First Class may be well a great film in its own right but is it an X-men film ?

Dealing with the issues the comics did and such makes it so, but without the actual characters and no continuity makes it sort of a separate thing like JJ's Star Trek.

I would not say its a bad movie.

But is it the kind of X-men film i would have made, probably not. But the writer and director have a right to cement their own creative vision and comic book fans be damned.

There are many reason's why i despise prequels. Even if the film itself is good, i don't like prequels in general as i would rather get on with the story and not focus too much on origins unless it is just maybe the first film in a series. Like Batman Begins, or again JJ's Star Trek, the second one of course will be when we see more of that characters and universe since they had to be established in that first film.

Sometimes though a director does the movie that establishes the character and story outline and then does not get to do the sequel, as in the case with Superman Returns where the sequel was completely erased from existence and they went reboot crazy.