Doesn't Hold Up

Rating: 4/10 (21 February 2013)

I think the novelty of watching the birth of big names in this story has clouded a lot of peoples judgement.
Big storytelling problems:
1)The origins of both Magneto and Xavier were really sprinted through at the beginning of the movie.
2)The idea of Mystique being Xavier's foster sister not only isn't as interesting as her comic book origins, but also has absolutely no link in the original movie trilogy that this movie is supposed to precede.
3) This being the origin of the war (a war at least as politically, militarily and motivationally complex- and longer- than the historical Cold War) between mutants and humans, there was a lot of opportunity here to showcase more than the development of the school. I get that the complexity of the comic book world can't be compacted into thee films, but while watching the original trilogy I found this fantasy world far more challenging and interesting.
4) Kind of an addition to number 3: Magneto and Xavier's brief discussions about their opposing viewpoints come off so one sided in Charles' favor. The metaphorical subject matter here is oversimplified to a point where there is very little relatability and empathy with Magneto. Even for those of us (the vast majority) who disagree with Magneto, the original films did a far better job of bringing his humanity and personal struggle to light. One of the most extraordinary aspects of the X-men canon is it's realistic reflection of morality. What is morality? Does something have to be right or wrong? Does intent or motivation factor in any way? These questions were present in the comic books and weighed in heavily in the trilogy...they get lost in a Superman-esque depiction of Xavier's moral code pitted against Shaw's psychopathic rampage here in the prequel.
5) By having mutants be directly responsible for the entire Cold War (like ALL of it. Like against the will of humans...) a lot of metaphorical resonance is lost in the following story. These historical events helped shape our understanding and analysis of this fantasy world. That they have been ENTIRELY manipulated by the fantasy world itself is somewhat cheapening.
6) Almsot every human was very caricatureesque. It was very cartoony and hard to take seriously.
FIlmmaking Problems:
1) the CGI and special effects were a little lacking for 2011. I;m not sure how this happened, this franchise seems pretty big budget.
2) The screenplay was super half-**ss. This movie was scripted so that a blind man could understand every emotional detail. Even then though, the character development is shoddy and tends to leap in some way from one place to another throughout the film. The exceptions here being Magneto and Xavier....who hardly show any development at all. Their Friendship is a foot note, and their characters are at every stage fundamentally the same as the stage before. Too simple for young adult audiences.
3) Supposing you're one of those people who are like "Dude, shut up, I watched this for action, adventure, bad**ss visuals..." i give you that that's totally part of the magic of the both comics and movies...but were you satisfied with sh*t like banshees lame flight scenes? Or Magento's underwhelming displays of power? Or how about Havok's greatest display of strength being his cutting a statue in half? The one scene with any good edge of your seat action was when Shaw raids the military base. Period.
4) The villains, without exception, were hard to watch because they were all acted poorly and given very little exposure.
Sidenotes:
-The wolverine cameo was stupid and gimmicky.
-The beach scene was anticlimactic.

Magneto blaming Moira for Charles' injury lasted about 30 seconds and either needed to be elaborated upon or cut entirely.

Charles telling Raven to go with Eric was indefensibly stupid, uncharacteristic and again, in no way relevant to the story of the trilogy.

-Who chose the lineup of mutants here? Just super underwhelming. And none of them do anything too cool with their powers. It was like watching a b-string circus. I'll admit I'm kind of excited see if Mystique and Azazel's affair and Nightcrawler are incorporated in the future though.

Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult and James McAvoy gave the only good performances in this movie, and even then (with he exception of McAvoy, who seems to genuinely be trying to squeeze water from a stone here) the performances are brought down by the story, screenplay and generally poor filmmaking.

This is a really successful franchise...like really very successful. Who OKed this? How many people were down, read/watched/reviewed this before it's release and were like "looks good to me." Seriously. This movie didn't hold up to precedent, and without the novelty, if the comic books and trilogy hadn't been around, it would have flopped very very hard.