Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon
Currently In Theaters
I'll be honest. Having loved X-Men and adored X2: X-Men United, the kidney punch that was X-Men: The Last Stand annoyed me so much that I completely gave up on the X-Men franchise. In fact, I didn't even check out X-Men Origins: Wolverine until after I'd seen First Class (what's up with these increasingly longer names, by the way? Were X-Men 2, X-Men 3, and Wolverine taken?). Even after seeing the awesome trailers they made for First Class I was skeptical, because director Matthew Vaughn's last film, Kick-Ass, didn't exactly blow me away, and the concept (teenage mutants? lame) didn't appeal to me. I am so glad that I looked past all of my doubts, though, and gave First Class a chance: it may actually be the best film of the series.
Taking its reboot classification to heart, First Class opens with a nearly shot-for-shot remake of the opening scene from the original X-Men. A young Magneto is shown discovering his powers in a Jewish concentration camp after he is separated from his mother. First Class expands this scene to introduce the main villain of the film, Sebastian Shaw (played by Kevin Bacon). In this scene, Shaw uses the young Magneto's rage to develop and unleash his magnetic powers. This is actually one of my favorite scenes of the movie; it reminded me of the opening scene from Inglourious Basterds with the calm sense of tension Bacon brought to his character here. My only problem with the opening was that I actually began laughing once Magneto's powers are brought to fruition; the young actor and director made a very odd (and funny) decision to have the character monotonously yell the entire time he uses his power.
The story that follows this opening is more or less straightforward: Magneto (played by Fassbender) begins a manhunt for Shaw that eventually leads him to the newly created X-Men, led by a younger, more able-bodied Xavier (played by McAvoy). After a film's worth of showing off their mutations and testing each others' abilities, the film is corralled into a climactic face-off between our X-Men and Shaw's group of mutants. It's really not very different from the previous films in this franchise, and one of my biggest complaints about First Class is that it doesn't take fuller advantage of its Cold War setting. Yes, the climax revolves around the Cuban Missile Crisis, and yes, JFK can be seen on the television once in a while, but I wish that Vaughn would have tied his story in even more deeply with these things. Not that the plot is bad; on the contrary, I was entertained and interested the entire time. I was just hoping for more historical tie-ins, I guess.
Then again, maybe they didn't feel the need to tie their story in so firmly to the period because the film itself manages to capture that atmosphere so wonderfully. While watching the movie I found myself getting lost in how well Vaughn was able to capture the atmosphere of the 60s here. It's kind of hard to explain if you haven't seen the film, but I'll just say that these characters and the environment they existed in felt authentic to the time period that First Class takes place during, as opposed to a group of teenagers from 2011 written into a film set during the 1960s.
But these things aren't why most of you will be seeing First Class. The reason most filmgoers love this franchise is the mutant's superpowers; this fact actually destroyed X-Men: The Last Stand, because the filmmakers were so busy showing off superpowers that they forgot to actually write a storyline. Don't worry: First Class has some pretty awesome stuff going on here too. Sure, some people have complained about Beast's costume, but these people seem to be leaving out how awesome Beast's transformation scene was. Vaughn used one of his more obvious director tricks in this scene (a first person perspective) and it works just as well as it did in Kick-Ass. Darwin is another great mutant from the film. He has the ability of adapting his body to any environment (like growing gills underwater), and this ability makes for one of the more powerful scenes in the entire film. The other new mutants to the franchise range from cool, like Havok (basically Cyclops but with hands), Azazel (Nightcrawler's dad), and Riptide (basically Storm), to lame, like Angel (her tattoo turns into bug wings), Banshee (he flies by screaming), and Emma Frost. Frost's character isn't bad, actually, but January Jones's acting turns her into an emotionless, diamond-encrusted pile of boredom.
The most important mutants of the film, of course, are Xavier and Magneto, and they (and the actors portraying them) prove more than capable of carrying First Class's emotional core on their shoulders. McAvoy and Fassbender do an amazing job with their roles, giving their characters, in my opinion, far more realistic personalities and emotions than Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were ever able to. Their relationship came off as genuine and their actions and thoughts were always true to their characters. Fassbender in particular did a magnificent job here, especially in one particular scene involving a satellite dish. Magneto is definitely the most complex character of the film and Fassbender was able to control Magneto's many changes throughout. This relationship was easily the best part of the film; without it, First Class would've simply been a better version of X-Men: The Last Stand.
X-Men: First Class is not a perfect film. There are costume issues, annoying characters, and some pretty silly directorial decisions (including an unnecessary split screen montage that I didn't even go into). However, the film does so many more positive things that its negatives seem largely unimportant. Vaughn's ability to capture the atmosphere of the 1960s is remarkable, and Fassbender's Magneto should be remembered, along with Ledger's Joker, as one of the greatest comic book portrayal's of all time. X-Men: First Class may not be perfect, but it's still one of the can't-miss movies of the year.
