5 Reasons Why X-Men: First Class will be awesome

For over six months I have been saying that X-Men: First Class will be the best movie of summer 2011. As the June 3^rd release date approaches I’m sticking to that.  Here’s why:

#1 The Director:

Matthew Vaughn isn’t a household name, few directors outside of Steven Spielberg and James Cameron are (Michael Bay might be, but not for good reasons), but the next five years will see his notoriety grow substantially.  The only movies Vaughn has directed are Layer Cake, Kick-Ass, Stardust, and now X-Men.   Kick-Ass is the most well known of his movies, but Layer Cake is a fantastic movie and Stardust is a very good, underappreciated movie. 

 Each of Vaughn's three movies is great for very different reasons.  Layer Cake is a serious, British crime movie, with a great plot and great actors to boot.  Stardust is a quirky fantasy film revolving around a star that literally falls out of the sky.  It sounds a bit odd, but Stardust is extremely enjoyable to watch, with a great cast highlighted by Robert De Niro playing a cross-dressing sky-pirate (not kidding).  Kick-Ass was released last year and is a film adaptation of a comic about a nerdy teenager who decides to try and be a superhero.  Most directors have flops at some point in their career but I seriously doubt X-Men will be Vaughn’s.

#2 MAGNETO LIFTS A SUBMARINE OUT OF THE WATER:

Enough said

#3 Origin stories are great:

I love a good origin story, unfortunately the first three movies only vaguely referenced how the X-Men were formed and I like to pretend that X-Men: Origins never happened.  Finding out exactly how Magneto and Professor X’s friendship is destroyed (and how Magneto turns into such a douche) should make for a great plotline.  One of the best scenes in the first X-Men movie is a flashback where a young Magneto tears down a fence during the Holocaust, so I can only hope First Class has more cool glimpses into mutants’ pasts.

#4 Kevin Bacon is in it:

Sweet pants

#5 Takes place in the real world:

In my opinion, the best superhero movies are well grounded in reality (i.e. The Dark Knight, The Watchmen, X-Men 2). Superhero movies that drift towards the ridiculous tend to falter (i.e. both Fantastic Fours, Hulk, Spider-Man 3).  First Class is going to involve elements of the Cuban Missile Crisis as well as the Civil Rights Movement.  Combining  parts of those two events with some good storytelling should make for an excellent movie.