Mystique doesn't run off with Magneto without a care for her brother. They're both looking into each others eyes and have a moment where they both know that what's just happened means the end of any hope they'd have of working this through. And then knowing that they've fallen on different sides of the line, Charles agrees that Mystique needs to go.
And I don't think anyone thought Xavier was going to die there. They'd all seen that the bullet had hit the base of his spine, and the bullet had even already been removed. Heck if it had caused internal damage Magneto wouldn't have left the beach, never mind Mystique
A bullet in the spine is a serious injury. Either that person will die, will be crippled for life, or will have very severe problems that will take years to recover from if one is lucky. Mystique running off with Magneto looked heartless in light of this scene, especially since Magneto was th eone responsible. Obviously, she had to turn evil at some point but her turn was forced and sloppy.
And now that we're talking about Charles getting shot, that scene was also very sploppy. Again, we all knew he would get crippled before the credits rolled, but the scene actually made no sense.
1) Moira is a CIA agent and knows how to use a gun, yet she fires her sidearm at Magneto with Charles closeby. Anyone who knows the slightest bit about gun safety would know this was a bad idea.
2) She knows Magneto can control metal, yet decides to attack him with a metal weapon anyway.
3) After the first bullet was deflected, you would think she would stop. Instead, she keeps shooting.
4) Magneto still cares for Charles and the X-Men, but still flings bullets in every direction, placing everyone on that beach in danger, instead of stopping them mid-air.
5) Charles knows there are bullets flying overhead, yet still decides to stand up and clumsily walk into the firing range for no reason.
But Charles told her to leave right? And I don't think he was saying it as though he wanted to be contradicted.
As for the Moira stuff, looking at what happened, she clearly made the right decision. The firing her gun at close range I'm going to discount because we're playing under film rules, which means near perfect accuracy. Very few films care about gun safety or realism, and this wasn't one of them.
But as for the rest, she knew he could control metal, but he was also at that moment simultaneously controlling thousands of missiles about to start a nuclear war. And she was right, he couldn't concentrate on deflecting bullets and control the missiles at the same time. In the film the missiles start faltering when he starts turning round and concentrating on her, even before Charles is shot. If she fired the first bullet and then stopped, then the world would be in the middle of a nuclear war.
In a similar way, Magneto showed it takes him concentration to deflect bullets, he didn't have the time nor the ability to think about doing something more controlled. And equally, Charles was trying to body tackle Magneto when he got shot. He wasn't thinking about trying to be safe, he was trying to end a nuclear war.
I'm pretty sure both Charles and Moira would have done exactly the same thing if they had the choice, and considering that it did indeed result in the continuation of the cold war (and that their methods were beginning to work even before he got shot), I don't think you can argue that they were ineffective strategies
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Had potential but failed
This movie had a lot going for it. It was well-directed, had two great leads with a lot of chemistry with one another, thrilling action sequences, an exciting villain, and a 60's era setting that gave a rich atmosphere to the movie. So what went wrong?
First, let's talk about the flaw that all the X-Men films share: they focus on a few heroes and villains and ignore everyone else. Banshee had no depth besides "Screaming Guy". Why was Havoc in prison? Darwin existed to apparently be the black dude who dies first. None of these characters had anything resembling personalities. The Hellfire Club was even worse. Besides Sebastian Shaw, there was silent henchman #1, silent henchman #2, and the White Queen who was just there for eye candy.
This brings me to the treatment of the female characters. Mystique is presented as growing up with Prof X (which wasn't mentioned in the previous movies but oh well) and the moment she has a little crush on Magneto, she no longer cares that her adopted brother has been shot in the back and is possibly dying on the beach of Cuba. She runs off with Magneto without hesitation and with little set up. Angel likewise joined the bad guys even after witnessing Sebastian Shaw killing one of her own teammates. There is little explanation as to why she would suddenly join Shaw's side outside of some CIA agents making rude comments toward her friends, which pales in comparison to someone killing her friends. Once she joins the Hellfire Club, there is no inner conflict for her character, nor is there any conflict among the X-Men. Even White Queen is quick to leave Shaw behind and hook up with Magneto. Villain or not, you would think there would be a conflict.
Next: plotholes. What happened with Magneto after Shaw killed his mother? It jumped from the concentration camp to adult Eric in South America with no explanation. Why would Hank take the untested mutant cure just before an important mission? Yes, he felt like a freak but what if the "cure" killed him? He was the only one who could fly the plane. How would Shaw's nuclear war plan work? Even if mutants can survive the nuclear fallout, there would be no planet left to live on.
It had potential though.