History YMMV / XMenFirstClass

%%** "___ was never an option."

** He is FauxAffablyEvil. He is impeccably polite even when when he murders Erik's mother or people who have slighted him. Even when he does, it's based more on principle than outright anger.

** He is FauxAffablyEvil. He is impeccably polite even when when he murders people who have slighted him; when he does, it's based more on principle than outright anger.

** As sadistic and evil as Shaw is, [[VillainHasAPoint he's not wrong]] in saying that torturing Erik in the Holocaust was for his own good. At the time, Erik's powers were only fueled by pain and anger, and if he was ever gonna get that, he needed to be put through overwhelming madness.

** He is FauxAffablyEvil. He is impeccably polite even when when he murders people who have slighted him; when he does, it's based more on principle than outright anger. He even tells Erik twice that he's ''sorry'' for torturing him in the Holocaust, and he only did it to unleash his magnetic powers with anger and pain.

* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:Shaw's death. It's so satisfying to watch Erik ''finally'' get his long-awaited revenge for the death of his mother in the Holocaust, performing cruel experiments on him in the Holocaust, murdering Darwin, and almost starting a nuclear war in Cuba.]]

* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:Shaw's death. It's so satisfying to watch Erik ''finally'' get his long-awaited revenge for the death of his mother in the Holocaust, as well as avenging the murder of Darwin and preventing a nuclear war in Cuba.]]

* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:Shaw's death. It's so satisfying to watch Erik ''finally'' get his long-awaited revenge for the death of his mother in the Holocaust.]]

** He arguably has the biggest impact on the entire series. He caused Erik Lehnsherr's StartOfDarkness into Characters/XMenFilmSeriesMagneto by killing his mother when he was a Nazi in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and after he dies his Hellfire Club is salvaged by Magneto into his very first Brotherhood of Mutants.

** His own mutant power to [[EnergyAbsorption absorb kinetic energy]] and throw it right back at someone would be pretty fun to have in real life.

** He arguably has the biggest impact on the entire series. He caused Erik Lehnsherr's StartOfDarkness into Magneto by killing his mother when he was a Nazi in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and after he dies his Hellfire Club is salvaged by Magneto into his very first Brotherhood of Mutants.
** He is played by Creator/KevinBacon, which automatically means his acting is great.
** He is FauxAffablyEvil. He is impeccably polite even when when he murders people who have slighted him; when he does, it's based more on principle than outright anger. He even tells Erik that he's sorry for killing his mom in Auschwitz, and he only did it so he could unleash his magnetic powers with anger and pain.

** He is FauxAffablyEvil. He is impeccably polite even when when he murders people who have slighted him; it's based more on principle than anything personal. He even tells Erik that he's sorry for killing his mom in Auschwitz so he could unleash his mutant powers with anger and pain.

* LoveToHate: Shaw. There's no doubting he's a sociopathic monster, but his badass mutant superpower to absorb energy combined with Kevin Bacon's stellar performance makes him so memorable and awesome as a character in this movie.

* LoveToHate: Shaw. There's no doubting he's a sociopathic monster of a human being, but his badass mutant superpower to absorb energy combined with Kevin Bacon's stellar performance makes him so memorable and awesome as a character in this movie.

* LoveToHate: Sebastian Shaw. There's no doubting he's a sociopathic monster of a human being, but his badass mutant superpower to absorb energy combined with Kevin Bacon's stellar performance makes him so memorable and awesome as a character in this movie.

* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:Shaw's death. Given the fact that he's a former Nazi who shot Erik's mother dead before conducting horrible experiments on him in the Holocaust, slaughtered several men in the military [[WouldHurtAChild as well as a "fellow mutant" named Darwin]], and wanted to start nuclear war in Cuba by having America and Russia bomb each other, watching Magneto ''finally'' get his long-awaited revenge by telekinetically pushing that coin through his brain is definitely a satisfying scene to feast your eyes upon.]]

* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:Shaw's death. Given the fact that he's a former Nazi who murdered Erik's mother and conducted horrible experiments on him in the Holocaust, killed several men in the military [[WouldHurtAChild as well as Darwin]], and wanted to start nuclear war in Cuba by having America and Russia bomb each other, watching Magneto ''finally'' get his long-awaited revenge by telekinetically pushing that coin through his brain is definitely a satisfying scene to feast your eyes upon.]]

* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:Shaw's death. Given the fact that he's a former Nazi who murdered Erik's mother and conducted horrible experiments on him in the Holocaust, killed several men in the military [[WouldHurtAChild as well as Darwin]] {{Hypocrite despite the fact that he scolded Emma for "harming her own kind" when she pushed Erik off of his yacht}}, and wanted to start nuclear war in Cuba by having America and Russia bomb each other, watching Magneto ''finally'' get his long-awaited revenge by telekinetically pushing that coin through his brain is definitely a satisfying scene to feast your eyes upon.]]

* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:Shaw's death. Given the fact that he's a former Nazi who murdered Erik's mother and conducted horrible experiments on him in the Holocaust, killed several men in the military [[Hypocrite as well as Darwin despite the fact that he scolded Emma for "harming her own kind" when she pushed Erik off of his yacht]], and wanted to start nuclear war in Cuba by having America and Russia bomb each other, watching Magneto ''finally'' get his long-awaited revenge is definitely a satisfying scene to feast your eyes upon.]]

* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:Shaw's death. Given the fact that he's a former Nazi who murdered Erik's mother and conducted horrible experiments on him in the Holocaust, killed several men in the military {{Hypocrite as well as Darwin despite the fact that he scolded Emma for "harming her own kind" when she pushed Erik off of his yacht}}, and wanted to start nuclear war in Cuba by having America and Russia bomb each other, watching Magneto ''finally'' get his long-awaited revenge is definitely a satisfying scene to feast your eyes upon.]]

*** [[spoiler:In the AlternateTimeline, [[Film/XMenApocalypse she does get her memories of these times back,]] so this may take her out of the Woobie status a bit.]]

* WhatAnIdiot:
** After successfully preventing the Cuban Missile Crisis from escalating into a full-out nuclear war due to the meddling of a psychotic mutant, mutants are now known to both the Russian and U.S. governments as a powerful force capable of causing hurricanes, flying, blasting people, and lifting an entire submarine out of the ocean.\\
'''You'd Think:''' Both sides would see the potential for using these people in combat, especially given that they prevented a full-on nuclear war since the CIA was well-aware of the role that the mutants played in the incident. Or at the very least, acknowledging that these are the ''last'' people you'd want to provoke and make angry!\\
'''Instead:''' Both sides just see the potential threat presented by these powerful individuals and try to blow them up with missiles. After just seeing one of the mutants lift a submarine with his power!
** Moira is fighting against Erik, a guy who she knows can control metal with his mind.\\

'''Even Worse:''' Even after Moira sees him deflect the first bullet, ''she keeps shooting'', accomplishing fuck-all.

** Charles Xavier knows everything about Erik Lehnsherr, having read his mind and spoken to him numerous times about the future of mutants and mankind. Erik, being a Holocaust survivor, constantly voiced the view that humans and mutants could not coexist, and that the U.S. government would eventually treat the mutants like the Nazis treated Jews. Then the U.S. and Russian battleships attempt to indiscriminately destroy the mutants with missiles, which Erik catches with his powers and sends back.\\
'''You'd Think:''' Charles would remember Erik's views on mutant and mankind, especially his past as a persecuted minority, and try to phrase his arguments for not declaring war on humanity to the effect of a.) they were outnumbered and vulnerable and b.) Erik was [[HeWhoFightsMonsters becoming just like his former enemies in his extremism]]. \\
'''Instead''': He says, "They were JustFollowingOrders." To a Holocaust survivor. Who is now a member of yet another persecuted and threatened minority.

*** On the other hand, her shooting distracted Erik enough to completely forget about controlling the missiles and turn his full attention and powers to deflecting said bullets. [[spoiler: Charles]] gets hurt, but it also prevented the U.S. and Soviet battleships from getting nuked and the Cold War becoming an actual war.

** It's the opinion of certain fans that Sebastian Shaw shouldn't have been the main villain. They cite the fact that the film version bares almost no resemblance to his comic counterpart, and has more in common with another major X-Men antagonist: Mr. Sinister. Both Movie Shaw and Sinister are long-lived {{Evilutionary Biologist}}s, who experimented on Magneto during their time as a Nazi scientists, and believe Mutants are destined to rule the world. Very different from the aristocratic, Manipulative Bastard, BadBoss, WarForFunAndProfit Shaw of the comics.
*** Also, a "Mr. Shaw" had a cameo in ''X2: X-Men United''. The novelization specifically named him ''Sebastian'' Shaw.
** Using Sinister would've also opened up the possibility of utilizing the more genuinely evil Marauders, instead of wasting the more interesting members of the Hellfire Club, like Emma Frost -- here re-imagined as a one-note DarkChick.

** Fans who are fond of Banshee were disappointed when his character [[spoiler:was mentioned to have died by Trask's hands before the events of ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''. Especially when he could have been the father of Siryn who appeared in ''X2: X-Men United''.]]
** Ditto for Riptide and Azazel, two of Shaw's minions [[spoiler:who join Magneto after he kills Shaw]], are quite popular among the fans, some of whom even ship them. Even their actors were interested in their return in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''; Alex Gonzalez stated in an interview that he'd "really like to be in the sequel" and explore more of Riptide's powers, and had signed on to play him in one or two more films, while Jason Flemyng said he was interested in exploring the origins of Azazel's son, Nightcrawler. Yet plans for the Hellfire Club's return were dropped when the writers chose the ''Days of Future Past'' storyline, so [[spoiler:[[BusCrash Riptide and Azazel get killed in-between movies]]]].
** Some feel that Angel's FaceHeelTurn was underdeveloped and were a little annoyed that she wasn't shown in too many scenes beforehand. The fact that she [[spoiler: is killed offscreen in between films]] doesn't help matters.
** It's the opinion of certain fans that Sebastian Shaw shouldn't have been the main villain. They cite the fact that the film version bares almost no resemblance to his comic counterpart, and has more in common with another major X-Men antagonist: Mr. Sinister. Both Movie!Shaw and Sinister are long-lived {{Evilutionary Biologist}}s, who experimented on Magneto during their time as a Nazi scientists, and believe Mutants are destined to rule the world. Very different from the aristocratic, Manipulative Bastard, BadBoss, WarForFunAndProfit Shaw of the comics.

* OneSceneWonder: [[spoiler:{{Wolverine}} shows up in one scene. His appearance lasts twelve seconds, in which he says a [[PrecisionFStrike grand total of three words.]] It is possibly one of the most hilarious moments of the film. Creator/RebeccaRomijn, who equally cameos as a CallForward, admitted she wanted his line.]]

** [[spoiler:Wolverine's cameo.]]