I was worried about X-Men: First Class when I heard it was an origin story, a reimaginging, younger versions of characters, etc. You hear all sorts of things before a comic book movie comes out. And we hear more than most people. In fact our ears often get clogged up with rumors, speculation and early buzz.
I was worried about X-Men: First Class when I heard it was an origin story, a reimaginging, younger versions of characters, etc. You hear all sorts of things before a comic book movie comes out. And we hear more than most people. In fact our ears often get clogged up with rumors, speculation and early buzz.
But I am happy to say this movie is fantastic. Well paced, fun, and more than worth your trip to the moving picture house.
I was never a huge X-Men fan. I was always more Spidey and Daredevil, but this movie has made me see how cool these characters can be. Not as cool as Daredevil during the Frank Miller years, but really cool nonetheless.
Here’s where they got it absolutely right: They placed these extraordinary characters squarely in the real world during the Cold War and the Cuban Missle Crisis. In other words, they treated it like a real movie and put comic book characters in a detailed, nuanced and three dimensional world. This is kind of the Dark Knight formula, and man does it work.
Director Matthew Vaughn and leads James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender do an amazing job grounding the movie as a drama with action and mutants. Not really sure what’s up with January Jones. Sure, she’s amazingly hot. But she seems to study the David Duchovny school of acting: One note, flat (again, only her acting) with no expression or even changes to her facial muscles. The good news is you can always get her done in one take. The only one who didn’t realize he was in a serious movie was Michael Ironside in a cameo. He pulled his “SyFy Original” acting out: ham-style. And damn, Kevin Bacon makes a cool villain. New game: Six Degrees of the Hellfire Club.
What’s really cool about this film is that you really feel the tragedy of these characters. It’s just not weirdos punching each other. You feel bad when Magneto ultimately falls, but more importantly you understand why, and feel Charles Xavier’s pain when he realizes he can’t save him from himself. (ahem, this is only a spoiler if you’ve never read a comic book before)
Going in, the movie had a lot against it: An origin tale, different cast, Brett Ratner directing the third one, The Wolverine movie stunk, lesser known and more boring mutants, etc. Yet it jumped every hurdle and then some except for maybe the D-list mutants. Can’t fit in a young Cyclops? But great acting, great directing, cool characters and a script that keeps you engaged from start to finish even if you know what’s going to happen to the characters later on. Ultimately it’s about the relationship between Professor X and Magneto, but there is plenty of other things going on make the main relationship story have meaning and resonance.
Thor was good, but X-Men: First Class was way better. It’s ultimately a hybrid movie, and that’s a fantastically good thing. It’s a popcorn superhero period piece drama. More, please.
–Chris Mancini
