Movie Review: X-Men: First Class

"Okay everyone, stare off into the distance"

Each year there are usually only a handful of movies I go and see on opening day, judging from one of my previous posts you can probably tell that X-Men: First Class is one of those movies.  Ultimately, X-Men delivers as one of the best summer blockbusters in recent years, however, I got a different movie than what I was expecting.

I thought this movie would be a series reboot, largely ignoring the original trilogy, but First Class serves as a surprisingly faithful prequel.  The movie’s presentation as a prequel is evident in the first scene because it’s the same scene that opened the original X-Men movie.  From that point on First Class remains loyal to original trilogy, however, this significantly limits what the movie can do.  The original trilogy utilized an exorbitant amount of mutants and since First Class takes place in 1962 only Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine, Beast, and Mystique are old enough to be in the movie. Professor X, Magneto, Beast, and Mystique all have major roles in First Class, Wolverine makes one of the best cameo appearances I’ve ever seen (this one is great too).  As a result, Vaughn had to use more obscure mutants such as Havok, Azazel, and unfortunately, Riptide, whose primary power is to dress like a douche (he can also create tornados).   But First Class deals with this problem well while still fitting an amazing amount of material into its two-hours runtime.

Blue People are so hot right now

By far, the best aspect of the movie is the relationship between Charles (Professor X) and Eric (Magneto).  Considering that their conflict is a major component of the first three X-Men movies, explaining their past and how their friendship fell apart is extremely important.  Their shift from friends to mortal enemies is both well done and believable.

That being said, First Class is not perfect, at times events feel a bit rushed and some of the mutants’ back-stories are not fully fleshed out.  Also, the movie’s budget is $120 million, which sounds like a lot, but is a bit low for a summer action movie (The Green Lantern’s is $150 million, Transformers’ is $200 million, and The Dark Knight Rises is $250 million).  The lower budget shows in some of the special effects sequences, especially when Banshee is flying around.  

X-Men: First Class was a great movie and it did such a good job setting up the dynamic between characters that I think the inevitable sequel will be even better.   First Class planted seeds that can be explored, for example in the comics Havok’s brother is Cyclops and Nightcrawler is the son of Azazel and Mystique.  A young Storm also made a very brief appearance which suggests the sequel could feature an ‘arms race’ of sorts where Magneto and Professor X scramble to recruit mutants such as Sabretooth, Jean Grey, and Cyclops.

To wrap this up, if you are still on the fence about whether or not to see First Class, I recommend you check it out.  I doubt you will regret it.

Sorry for the unusually long post, but I hope this was informative/interesting!