A surprisingly entertaining rewriting of history

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2014)

Must say I read the X-men avidly as a kid but gave up on the films as they were largely aimed towards 15 year olds which I no longer was. I was intrigued enough by this one however as it was back to the team I remember from my youth and I wondered how they would fit in with real history 'Dark Skies' style? I'm really glad I did as it turned out better than I could have hoped for.
January Jones is beautiful in a very Nancy Sinatra kind of way and Jennifer Lawerance equally good as Mystique, her conversion from Dr X's fangirl into Magneto's disciple is excellently handled, you totally buy it, especially the naked confrontation between her and a very bashful Dr X in the mansion's kitchen (the film certainly has no qualms about exploiting the beauty of its' female stars). 2 wonderful cameos, a very clever one with Rebecca Romijn as the older version of Mystique and a scene stealer from Hugh Jackman as Wolverine telling Dr X and Magneto where to get off. Certainly doesn't lack spectacle either, the climatic battle is Jutland with superpowers (but neither fleet seems to deploy any aircraft?).
The bad? Glaring anachronisms especially in terms of weaponry, both the US and the Soviet forces using hardware which they wouldn't develop until decades later. It rather beggars belief that the CIA would infiltrate a military team into the Soviet Union dressed in US uniforms and carrying American weaponry because they're trying to AVOID World War 3? Also a little disappointed that they kill Darwin off just so quickly and arbitrarily, I guess the black guy really does always get it first? Then again this is the 1960s, the film really misses an opportunity to address the issue, maybe the authorities try to segregate the X-men by race and they all gather together to demand equality?
So all told very good and I might just go to see the current X-man film.