Had to digest this film over the weekend before posting, but easily, I rank this film right up there with Batman Begins as one of the greatest superhero movies ever.
Maybe I'm biased, because I absolutely despised most of the original X-men trilogy, in particular the focus (or lack there of) on the team as a whole. And even though this movie is strongly based on Magneto's arc, it still doesn't enter the Wolverine territory of the previous trilogy.
Speaking of, in terms of villainy for me, it's always The Joker, Lex Luthor, Dr. Doom & Magneto, in that order. And with all due respect to Sir Ian, who did a fantastic job as well, Fassbender embodies a certain sense of intimidation I felt was missing before. He had a more vile presence from the very beginning, while still towing the line of reasoning and understanding that makes Erik such a fascinating character.
My only gripe, and it's more of a plot thing, is the nonchalant way young Erik allows Sebastian to console him, directly after causing him the most traumatic event in his whole life? If this was his whole motivation throughout the movie, I found it odd that he didn't even attempt to attack Shaw personally in the beginning. Sure, he's a young mutant at the time and clearly no match, but he still didn't even raise a finger towards him, instead settling for a bunch of rudimentary damage.
The pacing was brisk, almost too brisk I thought at first, but the writing is so strong it works to great effect. Emotionally, this was probably the strongest film since TDK where I was invested in characters and motivations. And I must say, even though I almost never have a problem with movies changing and adapting origins and things of that nature, this is probably the only film next to Nolan's flicks where it works to such a great level. I prefer almost every change made, to the previous X-men movies & the comics! Especially Mystique, Xavier & Moira. I thought it was fantastic, and made sense, in the context of a 2 hr movie in particular.
Simply put this is the X-men movie I've always wanted to see. Brilliant job!!
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