Currently In Theaters
I'll be honest. Having loved X-Men and adored X2: X-Men United, the kidney punch that was X-Men: The Last Stand annoyed me so much that I completely gave up on the X-Men franchise. In fact, I didn't even check out X-Men Origins: Wolverine until after I'd seen First Class (what's up with these increasingly longer names, by the way? Were X-Men 2, X-Men 3, and Wolverine taken?). Even after seeing the awesome trailers they made for First Class I was skeptical, because director Matthew Vaughn's last film, Kick-Ass, didn't exactly blow me away, and the concept (teenage mutants? lame) didn't appeal to me. I am so glad that I looked past all of my doubts, though, and gave First Class a chance: it may actually be the best film of the series.
Taking its reboot classification to heart, First Class opens with a nearly shot-for-shot remake of the opening scene from the original X-Men. A young Magneto is shown discovering his powers in a Jewish concentration camp after he is separated from his mother. First Class expands this scene to introduce the main villain of the film, Sebastian Shaw (played by Kevin Bacon). In this scene, Shaw uses the young Magneto's rage to develop and unleash his magnetic powers. This is actually one of my favorite scenes of the movie; it reminded me of the opening scene from Inglourious Basterds with the calm sense of tension Bacon brought to his character here. My only problem with the opening was that I actually began laughing once Magneto's powers are brought to fruition; the young actor and director made a very odd (and funny) decision to have the character monotonously yell the entire time he uses his power.
The story that follows this opening is more or less straightforward: Magneto (played by Fassbender) begins a manhunt for Shaw that eventually leads him to the newly created X-Men, led by a younger, more able-bodied Xavier (played by McAvoy). After a film's worth of showing off their mutations and testing each others' abilities, the film is corralled into a climactic face-off between our X-Men and Shaw's group of mutants. It's really not very different from the previous films in this franchise, and one of my biggest complaints about First Class is that it doesn't take fuller advantage of its Cold War setting. Yes, the climax revolves around the Cuban Missile Crisis, and yes, JFK can be seen on the television once in a while, but I wish that Vaughn would have tied his story in even more deeply with these things. Not that the plot is bad; on the contrary, I was entertained and interested the entire time. I was just hoping for more historical tie-ins, I guess.
Then again, maybe they didn't feel the need to tie their story in so firmly to the period because the film itself manages to capture that atmosphere so wonderfully. While watching the movie I found myself getting lost in how well Vaughn was able to capture the atmosphere of the 60s here. It's kind of hard to explain if you haven't seen the film, but I'll just say that these characters and the environment they existed in felt authentic to the time period that First Class takes place during, as opposed to a group of teenagers from 2011 written into a film set during the 1960s.
But these things aren't why most of you will be seeing First Class. The reason most filmgoers love this franchise is the mutant's superpowers; this fact actually destroyed X-Men: The Last Stand, because the filmmakers were so busy showing off superpowers that they forgot to actually write a storyline. Don't worry: First Class has some pretty awesome stuff going on here too. Sure, some people have complained about Beast's costume, but these people seem to be leaving out how awesome Beast's transformation scene was. Vaughn used one of his more obvious director tricks in this scene (a first person perspective) and it works just as well as it did in Kick-Ass. Darwin is another great mutant from the film. He has the ability of adapting his body to any environment (like growing gills underwater), and this ability makes for one of the more powerful scenes in the entire film. The other new mutants to the franchise range from cool, like Havok (basically Cyclops but with hands), Azazel (Nightcrawler's dad), and Riptide (basically Storm), to lame, like Angel (her tattoo turns into bug wings), Banshee (he flies by screaming), and Emma Frost. Frost's character isn't bad, actually, but January Jones's acting turns her into an emotionless, diamond-encrusted pile of boredom.
The most important mutants of the film, of course, are Xavier and Magneto, and they (and the actors portraying them) prove more than capable of carrying First Class's emotional core on their shoulders. McAvoy and Fassbender do an amazing job with their roles, giving their characters, in my opinion, far more realistic personalities and emotions than Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were ever able to. Their relationship came off as genuine and their actions and thoughts were always true to their characters. Fassbender in particular did a magnificent job here, especially in one particular scene involving a satellite dish. Magneto is definitely the most complex character of the film and Fassbender was able to control Magneto's many changes throughout. This relationship was easily the best part of the film; without it, First Class would've simply been a better version of X-Men: The Last Stand.
X-Men: First Class is not a perfect film. There are costume issues, annoying characters, and some pretty silly directorial decisions (including an unnecessary split screen montage that I didn't even go into). However, the film does so many more positive things that its negatives seem largely unimportant. Vaughn's ability to capture the atmosphere of the 1960s is remarkable, and Fassbender's Magneto should be remembered, along with Ledger's Joker, as one of the greatest comic book portrayal's of all time. X-Men: First Class may not be perfect, but it's still one of the can't-miss movies of the year.
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