One of the best prequels ever!

Rating: 9/10 (11 September 2012)

I know when it comes to prequels, you usually end up with something disappointing like Star Wars: The Phantom Menace or X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But what makes prequel so great is the acting, the cast, the directing, the script, the action, the characters and special effects all work so well together that it's hard not to watch this movie.
I think one of my favourite things about it is the cast, especially James McAvoy as young Professor X and Jennifer Lawrence as young Mystique and their relationships with each other. Like Charles Xavior and Raven/Mystique have a brother/sister relationship. Moira acts as Charles' love interest. Charles and Eric Lehnsherr act as good friends and companions but have different views for mutants and humans as they did in the previous trilogy. Hank/Beast and Raven kind of have a love interest for each other. Even the other minor characters have interesting relationships. Like Hank and Alex/Havoc have trouble getting along because Alex is kind of a jock and Hank is a nerd, but Alex learns to appreciate Hank for being smart and useful.
My favourite character in this X-Men movie is probably Professor X because he's wise and loyal and he's a good leader to the mutants and trains them well. I also really like Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. She's a real rising star in Hollywood with other movies like Winter's Bone and The Hunger Games. But I think this was her best performance ever because I like how she portrayed Mystique as being compassionate and gentle but she also wants to be accepted in society as a mutant. I also think Kevin Bacon was a even better villain as Sebastian Shaw than Ian McKellen was as Magneto in the original trilogy because he seemed almost unstoppable. In fact, part of me is sad that they killed him off. And I also like how this movie connects with the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. I like how Wolverine made a cameo which was pretty clever.
After watching this movie, I can't wait for the prequel to come out in 2014, X-Men: Days of Future. Now it may not be as good as this one, but I just it will be at least decent. And I'm also looking forward to The Wolverine which is coming out next year. But hopefully it won't be as bad a X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Overall, this prequel is tied with X2 as my favourite X-Men movie and also one of my favourite superhero movies and one of the best movies of 2011.