Mediocre Fun *slight spoilers*

Rating: 4/10 (20 September 2011)

Overall, I could've really enjoyed this movie but there are too many confusing points. *minor spoilers*
First, let's go over what annoyed/confused me:
1. The ending.
Okay, we all know that Professor X is paralyzed eventually. Yet, in this film, he's supposed to be paralyzed at a young age but in X-Men: The Last Stand, he's seen walking with Magneto to Jean Grey's house and in X-Men: Wolverine, he's standing by the plane as the mutants come from the building. So which one is it?
2. Mystique and Professor X grew up together????
Where on earth did that come from? For two people who were so close in their youth/young adulthood, I find that to be yet another inconsistency that takes away from the story. The whole time I could only think, "Why does Professor X and Magneto have such a complicated bromance in the first trilogy if they knew each other for only a few weeks, but there is zero mention of Mystique and Professor X when they've known each other their whole lives?"
3. Um, what happened to the lifelong friendship between Professor X and Magneto?
In X-Men: The Last Stand, we see Professor X and Magneto are seen as still friends because they go to together to Jean Grey's house. Yet, the ending shows that the pair's friendship ended on the beach in 1962.
4. Emma Frost
I get January Jones' character in the film. Really, I do. Every film needs its cliché blonde bombshell that does nothing except run around in skimpy clothes. But! Wasn't Emma Frost in X-Men: Wolverine as a 17 yr old (give or take a year)? What happened to her sister? What happened to her after she was caught by Professor X and Magneto?
There are too many loose ends and not enough answers to questions that have been raised.
Okay, now let's get to the good points:
1. Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy in the same movie? Yay!!!! To me, Michael Fassbender can do no wrong and the casting of these two were brilliant.
2. Miscellaneous.
Okay, the special affects were super cool(except Emma Frost's diamond effect is way different than in Origins) and the mutants were pretty awesome. Granted, I know these names are supposed to mean something, but I never got a chance to know them due to the massive amount of rushing through the story lines.
3. Cameos
There were several nice surprises from Hugh Jackman to Rebecca Romajin. They added a little something familiar to the story, even if they were totally unnecessary and added to the confusion of the timeline (Wolverine).
Overall, I liked the movie. But if the writers had actually watched the original trilogy and thought through the connections, I'm sure it would have been even better. I liked the casting, but the actual storyline went from an origin story, to a story that resembled a learning community(meaning, we got to see Professor X actually help these mutants and we saw them bond), to a cliché 'let's foil the villainous take over the world plan' and then rushed back to a 'this is why the x men/brotherhood have a love/hate relationship' story.
It could've been so much better if they had focused one of the three story lines. Personally, I found the best part of the movie was watching Xavier work with the mutants. They should have taken a different, less confusing road with the "First Class" idea.
I gave it 4 stars because the parts I did like, were brilliantly done but everything else came between them and ruined the fun. Now, I'm left scratching my head trying to piece together the connections.