Best X-Men Movie I've Seen

Rating: 8/10 (8 July 2011)

This is a great movie. In the world of comic book movies, I see it as somewhere in the vicinity of "Batman Begins", but not as good as "The Dark Knight".
In a context broader than comic book movies, though, it remains a great movie. Nothing is forced or artificial. Just about everything that is present in the movie has a place there. There is not an unnecessary romance element. There are no unnecessary explosions, punches or kicks, or laser beams.
There is only a minor detail of the story that I didn't quite understand (though I could likely peruse the Internet to find some form of explanation). It involved the interaction of two characters' powers (if the notion that characters of this movie have powers is a spoiler for you, ... you're probably not reading this review). I suppose my lack of understanding points to almost the only weakness I could find - vagueness regarding the nature of one of the characters' powers. I never understood exactly what that character DID. Really, this turns out to be relatively minor - but it's probably good that I'm honest about the movie's weakness.
There are a lot of really good reviews of this movie out there right now; and, for greater discussion about what the movie is good at, I have to recommend reading those - I just wanted to add a few words of my own. As many others have stated: great directing and very good acting (STELLAR acting from the three primary roles) form a terrific movie - 8 of 10 in my book. Very few movies would I rate higher than this one, and I don't imagine myself ever rating a movie with a 'perfect' '10' rating - I don't generally find human creations to be 'as good as they could imaginably be'. There's always room for improvement; but at 8 of 10, this movie has small space in that area. The only elements I see which could have been substantially better (to perhaps warrant a 9 of 10 rating) are the uncertainty of one of the characters' powers mentioned above, the acting in many of the smaller roles, and the presence of the way many of the smaller roles were written and directed. That is, I think that a lot of the smaller roles could have been presented in ways that made the movie as a whole a better movie - generally with a greater presence for these smaller characters. They seem, at times, to be more paintings on a backdrop than full characters. Unfortunate.
The three primary roles are what this movie is all about, and each of those roles (and the exchanges between those roles) is just about spot-on. I think this is the first movie in which I enjoyed Kevin Bacon's screen presence. I'm looking forward to a follow-up of this X-Men prequel/reboot, with the same team of producers, director, cast, and crew. I hope it happens, but I don't know if it will. It is much better than any of the earlier X-Men movies or the movie of Wolverine prior to X-Men. The franchise would be done justice if it used this movie as a foundation and continued from here.
On the whole, this Hollywood skeptic recommends this movie at a theater price, and in a theater setting.