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So, I didn't quite make it to opening night due to various circumstances, but tonight I went to see X-men First Class!! In my opinion, it's the second best one yet (besides X-men 2, though I might be biased because that's the only one Nightcrawler's in razz ). I REALLY enjoyed seeing the full back story involving Magneto, Charles and Mystique especially. Looking back at the third film, it definitely adds a whole dimension of meaning to when the Brotherhood abandons Mystique after she becomes human, or when Charles and Magneto are forced to fight.
This is also one of the few films I've seen in recent years that's really gotten me to think things over, especially regarding morals and such. The film shows Magneto's mom being killed. You can really feel what Erik's going through, and thus have some sympathy when he wants to kill these men who were "just following orders." But at the same time, you have Charles, who really believes these men are not at fault for following orders. It made me think, at what point should you STOP following orders? At what point does it just become wrong to continue following them, and are the consequences worth it? At one point in the film, Charles takes over the mind of a Soviet officer and forces him to bomb another ship, thereby averting a nuclear war. The other officers on the ship say to the officer who's mind had been taken over, "Congratulations, you just stopped a nuclear war. Take him to the brig." So, even though he did what was clearly the right thing, because it went against orders there were major consequences for him.
I believe that the excuse "just following orders" has a LOT of gray areas. On one hand, you have those men who really couldn't afford to go against their orders- they might have a family to feed/protect/care for, not just themselves. I believe that these men are excusable, as they are not only following orders for themselves, but for others. You could have men who are scared to go against their orders because they could be killed, or they're afraid they're not competent enough to get a positive result by going against orders. These men are a major gray area- while it is cowardly to just blindly follow orders, there are sometimes those incidents where almost everybody is brain washed to follow whatever cause they're given and to hate those who don't buy into it, to the point where if the couple of people who didn't believe in the cause spoke up, it wouldn't really matter because they'd be silenced either way.
Really, there's no right or wrong answer as to whether the excuse "just following orders" holds up. It's very interesting to think about, which this movie certainly did, but you're never really going to find a right or wrong answer.
(I... I can't believe I went to see a superhero movie and came out thinking like a philosopher. I'm just weird I guess)