[Note: Wrote this review before my trip to Pride and then forgot about it and haven't had time to add pictures and stuff until now. Enjoy!]
As a devoted X-nerd this was a tough one for me! There were things I enjoyed about X-Men: First Class. Not to come off too flamingly, but the stylized sets and costumes were fabulous! Sebastian Shaw and his Hellfire Club goons in particular looked like they were right out of a James Bond film with their tight suits and short skirts. They really made this stand out as not just another “superhero movie” by setting it in a time and place we had never seen heroes before.
The acting was also great pretty much all around. Putting this film in the capable hands of James McAvoy (Professor Charles Xavier) and Michael Fassbender (Magneto) was a great choice. Adding in Kevin Bacon to carry the bulk of the villainy was another wise decision. All three of them shine and bring out the best in the rest of the young cast. Bacon in particular did a great job. He always creates interesting villains.
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| We know they are smart because they play chess a lot! |
I'm afraid this is the sad part where I have to put this film under the microscope and state that for all its big ideas and flashy mutants it was kind of a disappointment for me. Set in the heat of the Cuban Missile Crisis, “First Class” tries too hard to juggle too many characters and too many plots. We have the relationship between Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence in blue scales) and Magneto. Her relationship with Professor X. Her budding relationship with Hank McCoy (Beast – Played with boy-genius-next-door charm by Nicholas Hoult). Come to think of it Mystique got around in this film! Add to those stories the relationship between Magneto and Xavier. Magneto's relationship with Shaw. Beast's relationship with Havoc (Lucas Till looking sexy!). Xaviers relationship with CIA Operative Maura McTaggert. The young X-Men's relationships with each other and their allegiance to either Shaw or Xavier... You get the point. Lots of relationships to try and flesh out in two hours.
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| Emma Frosts fuzzy bra ensemble wins the costume award as usual |
Then we have the classic X-Men themes you trip over every other minute. Should mutants try to befriend an angry human populous? Should mutants be proud of who they are? What duty do mutants have to each other and the world?
This is all set against a war movie, as we see lots of sober men in suits discussing nuclear war in both the US and Russia. We get a Nazi flashback or two. We have a “Red October” submarine and battleship scene where one of the US sailors utters one of the most overused phrases in movie history - “God help us all”. This all adds up to create a movie that is both ambitious and underdeveloped. I felt like most of the characters in “First Class” weren't fleshed out to a degree I would have liked. The title of the film says “X-Men” so it would have been nice to get to know some of the X-Men. This is most glaring when the dazzlingly handsome Nicholas Hoult shows up for the teams first big mission suddenly blue and beastly-looking. The team give him the once over, make a few jokes, and then it is almost forgotten that their friend has transformed himself into a giant blue yeti.
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| Wait. Why exactly would this woman be a call-girl? |
Another example is Sebastian Shaw's Hellfire Club. Who are they? What exactly are their goals? Why does the gorgeous and smart Emma Frost (January Jones) work as a call-girl for them when she can read minds and turn into diamonds? Only Magneto's hunt for Sebastian Shaw felt like it was executed well to me from start to finish.
Once you get past the nerd-gasm of seeing many of your favorite comic book characters come to life things become more mundane. When “X-Men” came out years ago it could have been a terrible film but just to see Professor X and Magneto on a movie screen! So exciting. Now we are seeing them again, just with different actors, and the effect is lost somewhat. That isn't even getting into the meat-cleaver they took to X-Men comic continuity to put this film together! Save The Beast, none of the new recruits in this film were among the original X-Men in the comics. Some were younger than the characters in the later movies, of which this is supposed to be a companion of.
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| How you doin' Lucas Till? |
I would overlook this if I thought the overall effort were worth the sacrificing of some interesting characters in future X-films. All the stars here would be as old as Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen by the time we reach the 2000's. I felt let-down they took away some interesting characters. Havoc, Cyclops YOUNGER brother, is made his older brother here and not fleshed out at all.
There were some good effects in “X-men: First Class”. Some nice winks to fans including references to Wolverine and Professor X becoming old and bald... Trying hard to come up with reasons to give this film a higher rating. I think it was a good try but not the best X-Film, which still goes to “X-Men 2”. MUCH better than X3 however! That film still makes me mad just thinking about it! As a self-professed X-nerd of many years I am sad to say I cannot recommend this film very highly. Wait for it on video and check out “Super 8” instead! I hear it is amazing.
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