Its the opposite for me. Jean's death scene was amazing and I felt their emotion when they were panicking that Jean was gonna sacrifice herself and she was gonna die. With Magneto's scene at the satellite, I felt nothing and I didn't like when James McAvoy kinda got teary-eyed.
I felt the opposite because First Class was largely Magneto's journey from terrible beginnings (torture in a concentration camp) to somehow trying to find an inner peace, through recollection of beautiful childhood memories. I don't know how anyone could fail to feel something for that, especially as Fassbender is so intense and expressive.
But in X2 - and I'm not knocking how great it was overall - it wasn't really Jean's story as such. It wasn't even Scott and Jean's story because Wolverine kept trampling all over it with his testosterone. And then Scott's bawling on the jet at the end didn't come across well (whether it was acting, writing, directing, his reaction just didn't seem right).
And I felt the scene where Jean was holding back the water and about to let go and sacrifice herself wasn't given maximum impact because of the music and the camerawork and the whole way it was presented. I will say, though, that the moment where she lets the water surge over her (amid that fiery energy aura) and her subsequent voiceover and hint of a firebird under the water were terrific and so well done.
I felt the Jean vs Scott fight at the dam was too short, I really wanted a bit more out of it. It needed dramatic tension - which we did see, for instance, in the scene where Wolverine is battling Magneto in the machine at the end of X1. A meeting of two powerful forces really needs to be focused on to build the 'oh my god! who will win? what will happen' suspense with the audience.
The Wolverine marching against Dark Phoenix in X3 also had a great amount of tension. We need to see people straining and fighting in such battles of force and willpower.
Just my thoughts anyway. I need to watch all these films again as I'm recalling all this from distant memory. I can feel an X-Men marathon movie night coming on...