@mcklayn: I think you mean gripe.
First off, they really should have made the First Class consist of Jean, Scott, Hank and Ororo. But instead we got a random mix of old and new characters, who had very little impact or significance. Havok is such a confusing choice and is such a waste of space. Darwin was misused and treated unfairly Angel Salvadore was the most random addition and should have been a more iconic character perhaps. And Banshee was a nice touch but he was made into comic relief (and i still don't get how he could fly???).
The problems i had with the relationship dynamics in the film were with the main trio. They made Charles' relationship with Raven more deep than his relationship with Erik's. And Erik should have had more of a connection with Raven than that sudden kiss that was shoved in there. They really should have introduced her after Charles met Erik. The whole catalyst for the movie and the X-men themselves was how these two old friends came together and formed this team. Instead we got a brief fling of a friendship between the two and rushed conflict that drove them apart. I think some of that was lost.
In terms of the character choices, I feel like many of the characters they didn't use weren't used because of the story they were telling, which, at it's core, is really about Xavier, Magneto, and Mystique, meeting each other in their youth, and how that effected the overall story.
Because it's set when Xavier is in his early 20's, it wouldn't make sense to introduce Cyclops or Jean, in that both of those characters see him as a father figure and so shouldn't be close enough in age to him to be old enough to be on the team. Storm's supposed to be a bit older than them, but I think the same thing applies to her.
Still, they need to have some X-men. Beast, though being between the ages of Cyclops and Storm in the comics, never had that same relationship with Xavier, and has classically been written as his equal, despite their age difference. So making him older doesn't fundamentally change that relationship. Banshee actually was supposed to be closer in age to Xavier, and have worked as a secret agent, so he works fine anyway.
Havoc, I believe (though this is speculative on my part) is meant to replace Corsair as Cyclops' father in this version, and, by proxy, be Cyclops' part in this story. Picture it: Havoc, the rebel loner of the group (as inferred by his scene at the pinball machine, which were actually illegal at the time and generally used in film to establish a character as an outlaw) with the most unpredictable and devastating power, finally finds a cause worth fighting for only to inevitably lose his life to it. When Xavier realizes that Havoc had a son that he didn't know of with even more uncontrollable powers, he feels duty bound to raise him as his own, with Cyclops having that much more reason to grow up into a complete control-freak square. This is just conjecture on my part, but I'll eat my hat if that's not what they're planning.
I do agree that Xavier and Magneto's time as friends did seem a bit too brief, even if it was poignant. But, given how much of the story takes place in this one film (as opposed to their inevitable falling out happening in a sequel), I think it was handled really well. And I really liked how they changed Mystique's story to be central to Xavier's, it makes her a very different character than in the comics, but it also makes her deeper, easier to relate to, and much more important to the story, even if she does lose some of her mystique in the process.
I actually think I like this version of Mystique/Xavier/Magneto's origins in many ways more than I like the comic versions, and, to me, that says a lot.
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