Very good, but flawed

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2018)

In essence this is a great film. Good script and really swell acting - all very well cast, specifically Xavier and Eric. Plus, a few unexpected story lines and character arcs. Fight scenes that made sense - like two flying mutants (though with different abilities) fighting in the air. There was a lot of international touches that made it authentic.
Honestly, for someone just getting introduced to X Men, this would make a great first film to watch. It explains mutations and how to develop them (in the school in previous films, we've only seen them learn history and language arts etc) and you really get to see the mutants improving their skills.
However: I'm tired of the trope that it's wrong to kill someone who's going to hurt other people. Nazis, and their doctors who experiment on people, deserve death and worse. There's no need to spare them and pretend it's kindness. And if someone kills someone who's about to start a nuclear war, they're a hero not a monster. And Xavier should have known that "they're just following orders" is the wrong excuse, especially to a broken concentration camp survivor.
Also, Beast's face was subpar. Not good. And Magneto in a cape?
Lastly, the continuity with other X Men films is bad. For example, from the first trilogy, I'd never have realized how close Xavier and Mystique once were. But on the plus side, this film is really good at showing how Eric and Mystique's relationship developed, as well as Eric and Xavier's - that's one of its greatest accomplishments, although I expected them to have been friends for many years, not months. On the down side, as much as it showed how the mutants became themselves - Eric's story was better than I could have hoped - it's hard to imagine from this that Eric would one day abandon Mystique in a truck, because she lost her mutation. Another glaring lack of continuity is that previous films showed an adult Xavier walking, but here he lost use of his legs way younger.
Still, if you can ignore all that, it is a well done film I enjoyed watching.