An exciting reinvention of the franchise, though not without its drawbacks.

Rating: 8/10 (21 June 2011)

A good movie, though it has its faults. The number one fault is the casting for Emma Frost, absolutely terrible (she just didn't fit, even in the pictures I saw early on). On the other side of things, Prof. X and Magneto were cast to perfection. Kevin Bacon makes a wonderful Sebastian Shaw, and everybody else does a good job. It was hard for me to get into 'young mystique', though, not that the actress doesn't do a good job. I'm sure that will fade upon repeated viewings. Other little faults are things to do with continuity errors.
POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILERS For example, I distinctly remember Magneto giving a reason as to his knowledge of Cerebro being that he helped to build it. This movie completely negates that notion. Also, according to professor X, the team was affectionately named the X-Men by the children who went to the school, though that notion also has been negated. First Class sets these things up so that they make sense, but these notions were already previously established. X-Men 3 has definitely been negated by this movie. In X3, it is established that Prof X and Magneto are still working together to recruit students much later than when First Class obviously takes place. So, uumm, I know X3 is like the bastard child, but still, it is part of the continuity. Bryan Singer might have something to do with this, since he co-wrote the screenplay and he not too long ago made a Superman movie pretty much ignoring the other movies past the 2nd, but still sort of following the continuity of the first two. If it was just a matter of completely negating the 3rd x-men, OK... but the other problems affect the first two, so I think just treating this (they want to make it a trilogy) as its own continuity outside the other films is the way to go, much like the many different takes on the characters in the comicbooks and the teams over the years depending on the era they were written and the writer/artist team, or the many different incarnations of Superman/Batman/etc (Everything from Smallville, Lois and Clark, to the superman movies and the TV show).
One last thing, Alex Summers, aka Havok, is supposedly the younger brother of Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, yet that isn't the case here.
END SPOILERS
Good movie, good plot, some good character development for Prof X and Magneto, pacing is nice, using team suits more like the comicbooks and less leathery was a nice change. I don't think I liked the film as much as I was hoping to, but overall I do like it. If Emma Frost wasn't such an eyesore (if the role was cast and written better), all the other flaws are relatively minor in comparison to the whole. I so wanted to be completely transported the way the first two X-men movies did... but First Class doesn't quite succeed in that regard.
Lastly, talking about why Emma Frost was so wrong. The Emma Frost in the comicbooks does wear skimpy outfits, but she has an authority to her, a presence. She is more than a mere second in command. In first class, she is turned into a 3rd rate version of Mystique from the original movies, except with psychic powers, a lack of any kind of grabbing presence (which mystique had in spades in every frame she's in in the original movies), and obviously no shape shifting ability, though she does 'diamond up'. Lame in every way in this movie and the actress was a poor one to boot, obviously cast for her looks, not because she had any real talent (at least not on display).