X-Men: First Class: Theatrical Review

[DGoodhart]

X-Men: First Class is a prequel film to Marvel's and Fox's highly successful X-Men series.  The first two movies (X-Men and X-Men 2), both directed by Bryan Singer, are terrific films.  While I like the third film in the series, directed by Brett Ratner, I'd also be the first to tell you that it falters behind the first two movies.  I also include X-Men Origins: Wolverine directed by Gavin Hood, with this bunch as well, and like X-Men 3, I thought it was entertaining, but nowhere in the same league as the first two movies.

Now director Matthew Vaughn has been given a chance at the reins of the series, working under a story with Bryan Singer as part of the credits.  Matthew Vaughn has previously directed Kick-Ass, Stardust and Layer Cake.  Prior to this, he was first connected to Thor which he dropped out of to be replaced by Kenneth Branagh.  But still it looks like someone was bound and determined to get him connected with a Marvel Comics movie...

...and thank goodness they did.  X-Men: First Class is a winner and I can't wait to see it again.

As our movie opens, it's the 40s and we're shown the parallel stories of Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier as young boys, first learning about their mutant abilities.  Lehnsherr is being forced by the Nazis to use his talents, while Xavier has more academic concerns, including meeting the mysterious Raven as a little girl (who later becomes Mystique).

We move to 1962, and now both have grown to young men.  With the war long over, Erik Lensherr is in pursuit of the Nazis who killed his parents.  Charles Xavier and Raven are following their academic roots, until they're contacted by CIA operative Moira MacTaggert for help with the CIA's work.  Eventually Xavier and Lensherr finally meet, and both discover common ground in their pursuits with mutantkind.

Looming in the background though is Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club and their plans are at extreme odds with those of the CIA.

Now, I know I'm being real vague here about the overall story, but honestly, I don't want to spoil a thing.  X-Men: First Class is a movie, for an X-Men fan, to be savored.  There's nice little story turns and easter eggs throughout this film and remarkably it all ties in well with the previous movies.

X-Men: First Class absolutely looks terrific.  Matthew Vaughn isn't afraid to play with bright colors here at all and setting this primarily in the 60s also plays with the shooting style of the film, including some nice montage areas.

This is one packed film and nothing feels wasted.  The pacing is terrific and right when you think something's been forgotten about, they come right back to it.  Henry Jackman's musical score is perfectly suited to this film and nimbly helps with the pace.

It also helps that you have a terrific young cast.  James McAvoy plays Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender plays Erik Lehnsherr.  McAvoy is both smooth and smart, and right from the word "go" ably projects the same authority that Patrick Stewart did in the prior movies.  I've become quite the fan of Michael Fassbender and he does not disappoint in the slightest here.  He manages the same sort of regality that Ian Mckellan had in the prior films, but also brings a real physical joy to playing a character with super-powers.  I can't wait to see what he does next.

Rose Byrne plays Moira MacTaggert and Jennifer Lawrence plays Raven.  Both ladies are fantastic in their parts and I really like just how well lawrence works with McAvoy in the early parts of the movie.  Oliver Platt plays an unnamed (but important) CIA liason to this crew and delivers the right amount of authority.  Rounding out the rest of Xavier's core team, you have Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy, who's also the mutant who becomes known as the Beast, Caleb Landry Jones as the sonic-powered Banshee and Lucas Till as Alex Summers, also known as Havok.  All are great, but I really have to give some high marks to Hoult, who in many ways to me seems almost the heart of this film.

On the villains side, we've got Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw, and he just looks like he's having a great time being part of this film.  January Jones plays Emma Frost, extremely loyal to Shaw and really quite the knockout.  Alex Gonzalez and Jason Flemyng round out the villain side, as the mutants Riptide and Azazel respectively, and though they don't get the lines that everyone else has, they both have real physical presence.

And there's even more, especially two very nice cameo appearances, but I don't want to say any more than that.  Matthew Vaughn has assembled a terrific ensemble cast and you can't help but want to see this same assemblage come together again.

Like I said, X-Men: First Class is a winner, and I even enjoyed it more than Thor.  Out of the big four comic book movies announced for this summer, I thought X-Men; First Class was the sleeper of the bunch.  The more I kept seeing of this in trailers and the news, the more I was looking forward to it.  The sheer idea of taking this series back in time to the 60s is brilliant and to me anyway, really helps bring in huge sense of wonder.  Don't miss this one...

