X-Men: First Class

Wheee.... my first movie review in months...

The X-Men have been one of comicdom's most enduring and popular series. I've been a fan since I was younger and watched the animated series. It was definitely fun to see the stories translated to the big screen and the first three movies were enjoyable to some degree at least. The mediocre X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a bit of a letdown with its less-than-inspiring script and bland storyline. Fortunately, this new origin story returns to the strong roots of the first movie.


**Minor spoilers ensue**





Taking place primarily in the 60s against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis, the movie opens with young Erik Lehnsherr being separated from his parents during World War II in a Nazi concentration camp in occupied Poland which causes him to manifest his magnetic powers. This scene is a duplicate of what we've seen before in the earlier trilogy. What we didn't see was what happened later in the camp, where Erik meets "Dr. Schmidt" who tries to get him to use his powers at will by employing less-than-nice methods.

In the meantime, we also see young Charles Xavier as a poor little rich boy who meets with a young Raven whom we later know as Mystique. This is a new revelation which I *think* is probably at odds with cannon (and maybe with the rest of the trilogy), but I'll grant Matthew Vaughn some creative licence. They become like brother and sister and grow up together.

Years later, Erik (Michael Fassbender) is an adult in far greater control of his powers, Charles (James McAvoy) is an Oxford professor, and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) is by his side as a close friend, though she may want to be more than that. Erik is still hell-bent on tracking down Dr. Schmidt to exact his revenge. Meanwhile, CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) in another out-of-cannon turn is tracking down the good doctor who now goes by Sebastian Shaw (the inimitable Kevin Bacon). With psychic Emma Frost (January Jones), Shaw has founded The Hellfire Club and recruited mutants including Nightcrawler-lookalike Azazel and airbending Riptide. When the CIA discover that he and his merry band of evil mutants are planning something dastardly, they attack him with the aid of Charles. The attack fails, but brings together Charles and Erik for the first time with the former saving the latter's life.

Now friends, Erik, Charles, and Raven join the CIA at a top secret training facility where they meet young genius Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult of About a Boy). Hank has invented the first Cerebro which enables Charles to find mutants from all over the world. He and Erik set out to recruit mutants to join the CIA and help them while Erik still dreams of revenge against Shaw. They end up with mutants who will later become sonic-screamer Banshee, plasma-hurtler Havok, insectlike Angel Salvadore, and quick-adapting Darwin. And so the First Class is born.

Campy but cool, this film echoes the strong dramatic undercurrents and message of the first film. While missing the sheer screen presence of Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan, the acting is pretty good all around with McAvoy suitably idealistic, Fassbender suitably bitter and angry, Jones suitably erm... frosty, and Bacon in his element as a slimy villain who makes up for the disparity in physical size from the comics incarnation with a menacing demeanour. The young actors do well in their smallish roles too. The effects are well-made and believable, though Beast looks a little weird.

The story breaks from cannon with Beast as the only actual 'First Class' character shown here since this movie is still in the same continuity as the others. This could annoy the die-hard fans, but it does work. I enjoyed seeing Banshee discover flight and a totally out-of-cannon Havok throwing his plasma blasts around although I sometimes wished they woulda just broken continuity and rebooted the thing with the original First Class characters. Anyhow, the film is worthy of the high critical acclaim received thus far and makes for enjoyable and satisfying summer fare. I love a good origin story and I will certainly look forward to the inevitable sequels.


PS. Watch for an amusing cameo when Charles and Erik are recruiting mutants.