Loved it

Rating: 10/10 (23 May 2014)

In the future, Sentinels - giant robots which were introduced to eliminate mutants - have destroyed civilisation. The few surviving X-Men, in desperation, send Wolverine's mind back to his 1973 body in order to persuade Professor X and Magneto to prevent the incident which led to the creation of the Sentinels. Unfortunately, 1973 Professor X is a drunk depressive.
This film brings together the casts of the original X-Men trilogy and the First Class prequel in a loose adaptation of one of the classic story arcs from the comics. Placing fan favourite Wolverine front and centre, it tells a fairly dense story which centres mainly on the younger cast from the prequel. It deals with some of the continuity issues which arose due to the prequel (Xavier's paralysis) but not all of them (the different Emma Frosts in First Class and Wolverine: Origin are more or less forgotten), and creates some of its own (the teaser at the end of The Wolverine makes little sense as Xavier and Lensherr would not desperately need Wolverine's help at that point).
Who cares? The super-hero action is phenomenal, we see more mutants than ever before (some are blink or you'll miss 'em), and there is some heart and emotion - the key relationships between Xavier, Raven and Lensherr are addressed - and the story is perfectly satisfactory. Jennifer Lawrence is hot, deadly, blue, and sometimes quite moving, and all the principals give good performances. Worries about young P. Maximoff Esq prove groundless - he looks fine, his characterisation is terrific (if different to the comics), and he features n one of the stand-out set pieces.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, and it is a worthy addition to the X-Men collection.