History YMMV / XMenFirstClass

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Quite a lot of praise has been given to Kevin Bacon's performance as Sebastian Shaw, particularly as everyone had dismissed him as too goofy but then he promptly proved them all wrong by becoming the personification of EvilIsCool. [[https://aminoapps.com/c/comics/page/blog/kevin-bacons-sebastian-shaw-is-the-best-cinematic-villian-to-date/0Xik_uJRm8oQb5P0LP70Xl0YpKjWX8 This article]] on Amino Apps even considers him on par with Heath Ledger's Joker as one of the best villains in a comic book movie.

* CreepyAwesome: Shaw, due to his affable façade, especially in the prologue. Azazel has his moments too.

* CreepyAwesome: Shaw in the prologue, especially when the camera reveals his torture room. Azazel too.

* EvilIsCool: The Hellfire Club. What else did you expect with villains that seem to have just stepped out of a Bond movie? Especially Sebastian Shaw, played by Creator/KevinBacon and owning every scene he's in, especially the ones with Magneto.

* LoveToHate: Sebastian Shaw.
** He arguably has the biggest impact on the entire series. He caused Magneto's StartOfDarkness by killing his mother, and after he's defeated his Hellfire Club is salvaged into the very first Brotherhood of Mutants.
** He's played by Creator/KevinBacon, which automatically means his acting is pretty good.
** He's FauxAffablyEvil in the sense that he generally appears polite and cool, yet there's still a hint of malicious intent underneath. See his interactions with Colonel Hendry and Xavier's new recruits.
** He shows himself to be quite competent in his endeavors in general, evil as they are.
** He's pretty CreepyAwesome in the prologue with Erik as well.
** His mutant power to [[EnergyAbsorption absorb and harness energy in any form]] would be pretty fun to have in real life.
** His [[spoiler:death via coin lobotomy]] is satisfying as hell.

* TheScrappy: A section of the fandom doesn't like this version of Emma Frost for being presented as a straight-up villain and removing the middle-ground her comics counterpart had, and Creator/JanuaryJones' unpleasant performance overall.

* TheScrappy:
** A section of the fandom doesn't like this version of Emma Frost for being presented as a straight-up villain and removing the middle-ground her comics counterpart had, and Creator/JanuaryJones' unpleasant performance overall.
** Moira's sexist, racist bosses. They might get one or two ''brief'' humanizing moments, but that doesn't exactly redeem them in fans eyes.

* TheScrappy: A section of the fandom doesn't like this version of Emma Frost for being presented as a straight-up villain and removing the middle-ground her comics counterpart had, and Creator/JanuaryJones' unpleasant performance overall.

* MoralEventHorizon: Any semblance of sympathy you had for Klaus Schmidt (alias Sebastian Shaw) was incinerated when [[EstablishingCharacterMoment he killed Magneto's mother before his first scene was over]]. And as if that somehow wasn't enough, he also [[spoiler:kills Darwin, despite his earlier claim that "we don't harm our own kind."]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Any semblance of sympathy you had for Klaus Schmidt (alias Sebastian Shaw) was incinerated when [[EstablishingCharacterMoment he killed Magneto's mother before his first scene was over]].

* CreepyAwesome: Shaw in the prologue, especially when the camera reveals his torture room. Azazel has his moments too.

** He's FauxAffablyEvil in the sense that he generally appears polite and cool, yet there are still wicked intentions of manipulation underneath. See his interactions with Colonel Hendry and Xavier's new recruits.

** He is played by Creator/KevinBacon, which automatically means his acting is pretty good.
** He is FauxAffablyEvil in the sense that he generally appears polite and cool, yet there is still a hint of wickedness underneath. See his interactions with Erik, Colonel Hendry, and Xavier's new recruits.

** He arguably has the biggest impact on the entire series. He caused Erik's StartOfDarkness into [[Characters/XMenFilmSeriesMagneto Magneto]] by killing his mother, and after he dies his Hellfire Club is salvaged by Magneto into his very first Brotherhood of Mutants.

** He's FauxAffablyEvil in the sense that he generally appears polite and cool, yet there is still a hint of wickedness underneath. See his interactions with Erik, Colonel Hendry, and Xavier's new recruits.

** He arguably has the biggest impact on the entire series. He caused Erik Lehnsherr's StartOfDarkness into [[Characters/XMenFilmSeriesMagneto 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 FauxAffablyEvil. He is impeccably polite even when he's going to kill your mother. When he kills people who have slighted him, it's based more on principle than any outright anger.
** His own mutant power to [[EnergyAbsorption absorb and harness energy in any form]] would be pretty fun to have in real life.

* CatharsisFactor: After spending his entire adult life hunting down the mutant Nazi who shot his mother dead in the Holocaust, performed painful experiments on him as a child, and [[spoiler:killed Darwin]], watching Magneto [[spoiler:drill Shaw's forehead with a coin]] is brutal but still very satisfying.

* EvilIsCool: The Hellfire Club.

* CatharsisFactor: After spending his entire adult life hunting down the mutant Nazi who shot his mother dead in the Holocaust, performed painful experiments on him as a child, and [[spoiler:killed Darwin]], watching Magneto [[spoiler:perforate Shaw's brain with a coin]] is brutal but still very satisfying.

** He is FauxAffablyEvil. He is impeccably polite, even before he murders your mother. When he kills people who have slighted him, it's based more on principle than outright anger.

** Creator/MichaelFassbender puts in the best performance of the whole film. Unfortunately, about two-thirds of the way in, he starts lapsing into an Irish accent. By the final scene on the beach, he sounds like Ian Paisley asking where the terrorists operate from.
** "I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my legs."

** How Sebastian Shaw starts the film with a German accent, a moustache, glasses, formal hairstyle... exactly fitting the part of a concentration camp commander. And then, barely twenty years later, he instead sounds and looks exactly like regular Kevin Bacon; undoutably jarring to younger British cinema-goers who are used to at least one obligatory obnoxious pre-film phone advert starring Kevin Bacon as Kevin Bacon.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Azazel in the comics was the main villain of one of the most universally loathed arcs in the franchise's history. The film jettisons his dumb "demon overlord" backstory in favor of making him Nightcrawler's cool evil dad, which works a lot in his favor.
* RonTheDeathEater: As a side effect of Magneto being a DracoInLeatherPants, there was a large backlash from his fangirls against Moira [=McTaggart=], blaming her for Charles being crippled and the bromance breaking up. [[spoiler: The irony is that Charles explicitly holds Magneto accountable for '''both''' offenses.]]

* EvilIsCool: What else did you expect with villains that seem to have just stepped out of a Bond movie?
* EvilIsSexy: Emma Frost, Angel and Mystique (the MsFanservice trio). For some, Azazel counts too.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Magneto. He's more charismatic than Xavier in the eyes of those who prefer [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys "bad boys."]]
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Azazel is one of the Big Bad's minions and has few lines, and yet he's a rather popular character. It's basically due to being Nightcrawler with red skin. Sure beats his really lame comic version.

* CatharsisFactor: After spending his entire adult life hunting down the mutant Nazi who shot his mother dead in the Holocaust, performed painful experiments on him as a child, and [[spoiler:killed Darwin]], watching Magneto [[spoiler:perforate Shaw's brain with a coin]] is brutal but still very satisfying and well-deserved.

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