I went in thinking "whatever" and came out thinking "wow"

Rating: 8/10 (3 June 2011)

I went in thinking I was going to be bombarded with effects, actors who have mastered posing, the dare-devil swagger and flat catchphrases and "attitude".
I was blown away by the movie. In fact, I liked it more than Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides. I gave it 8 out of 10 because there were few issues with the movie (particularly in the writing of the characters of Beast and Raven/Mystique, and the cartoonish silly performance of Kevin Bacon -- what's with that tin helmet? LOL) But I can see where Bacon is coming from. Most superhero movies (if not all of them) are cartoonish anyway (apart from Iron Man 1 :o)). He could not see what this movie was on paper. And indeed, maybe was it not for McAvoy (Young Professor X) and Michael Fassbender (Young Magneto), and their incredible down-to-earth and real performances, the whole movie would have been plunged in a downward spiral. Thanks to them, the movie has all the depth of a drama, while it still has all the fun of action. If more sense was given to the writing of other botched characters, this movie would have been just 10/10.
The movie is a magnificent plethora beautiful music, credible moving stories of personal trauma and struggle, the effects are not only masterful but also awe-inspiring.. with that music.. again.. wow! The British actor (McAvoy) was perhaps my most favorite thing in the whole movie. Although again with the writing, some bits here and there were self-contradictory but nothing too noticeable.
As usual in this genre, the women in the movie were "for the guys". Needless accessories and eye candies. Although, it seems Raven (in later versions) has lost a lot of "baby fat". I didn't have any special moments from her to be honest, even though her character was laden with moments that were wasted.
Watch out for Lucas Till (Havoc, the mutant wielding his fire rings), he didn't say much in this movie but in the few seconds that meant a lot, he just nailed it. Which is more than I can say for Nicholas Hoult (Beast) who serenaded the audience with an unbelievable and rather creepy performance.
Lucas Till has this jittering-demon-nice-guy mix that Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Collin Ferrel play with very well. Let's hope he will not be lost in a long series of pretty boy movies. Pretty boys never grow up into mature men in this career.