Nothing really new, but a worthy addition to the X-Men canon

Rating: 8/10 (24 May 2014)

The strength of X-Men films has always been to give a large number of characters a decent bit of the story, and to allow viewers to imagine what it would be like to have that particular power. The moral of X-Men films has always been the same: people who are genetically different have to learn to live in peace. This film is absolutely solid on both of these aspects, along with occasional self-referential humour.
However, it doesn't bring anything outstanding beyond the above. It's set partly in the 1970s, and goes out of its way to include odd stuff from the seventies (let's face it, there was plenty); it charts more of the characters' personal development; it performs the necessary reboot that major franchises seem to require these days; and it has plenty of high-tech special effects. All perfectly competent (apart from one 'revelation' concerning a well-known three-letter acronym that nearly made me laugh out loud), and yet I walked away feeling I'd seen most of it before, in one form or another.
See it of you're a fan of the franchise and want to watch the story progress. If you haven't seen any X-Men films before, it's a good night out but you'd be better to watch some of the others first.