X-Men: First Class - Review

Alright! The verdict is finally in! The X-Men series has finally gotten the shot in the arm it's needed! 20th Century Fox finally listened to the fans and once again made an effort to create an X-Men movie with a creative director, compelling story, charismatic actors, and a great respect for the source material. Make no mistake, the title doesn't lie. X-Men First Class is indeed a first class movie and it's one hell of a breath of fresh air. That's the short version... here's the more detailed review.

X-Men: First Class is a prequel/reboot of the X-Men series, taking place mostly in the 1960s and focuses on the rise of the X-Men and the friendship between Magneto and Professor X. The year is 1963, nuclear tensions between the US and Soviet Union are hot, and the next stages of evolution have begin and people with mutant powers begin to appear. The telepathic Charles Xavier aka Professor X (James McAvoy) just received his doctorate for his thesis on genetic mutation. He goes on a search for other mutants around the world and there meets Erik Lensherr aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender). Lensherr, a holocaust survivor and mutant with the ability to control metal, is on a relentless search to find and kill Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), the mutant who is responsible for killing his mother. Despite a difference in ideals and beliefs, the two unite in order to assemble a team of mutants, discover the secrets of mutation, and to neutralize the dangerous threats made by Shaw and his band of evil mutants.

The X-Men movies started off strongly with Bryan Singer's 2000 adaptation of the long-running comic. The movie, simply known as X-Men, was a clever action movie with great action, an intriguing and thought-provoking premise, and good characters brought down by some plot-holes, a missteps in character development, and a so-so third act. The sequel, X2: X-Men United, was even better, giving us more of what worked in the first and less of what didn't. It had a better story, superior action, and delved more into it's characters and the themes of mutation. The third movie, X-Men: The Last Stand, was directed by Brett Ratner and is generally considered a disappointment. While it wasn't as good as the first two, I didn't dislike it nearly as much as most people did. If nothing else, it was a fun sci-fi action movie, even if the lack of respect it had for story, characters, and it's source material was pretty appalling. Not the worst ever, but not that great. The fourth movie, a prequel/spin-off called X-Men Origins: Wolverine, on the other hand was pretty much awful! Not only was it a complete failure in terms of story or respect for the comic, but it did a less-than-stellar job in the action department as well. So the series had two good movies, one average movie, and one awful movie. Now with X-Men: First Class, you can add another great movie to the lineup.

I admit that when I first heard of the movie being developed, my expectations were low. After Wolverine, I had lost hope that the series would return to it's superior roots. So, as you can imagine, seeing the series' return to greatness is a definite breath of fresh air. I'm not totally sure if it's a prequel, a reboot, or both. It includes references to the first two movies and usually appears to stay in continuity, but between some contradictions to X3 and Wolverine, it seems like First Class is aiming to stick to the story from the first two while ignoring the previous two. So I guess it's both a prequel and a reboot... or a prerebootquel maybe?

First Class has a lot going for it, but by far it's biggest accomplishment is it's cast. First up is James McAvoy as Charles Xavier aka Professor X. Patrick Stewart was so well cast in the last few X-Men movies, seeing a new actor in the character's shoes (this movie takes place before the character becomes a paraplegic) was going to be tough to accept. McAvoy admittedly does a solid job here, bringing the same likeable personality and charisma to the character, while doing a few things differently. Here, Xavier is younger and less mature, and while his motives and goals are the same, he comes off as somewhat naive and overzealous though still commendable. Xavier believes in the human race, and aims for a peaceful alliance between humans and mutants.

By far the most commendable performance has to be Michael Fassbender as Magneto. This is the first X-Men movie to really showcase the character of Magneto. His depiction in the last couple of movies was good don't get me wrong, but I felt like there was a lot to his personality and backstory that could have been explored further. Unlike Xavier, Magneto embraces a more militant view of mutant prosperity... one which would see the destruction of humanity and the domination of mutant-kind. While his methods may be evil, his logic is hard to argue with. He believes mutants to be the superior race and aims inspires courage and pride among his fellow mutants who are either ashamed or discriminated against. Also unlike Xavier, Magneto comes from a more gritty and experienced background. While Xavier lived a sheltered and wealthy life, Magneto saw his mother shot to death right in front of him while he was a boy living in Nazi-occupied Poland. Fassbender really brings a great dynamic to Magneto, embodying the charismatic and strong-willed character he was in the comics.

For me to give a proper critique to the rest of the actors would take far too long, so I'll just give a brief rundown of a few of the main supporting characters. Jennifer Lawrence, fresh off her Oscar-nominated role in Winter's Bone, appears as a younger version of Mystique (the blue-skinned shape shifiting mutant from the previous movies). I'll just say this, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique shows abundant promise as one of Hollywood's most promising young actors. Kevin Bacon hams it up a bit as the villainous Sebastian Shaw. While one might say that his performance comes off as a bit campy in comparison to the dead-serious villain performances from the previous flicks, you can't deny that his character is a hell of a lot of fun to watch. The other stand-out performance would have to go to Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy aka Beast. Not too much to say about him other than that he did a good job. The only performance that didn't really do it for me would have to be January Jones as Emma Frost. I guess she was never a particularly interesting character, but nonetheless Jones was little more than eye candy. Finally, Hugh Jackman has a funny cameo as Wolverine... which was a welcome scene. Overall, I have to say that this was an very well-cast movie.

The artistic style of X-Men: First Class both hits and misses. I applaud director Matthew Vaughn for taking the film in a more a lighter though still very serious direction. The color scheme and cinematography has more colorful and less gritty tone, embracing it's comic book roots without descending into camp territory. The art design is nice to look at, the make-up is well done, the costumes are neat, and camerawork has a nice look to it. The cgi, however, doesn't always impress. Some of it was well done, but there were only a few instances where the overall less-than-stellar imagery didn't look like a computer effect. I'm surprised the movie looked as good as it did considering the rushed production schedule, and I imagine that if the movie had another month or two in development, the cgi would have been far better.

Finally, let's quickly address the story. I've already addressed bits and pieces about it so I won't dwell on it too much. Overall, it works pretty well. I love how this movie focuses on what made the X-Men stories so engaging in the first place... the characters. The way it dwells on Xavier and Magneto's friendship and alliance worked to it's advantage. I also really dug the way it explored exactly what it means to be a mutant and the discrimination that comes with it. All that being said, I do have a few issues with the script. Like all the X-Men movies, the cast of characters is so huge that many of them don't receive as much development as others. It's not like X3 this time, where it seemed like Ratner tried to force as many mutant cameos as he could fit in the 2 hour runtime, but it's still a noticeable though minor issue. One other thing is the Cuban Missle Crisis plot. I liked that they threw in a real-world event to give the movie a little more relatability, but having the whole event revealed to be little more than a scheme from the evil mutants came off as a little far fetched. Overall, the story works... nothing Oscar-worthy but a commendable script as far as superhero movies go.

So yeah... this is one you definitely will not want to miss. Even if you don't like comic book movies, X-Men: First Class has something I think everyone can enjoy. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out.

My Score: 4.5 out of 5!