X-Men First Class

**THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS**

Okay, so I know I was supposed to be doing the 30-day blog challenge, and I will get back to it. But I wanted to say this first:
X-Men First Class was a great movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Ignoring the liberties taken with some of the mutants, I think it did stay true to the heart of the X-Men. But there was one big problem: The ending was terrible.

Oh no, Magneto somehow managed to deflect a bullet that then curved, Wanted-style, to hit Professor X in the spine?!?!?!?!?!?! Seriously, X-Men, what??

Here is my preferred ending (and the one I expected to happen):
Xavier is in Shaw's mind, holding him. He is literally seeing and feeling everything Shaw sees and feels. He is also talking to Magneto telepathically up until the point where Magneto puts on his famous mind-power-blocking helmet.

Rewind: Throughout the movie, Charles is telling Magneto not to kill Shaw. Xavier wants Magneto to understand that killing is not the way, that it will not bring him peace or any sense of justice. Yet Magneto's like, "Whatever, dude." This is the issue that, throughout the movie, drives Magneto and Professor X apart.

Back to the ending: So Xavier is in Shaw's head. He has been telling Magneto not to kill Shaw and to keep listening to him (Professor X). Magneto symbolically cuts the mental link between himself and Xavier by putting on his helmet, and proceeds to kill Shaw in a pretty intense and poetic fashion. For those of you who have forgotten: Shaw killed Magneto's mother because Magneto was unable to move a coin for Shaw on command. Magneto saved that coin for his entire life until he moved it through Shaw's brain, killing him.

All while Xavier is in Shaw's mind. The scene is beautifully done, with Xavier feeling the coin pass through his own brain at the same time as Shaw's. Xavier keeps Shaw in place knowing that letting go may end up causing Magneto's death, but experiencing what would feel like his own death at the time. The coin finally passes completely through Shaw's head and falls to the floor. Xavier lets go of Shaw's mind and they both collapse.

At this point, I was actually expecting Xavier to be unable to stand again. Why wouldn't the mental trauma of experiencing death via a coin ripping your brain apart have some kind of side effect? Instead, he hops up, runs out of the aircraft, and we end up with the much more lame bullet instance.

Had the coin been the cause of Xavier's paralysis, it would have been directly Magneto's fault, after Xavier's many warnings. It would have also been in a moment of sacrifice on Xavier's part. This would have been the perfect, final wedge to drive Magneto and Xavier apart. Instead, Magneto, in self-defense, repels bullets being fired at him by Moira MacTaggert, and one happens to awkwardly ricochet into Xavier's spine. Seriously, watch that ending again. The bullet curves. There is no way the trajectory would have normally hit Xavier there. And even if there were, it was an accident. Done in self-defense. And then Xavier has the gall to tell Magneto it's his fault. Oh, and then, in spite of a very very serious injury, Xavier gives a nice speech including giving Mystique permission to hang out with Magneto because he knows she won't be okay with it unless he is, etc...

The point was brought up to me that if Xavier has such a powerful mind, and the paralysis was due to a mental injury, couldn't he just get over it? I see the point there, but maybe he can't. Perhaps experiencing death mentally just has side effects from which a man can't recover. Xavier would learn from his mistake and would be careful not to connect in that way again should the other person experience death.

I think it makes sense, anyway.

This has been an opinionated production of One-Ear Surprise. I welcome your opinions and comments, but please leave the trolling at the door.

Please note that I am speaking of all of this in the sense of the X-Men universe as established in the movie only. I know that things happen very differently in the comic.