Movies: X-Men First Class

Score: **** out of *****

Long Story Short: X-Men First Class is an energetic prequel to the popular superhero franchise. McAvoy and Fassbender lead the charge with fantastic performances as the young Patrick Stewart (er, Professor X) and Ian McKellen (er, Magneto). The pace is great, the visuals dazzling, and the comedy well placed and effective. I have some personal reservations as a follower of the series (unnecessary/sloppy copying of plot lines/themes), but I still enjoyed it greatly. For those with less familiarity with the series, I recommend it even more so.

Now we're rolling! This review is a little bit more timely, only a week after its release (I saw it last week but needed to think over it a little while); and this week, I plan to see Super 8. X-Men First Class was directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) and is the fifth X-Men film of the last eleven years (and the second prequel). I have considerably more to say about this film than the last two, so it'll be a slightly longer review. Enjoy!

The film begins with a teenage Erik Lensherr, later to be known as Magneto, in a Nazi concentration camp. Erik reveals a latent mutant ability, and a Nazi scientist goes to great, tragic lengths to get him to repeat his "magic." Meanwhile, a young Charles Xavier, later known as Professor X, finds Raven, later Mystique, breaking into his home and offers her shelter. The contrasting backgrounds of the two mutants presented, the film goes forward 18 years in time, to 1962. In this period, Erik is crisscrossing the globe, hunting down Nazis in hiding, while Charles is achieving great success with his studies on genetic mutations.

Charles and Erik finally meet, by accident, as they both hunt down the same man: Dr. Schmidt, aka Sebastian Shaw. Shaw himself is a powerful mutant, and was the scientist who deeply hurt Erik as a boy; in addition, in 1962 he is leading a terrorist group intent on inflaming relations between the U.S. and Soviet Union (that's where Charles comes in). Charles takes Erik under his wing, and the two begin to study and work with other mutants. It is quickly apparent, however, that Charles and Erik have significantly different world views; by the climax, as Shaw attempts to start WW3 as the Cuban Missile Crisis hits, these differences come to the fore. (this is one of my more vague plot overviews, I know, but I don't want to spoil too much)

One of the strengths of X-Men: First Class is its cast. In the first three films, Patrick Stewart as Professor X and Ian McKellen as Magneto provided a rock solid foundation for the series; in the prequel, James McAvoy (Professor X) and Michael Fassbender (Magneto) do the same. I was particularly impressed by McAvoy; he somehow conveys both the assuredness of a James Bond with the compassion of, well, take your pick (Dumbledore?). His performance is so lively, energetic, and precise, he grabs hold of your attention in all his scenes. Fassbender seems to be getting more attention for his acting; he does a fine job too, especially in a couple scenes near the beginning, but I think McAvoy is truly the star of the show here. If they continue making X-Men movies with these two, they will have a great chance to make more high-quality entries in the series.

There is a fairly large cast around these two stars, mostly good, some not. Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Shaw, and he does quite a nice job as a creepy, menacing villain. He doesn't get a whole lot of screen time, but makes use of it. Jennifer Lawrence plays Rogue - er, Mystique - and does an OK job (I'll explain the Rogue part later). Emma Frost is portrayed by January Jones, who proves again her skill at playing smoking hot ladies with a cold, flat personality (see: "Mad Men"). There is also a fantastic cameo here, one that many people who have not even seen any of the other X-Men films may get.

X-Men: First Class serves up the kind of action you've come to expect from the franchise. Much of it, to put it simply, is the mutants showing how easily and creatively they can kick our unevolved human butts. A good bit of this is just good entertainment value, but there are also some rather gritty action scenes with the anger of the aggressors (mostly Erik or Shaw) amplifying the effects of their actions. The climax is done quite well, with a four-way showdown (U.S. vs. Soviets vs. Shaw vs. Charles/Erik). There is also some very effective humor here, in part because it is done somewhat sparingly and not *wink wink*, and in part because of the acting of McAvoy and Fassbender.

***

For me, this film is very similar to the new Star Trek. Both films are reboots of popular franchises that Hollywood felt went astray (personally, their arguments are dubious in both cases). And both, oddly enough, I feel appeal more to filmgoers who are not familiar with the respective franchises. This is because, while both films are very good, they tended to pack in a bit too much, smoothing over a few too many familiar franchise aspects (here is where my opinion starts to become somewhat fanboy-ish), and quite simply copy some plot/character points of the films that came just before them. It's almost as if the new directors are spitting in their predecessors' faces and saying, "I can do this better." Well, perhaps you can, but for those of us who have seen the latest entries in the franchise (even if they were critically panned), give us something a little different.

WARNING: PLOT DETAILS AHEAD (SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ANY OF THEM). In this new X-Men, the writers put in a fairly small subplot about finding a cure to the mutant genes; not only is this kind of a HUGE series idea in itself, it was what the third X-Men film was all about! On a related note, this cure idea is mostly tossed about in regard to Mystique, whose natural body is a yucky, scaly blue, and so she uses her ability to keep herself looking like the attractive blond Jennifer Lawrence. They play this role much too close to Rogue's from the original trilogy (thus, my "mistake" from above). Again, we've been over these ideas before! What disappoints me most about the new X-Men film is that it is so eager to start up the new school of mutants, and to have the break between Erik and Charles at the climax, that they wasted an opportunity that has NOT been addressed in the films yet: the development of friendship between the two fascinatingly opposite young men.

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My expectations going into X-Men: First Class were pretty high, based on the cool trailers and great reviews it was getting. This tends to be a dangerous thing. To be honest, my feelings on it upon leaving the theater were lower than they are now. As a fan of the franchise, and thus watching the film with the memory of the other films in mind, I am tempted to bring this down to a ***1/2. But for those who have perhaps only seen X-Men films once or twice, or haven't seen any at all, this is a very satisfying, summer blockbuster event. I'm afraid I've done a lot of griping in this review, but it really is a very fun film. The pace is great, with few if any letdowns, there are a number of great individual scenes, and McAvoy and Fassbender give tremendous performances. It's certainly a better choice than Pirates or Thor from earlier this summer.