X-Men: First Class Review

With X-Men: First Class, X-Men as a franchise has now gone the way of the Batman franchise making a series of great (at the time) movies, and then rebooting them years later with the Christopher Nolan films and changing the way we view comic book movies, except X-Men did it in half the time. Bravo First Class you have defied all expectations and managed to be an engrossing character study with exciting bombastic action, a match up most comic book movies would never dare attempt, and yet First Class goes above and beyond what we expect from the average summer movie and becomes an astounding accomplishment and a immensely pleasurable experience in an exceedingly over crowded market of comic book movies. The film begins with a real 60's James Bond feel, unfolding almost like an old school spy film supported by the Cold War backdrop the movie takes place during; it later switches gears a little into a full blown X-Men spectacle and the two distinct parts are both equally enjoyable and a cool change of pace.

At the center of First Class is the relationship between Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), when we first meet these characters they are nothing like what we remember. Xavier is charming and womanizing with a full head of hair and two functioning legs. Erik on the other hand has been traumatized by the Nazi concentration camps of his childhood and has taken it upon himself to hunt down and kill Nazis who have hidden themselves in society. These two will go on to become each other’s archenemies and their friendship and eventual falling out is a large part of the movie and arguably the most entertaining.  Both McAvoy and Fassbender give amazing performances that is every bit as engaging as the relationship between the future Professor X and Magneto. Fassbender’s performance is truly stunning, and is done a great service by not being the villain of the movie; his character survives such an immense trauma which he spends his entire life trying to rectify that by the time he is willing to condemn thousands of innocent lives to death the audience is nearly cheering for him to succeed. Fassbender is the true standout of this entire film and he give such a transfixing performance that you almost perk up in your seat whenever he appear on screen.

The rest of the film centers around Charles and Erik recruiting young mutants to fend off an impending attack from fellow mutant Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and his cohorts who are orchestrating World War 3, which Shaw believes can be used to eliminate those who are not worthy to live and leave only the next step of evolution, Mutants. Plenty of mutants appear in First Class and since this movie take places decades before the previous X-Men films we are given a whole new and pretty obscure team of mutants including Havok, Banshee, Darwin, Angel and, more familiar ones like Beast, Mystique and, Emma Frost. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) also plays a large role as her character goes through a major arc as she discovers that she is not ashamed of whom she is and yet she hides her true scaly blue form from the world. Her feelings toward Charles in the beginning as well as her thoughts on mutants change dramatically over the course of the film as she learns to accept herself with the help of Erik. The most disappointing part of the movie is Shaw who is such a one note villain he could have been replaced with anybody else. His entire purpose is to put the Americans and Russians on edge so that the already hostile superpowers go into global nuclear war. The film takes a bit of time with Charles and Erik recruiting and subsequently training these young mutants to stave off the possible advancements of Shaw’s plan, and its a fun and frequently emotionally moving part of the movie as Charles teaches Erik that his anger is not the only source of his powers by forcing him to remember suppressed memories of happier times. The kids themselves are very strong characters each with their own trepidations about their powers, but they must master their powers and become comfortable with who they are if they are going to stop Shaw.

The last 30 minutes of the movie is one of the most amazing action spectacles, wonderfully directed with tons of energy and momentum that gets you pumped up and nearly jumping up and cheering on the X-Men as they fight the opposing Hellfire Club lead by Shaw. The special effects on display are some of the most astounding without being completely over the top, Erik pulling a submarine out of the water is not only an incredible spectacle because of the visuals but because of the  intensity of emotion Fassbender gives.

Everyone gets their moment to shine; Beast and Banshee especially have great inventive action scenes and play a large role in beating the Hellfire Club. Some characters are short changed including Havok and Emma Frost, who is actually being held prisoner thousands of miles away. It's unfortunate that some potentially creative fights don't occur because the cast is so big not everyone can be shown off to their full potential, well at least its one more thing to look forward to in the subsequent sequels.

X-Men: First Class is an astonishing revitalization of a once thought dead franchise, and if this movie is any indication there are amazing things still to come from the X-Men. The performances throughout the film are strong, but none stronger than Fassbender who is truly outstanding as the haunted man who has been ruined by his childhood trauma. The action is well directed and consistently unique and exciting.  X-Men: First Class is ambitious with powerful performances, stylish action, and a well written script, it is a strong reboot for the franchise and I for one am very excited to see where they go from here.

(5 out of 5)