 (26 May 2014)

Up front, I should say I'm not a fan of the Marvel (etc.) genre. I wanted to see a movie with my daughter (15) and we both thought we could truck with this, having both enjoyed X-Men: First Class.
An otherwise talented cast ham their way through a wooden script, delivering a few moments of charm but nothing approximating genuine human pathos, and a whole lot of eye-rolling awfulness.
Despite the movie's premise having been lifted from elsewhere, the movie plays out exactly as you would expect. This film treats its audience like children, and could have been written by a committee of younger fans. Perhaps I should have expected that.
For me, special effects are not enough: I've seen those before. They must serve a dramatic purpose, but here, the money shots only served to cheapen my overall experience. Mutants are not enough. I know enough about the characters already. It's like "okay, I get it - finish the story!" It lacks anything for grown-ups, having a dramatic arc comparable to Saturday afternoon TV offerings like Dukes of Hazzard or The A Team (showing my age there). Sorry to be blunt, but if this is the best the genre can offer, I will steer clear in future.