[lugaru]

Great review!

Cant wait to see it... there has been a lot of talk amongst us fans about how Marvel needs to reclaim all comic properties (after the awesome Iron Man film) but honestly, while Sony and Fox take shit in their own direction, they have made some good movies with the franchises and hopefully will continue to do so more often than not until they give them up.

[legion of daves]

i thought there were some really great things, and some really terrible things in this movie. 
1 great thing:  FASSBENDER.  easily the highlight of the film for me.  his casting as magneto was a fantastic move and he gave the character depth and a cockiness that's required for a young magneto.

1 terrible thing:  JANUARY JONES.  she's gorgeous, yeah, but she is a TERRIBLE actress.  just cardboard.  ugh.  also, her "makeup" effects looked pretty bad.

1 great thing:  the younger kids.  i thought they were all cast really well and i liked the choices even if it wasn't actually the "first class."

1 terrible thing:  some of the makeup choices.  azazel looked horrible and beasts full body makeup was really awkward.  beast's face looked cool, but in wide shots it looked like a guy in an ape suit. 

1 great thing:  the 60's period backdrop.  i really liked this.  i liked the period costumes, i liked the cuban missile crisis scenario, i was into this.

1 great thing:  erik and charles.  the two of them together really worked for me, i thought they had good chemistry and worked very well as the opposite sides of the coin.

overall, i thought the great things outweighed the terrible things, and i did very much enjoy this movie.  i'd give it a B+.

[Kenney]

i thought there were some really great things, and some really terrible things in this movie. 
1 great thing:  FASSBENDER.  easily the highlight of the film for me.  his casting as magneto was a fantastic move and he gave the character depth and a cockiness that's required for a young magneto.

1 terrible thing:  JANUARY JONES.  she's gorgeous, yeah, but she is a TERRIBLE actress.  just cardboard.  ugh.  also, her "makeup" effects looked pretty bad.

1 great thing:  the younger kids.  i thought they were all cast really well and i liked the choices even if it wasn't actually the "first class."

1 terrible thing:  some of the makeup choices.  azazel looked horrible and beasts full body makeup was really awkward.  beast's face looked cool, but in wide shots it looked like a guy in an ape suit. 

1 great thing:  the 60's period backdrop.  i really liked this.  i liked the period costumes, i liked the cuban missile crisis scenario, i was into this.

1 great thing:  erik and charles.  the two of them together really worked for me, i thought they had good chemistry and worked very well as the opposite sides of the coin.

overall, i thought the great things outweighed the terrible things, and i did very much enjoy this movie.  i'd give it a B+.

I agree with everything you said. January Jones is HORRIBLE in this! She was so miscast. I think how much better this already great movie would be if someone else was cast in the roll to bring the level of sexiness and confidence Rebecca Stamos bought to the earlier X-movies. Shame. And Azazel did look like he would be more at home on the set of Buffy or Charmed than a major motion picture.

But those gripes aside, this movie was fantastic! The only thing that would have made it better would be if this was the first x-movie, and we could get more classic characters, but I'm totally cool with how this shook out. Everything worked really well, even the incorporation of the newer characters like Angel and Darwin in place of more classic characters.

[malpractice]

I agree with everything you said. January Jones is HORRIBLE in this! She was so miscast.

she wasn't horrible but she was just ok.

i so wish Alice Eve who was originally cast in the role had stayed on, she would of been perfect.

I loved X-Men: First Class though. Best X-Men movie, and the best Marvel movie, might be one of the best comic book movies overall too.

[leafinsectman (Dan)]

Liked Fassbender, liked McAvoy, really liked Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne

shooting the gun near the end

was hawwwwt, didn't like January Jones. She wasn't horrible or anything and maybe it was due to the writing or whatever but to me, she was just there visually. I didn't really feel her presence and I feel as though Emma should have more of a presence when she's around. Some of the younger X-Men were so so. I wish

Darwin

could've stuck around longer.

[Kenney]

she wasn't horrible but she was just ok.

I think she's great on Mad Men, but that's because that role and that show falls right in her range -- or at least what I've seen of it so far. And while she's a pretty woman no doubt, I thought she was totally out sexed by Raven which was odd as Emma is nothing but sex. I stand by my horrible, as everything she did was robotic, but I can see how you could view her performance as just ok. It's not like she detracted from the movie, so much as didn't add a thing to it. That aside, I can't stop thinking about this movie. The more I think about it, the more I like it the best of all of marvel's movies (even Iron Man 1) that have come out to date like you said.

