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!

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.