Not a First Class Film

Rating: 7/10 (10 June 2011)

I sat through it. I ate my popcorn, but I wasn't really thrilled. The direction/cinematography were both a bit on the sloppy side; some shots were unintentionally blurry. The Wolverine prequel actually had more soul.I also thought that Xaviar and Mystique were terribly miscast; not that there performances were off; I just didn't see in them young Patrick Stewart or Rebecca Romijn. But film companies are so reluctant against going with unknowns.
Then there are the discrepancies: in X-Men 1 and 2, Xaviar describes Magneto as an old friend, but in this prequel, they barely knew each other. Nor in those first two films did Mystique even seem to know Xaviar, when here she apparently spent two decades with him growing up. And while plot holes abound, a decent rewrite of the script could have solved most of them. But apparently, the script went through three rewrites, which is in and of itself a bad sign.
Worst line in the film: towards the end, Xaviar says something like, "What worse can happen? I'll probably become bald." The writers probably could have gotten more laughs from him saying "Beam me up," but the film takes place two years prior to Star Trek being aired.
As far as comic books to films go, it was all right. It just wasn't X-cellent.