First class? Not quite...

Rating: 7/10 (31 May 2014)

A prequel designed to pave the way for the franchise retcon of Days of Future Past, X-Men: First Class charts how Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) meet and become friends, enlist fellow mutants to form a special team, battle against ex-Nazi megalomaniac Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), and ultimately part company on bad terms after an accident leaves Xavier paralysed from the waist down.
On a good day, I would have declared X-Men: First Class to be a hugely enjoyable superhero romp; unfortunately, I recently re-watched X-Men 2 and saw Days of Future Past earlier this week, both of which are so good that this one actually seems quite disappointing in comparison. McAvoy and Fassbender excel as the younger versions of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellern, the lovely Jennifer Lawrence lights up the screen as Mystique, and the special effects are top notch, but the story seems less involved than the aforementioned X-Men films, while Matthew Vaughan's handling of the material is nowhere near as stylish or sophisticated as that of Bryan Singer.
It's perhaps a bit harsh on a film that essentially serves its purpose, but having been spoilt by the excellence of Singer's entries in the franchise, I now expect much more from my X-Men.
7/10, which is not bad, but still the lowest rating that I have given to any of the X-Men films I've seen so far (The Wolverine being the only one I have yet to watch).