Profoundly Second Class

Rating: 4/10 (25 May 2014)

If you like X1 and X2, you might like this, but if you are a big fan of X-Men First Class, like I am - you should be warned that this is a different animal. I was quite disappointed in this one.
The point is: One of Matthew Vaughn's biggest strengths is pacing. Say what you will about him; his movies have a great flow. The same thing, however, seems to be a weakness with Singer. Compared to First Class, this movie was SOOO SLOW. It was badly paced, and it was also heavy-handed, repetitive and sentimental. Not emotional, I like emotional - it was sentimental. Singer is too fond of these characters, especially the old X-men (everything to bring them back!) plus the Charles-Raven-Erik conflict. God, that conflict got tiring! I loved Xavier as the brilliant, funny, warm teacher in First Class. Now he was suddenly ALL ABOUT Raven/Mystique. Ugh! Kill your darlings, Singer! You've lost your critical sense!
Quicksilver was one of the few good things about this movie, but he was gone too fast.
This movie had some good action scenes and glimpses of humour. And nostalgia, I guess, if you're a big X-men fan. First Class, however, had better pacing, script, score, was much more fun and also more poignant.