High expectations not met, but worth seeing

Rating: 6/10 (5 June 2011)

I bought into the hype surrounding this, and unfortunately it was not as good as I had hoped.
The mutants were mostly boring, with the exceptions of Magneto, Professor X and Mystique. I thought some of the mutants powers were really lame too, like the mutant who had wings or the guy who could scream sound waves.
The makeup was very bad on a couple of the mutants, with the Beast looking like a big blue fur ball with a goofy face that made me chuckle. Azazel was funny looking too, with bright red makeup and looking like he bought a Devil costume for Halloween.
On the bright side, the performance of Michael Fassbender as Magneto was a highlight, and made the film worthwhile to see with cool powers and action scenes featuring him. He was definitely the most entertaining thing about the film. Professor X was good, but a little bit sanctimonious and preachingly sitting on a high pedestal to take seriously. I also liked Mystique, and felt the actress gave a good performance as the character, which was more interesting than many of the other mutants.
The Wolverine cameo was a brief throwaway scene and they shouldn't even have bothered. Overall, the special effects were well done and what you might expect from an expensive Hollywood film, so no complaints on that score. The ending is exciting and sets up a sequel nicely, with Magneto leading the evil mutants.
The movie has a goofy charm about it which makes it easier to overlook its drawbacks and I would recommend it to comic book movie fans.