107 - X-Men: First Class

    Set against the Cuban missile crisis, Sebastian Shaw tries to instigate a nuclear war in hopes of bringing mutants in control of the Earth.  Meanwhile, Professor X and Magneto recruit other young mutants in hopes of stopping his plot.
    I think I was a little more dissatisfied with this one than I was before.  The weaknesses have jumped out, even though there are still some very enjoyable aspects that I can enjoy.
    The rewriting of X-Men cannon in an effort to make this story compatible with the X-Men world of the previous three movies.  The original X-Men lineup had Iceman, Cyclops, Beast, Marvel Girl, and Angel.  In the three previous X-Men movies, Cyclops is part of the older guard, same with Marvel Girl.  Beast is even older (which fits nicely) but Angel and Iceman are both pretty young.  Cyclops is also the older brother of Havok, who appears in First Class as a late teen (I think).
    The inclusion of Darwin really bugs me, especially after reading up on him.  His abilities make him nearly invulnerable, but they kill him off far too easily.  The villainous henchmen - Riptide and Azazel - seem to be filler.  They don't contribute to the plot, but they contribute to the action.  This was part of the problem with X3.
    I found the music distracting this time.  In particular, Magneto's theme.  There was a lot of effort to fit some electric guitar work into this soundtrack, but it seems to work against the time period.  I looked up who did the score for it… and he does good work.  He's done a lot of recent movies, and most of them have excellent soundtracks.