Who makes the better Mystique according to you: Rebecca Romijn or Jennifer Lawrence?
It's a tough comparison, because the two actresses played the character at two different points in their lives. Jennifer Lawrence gets the most complex opportunity as an actress. She plays the character undergoing the transition from naive innocent to jaded aggressor. Rebecca Romijn's responsibility was to play the character after she is fully formed. Rebecca was not really given a character arc to address.
I think they both are the right people for the role they are playing. Jennifer is the more accomplished and talented actress. But Rebecca's experience as a professional model gives her the skills to better portray the body language. The adult Mystique, in addition to having the modulated voice, has a reptilian style of body movement. Rebecca plays her as very other worldly - distant and dangerous.
While Rebecca's acting is excelling from the neck down, Jennifer's performance is almost completely from the neck up. Even masked in blue and applied latex and wearing colored contact lenses - she manages to emote. Mystique's feelings of betrayal, fear, and anger radiate from her eyes. But Jennifer hasn't yet learned to act with her body.
Ultimately, I find the Mystique that Rebecca plays to be the most intriguing. She, through her body, matches Lawrence by radiating danger.
