X-Men: First Class (2011)

  This was better than it had any right to be.  Bless you, Matthew Vaughn, for salvaging the X-Men movies and giving me a decent trilogy out of the four.

Is it strictly canon?  No.  There are some continuity differences between the movies but I think they're actually handled better in this film than they could have been.  And there are a couple of great moments that link to the later timelines.  There is one absolutely stellar cameo (that also provides the movie's only F-bomb) and another that's just really well-played.  I'm trying really hard not to spoil them for you.

Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is a young, swinging professor at Oxford University when Moira McTaggert (Rose Byrne) (who is supposed to be a Scottish scientist and is instead an American CIA agent) comes to him about some individuals running the shadowy Hellfire Club that may have some genetic mutations.  The club is run by the ruthless Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) who has very definite ideas about the future of humankind.  Meanwhile, Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) is a man on a mission to track down the ruthless Nazi doctor Klaus Schmidt, who experimented on him while he was a prisoner in the concentration camps.  Erik and Charles cross paths when they realize they are after the same dude.  At that point, as the kids like to say, shit gets real.

There are some great performances here from Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) and Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) and James McAvoy is so good as Xavier that I almost forgive him for Atonement.  Almost.  But hands down BEST performance in the movie goes to Kevin Bacon.  Holy crap, I totally forgot that man could act.  Seriously, there's a reason he has a game named after him.  So.  Good.