Really solid, and definitely one the best third acts in superhero films. I always love when they integrate real world events into these movies. It’s one of the few prequels that builds interestingly on the lore of the original films without ever feeling redundant, it’s very satisfying to see the pieces fall into place. They nailed the casting of Magneto and Charles Xavier once again, even when these movies got bad you could always count on McAvoy and Fassbender elevating them with their performances. The rest of the team is fine (very nice to see Jennifer Lawrence give an actual performance in these movies), they’re clearly appealing to a teenager demographic with the casting, which leads to some odd choices with the direction and dialogue, but they keep it fun overall. The focus is always on the characters and setting up the team, rather than romance or melodrama. There’s definitely some stuff in there that I’d cut (e.g. romance between Raven and Hank), but it’s pretty well paced overall. The excellent villain and score are also major contributors to the film working as well as it does (why didn’t they keep this Magneto theme going forward?). However, looking at the film as a whole, it does feel somewhat underbudgeted. There’s obvious cheapness to the some of the effects work and it doesn’t feel like enough of Matthew Vaughn’s voice comes through visually. His signature shows up in some of the scene transitions, but his style is clearly neutered here, particularly during a lot of the so-so action sequences. Nevertheless, it’s a very easy recommendation and easily one of the best in the franchise.

7/10