Excellent entertainment but . . .

Rating: 8/10 (24 May 2014)

I came to this film without seeing prior Xmen films. I was a novice. But because the story lines are relatively straightforward, the plot was easy to follow. There were just a handful of instances where knowledge of the franchise would have added context, but these were few and minor.
I put this film on par with those I cannot bear to leave, even if for a brief restroom visit. Other films in this category: Avatar, The King's Speech, The Artist, the very first Lord of the Rings film. . .
Here was a spellbinding tale - with top-tier performances, fascinating plot turns, and marvelously inventive uses of the source material, with new touches that were equally superb.
The two minor negative points? The mutant who sent Wolverine's consciousness back in time said during the rushed planning scene that she could send someone back maybe a day or a week, but that back to 1973 was a tall order. No plot turn relied on this point.
Second, the culminating events in the film relied on climaxes being reached simultaneously but in two different times. What are the odds of that occurring: 1 in a billion? These may be minor nits, so I gave it an 8.