And I thought

The Wolverine and grown ass Mystique cameos were fantastic surprises. I had no idea they agreed to show up. Much better than the fun, but played, Stan Lee cameos.

[ThePatheticClub]

I don't want to read any comments because I like to go in to movies completely open but can someone pm me if a Green Lantern trailer is played ahead of this?

[cidvicious831]

i got to say i enjoyed this one a lot more than the dark knight! the story was great, i loved magneto! even my wife knew what was going on and she didnt know anything from x-men or comics for that matter. it really touches on the characters and you feel for magneto. the hole entire time i pictured Malcolm x and MLK. great move i give it an A+

[frijolie]

Going to see this later today. Glad to see that it's getting good reviews amongst X-Men fans..that is a little reassuring.

[Lucien21]

I liked it.

Probably better than Thor, but not as good as X-Men 1 or Spidey.

[malpractice]

I don't want to read any comments because I like to go in to movies completely open but can someone pm me if a Green Lantern trailer is played ahead of this?

yea it played before my screening, right after the amazing Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trailer.

[Lawrence]

Just got out of the theater and that was a lot of fun. In my opinion I thought that the first 20 minutes were a bit awkward but everything after that I thought was executed well. It would of been almost impossible to me for them to have picked a better Magneto, he really stole the show. Not only was the film action packed I mean there was almost always some type of action or build up going on throughout the whole thing but they really dove into the characters. The line that is drawn between the two sides was fleshed out in a really believable way, both sides of the ideology were made to be sympathetic. I left the theater only thinking I cant wait to see the next one.

[nilcam]

This is now tied with Spider-Man 2 for my favorite superhero movie. Honestly, I would pay to see a 90 minute Fassbender Magneto hunting down Nazi criminals movie. I found the interplay between Xavier and Magneto fascinating. The teens seemed like kids and the backdrop was truly inspired. I thought January Jones was okay but needed more bitchy.

[scoundrel3000]

I'd like to read a monthly based on this continuity. 

[frijolie]

Just got out of the theater a few hours ago. My reaction.... eh  

I have a major problem getting past Beast's HORRIBLE costume/make-up. When he walked in at the aircraft hanger he came out looking more like a blue version of this:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/s-YdLaLbU9c&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/s-YdLaLbU9c&rel=1</a>

This quote sums it up pretty well (from Newsarama):

"Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy [...]  his makeup looks like a cross between a high school mascot and the Cookie Monster"

[frijolie]

 Why can I not delete this?

[the other mike]

fassbender should totally do james bond if and when daniel craig wants out. dude's got the smooth moves and the ruthless action-man down pat. i couldn't picture what a solo magneto movie would be like, but with this movie, now i WISH they would get off their asses and make one already!

kudos to kevin bacon for the convincing german. fassbender too, for the german and spanish.

kudos to the FX guys for a great emma frost diamond form! no kudos for blue beast's blue form. he kinda looked weird with the big mass of hair on his head!

jenifer lawrence: daaayyyyyym. how erik walked away from her in the bedroom, i'll never know. at least he gave her a kiss. she played an excellent mystique too. i'm quite happy they gave her something to do. maybe not so much with the fighting, but with character stuff.

love the movie!


-mike

[BurlIves]

Saw it this weekend:

Pros:

McAvoy, Fassbender, Bacon and Hoult were great in their roles, the four of them carried the movie for me.

Rose Byrne was the hotness.

Loved the 60's setting.
real spoilers now:

Prof X getting hit in the spine took me by surprise.
the "insert coin" ending!

Cons: 

The rest of the actors I found so-so, but really a lot of them didn't get much to do.

The blue beast costume was pretty bad.  His pre-blue feet looked great though, I wish they would have started him as ape-y beast, and left the further change till later in the series.  Also, Hoult couldn't really act through the costume, whereas before, I agree, he was the emotional heart of the film.  And post-blue, he didn't get to show off any beast moves.

Occasional fan service-y jokes that seemed contrived.

All in all I really enjoyed it.  Almost wish it had just been an Prof X/ Magneto origin, with the two of them against Shaw, and saved the school for the next film.

[Lawrence]

I'd like to read a monthly based on this continuity.