X-Men: First Class Review

The X-Men franchise has been enjoying a pretty good run in the live action movie stakes. The trilogy, kicked of in 2000, stayed respectable throughout and even the less favoured follow-up, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, managed to avoid flop status. Truth be told, I actually enjoyed Wolverine more than the third movie in the trilogy. Ok, so I have a man crush on Ryan Reynolds. So what? Now we have X-Men: First Class, a prequel to the X-Men trilogy which depicts the collaborative period of Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier - better known as Magneto and Patrick Stewart - and the birth of the X-Men alliance along with it's evil twin, The Brotherhood of Mutants.

Faux Fact: The original X-Men comic series was to be called Men+, but had to be renamed at the last minute due to the existence of a men's sexual virility supplement of the same name.

X-men: First Class begins with a brief flashback to 1944 which introduces our two main mutants, Charles and Erik, as children. We see how Erik's childhood was derailed by the Nazi occupation of his Polish homeland and his torment at the hands of Dr. Schmidt, a ruthless German scientist who seeks to exploit Erik's ability to manipulate metal with his mind. Meanwhile, in New York, mansion dwelling telepath Charles confronts a home-invading runaway in his kitchen and complains that his mother doesn't love him enough. Sorry, Richie Rich. No sympathy for you. The runaway in question is fellow mutant Raven, the childhood incarnation of the shape-shifting Mystique. Charles offers his new friend sanctuary and from then on Charles and Raven are as siblings except for the fact that they actually care about each other.

Flash forward to “present day" 1962. Erik, as a pre-Magneto adult, is on a globe-trotting mission to track down Dr. Schmidt and bring him to pointy, metal justice. And he's not shy about stepping on a few toes along the way. Pro Tip: Don't be a Nazi anywhere near Erik Lensherr.

In England, Charles and Raven are still living together. (Not weird.) While Smurfette waits tables, big bro uses his powers of insight to trick women into sleeping with him. Between beddings, Charles has managed to find time to become an Oxford graduate and publish a thesis on mutation.

Elsewhere, CIA agent Moira MacTaggart sneaks into the Hellfire Club while tailing a suspect U.S. Army Colonel. There she observes a private meeting between the colonel and one Sebastian Shaw, formerly Dr. Schmidt. Amidst the dodyness, she witnesses the mutant abilities of Shaw's cohorts which would have scared her pantless were she actually wearing any.

While searching for an explanation of what she saw, MacTaggart comes across Charles' thesis and approaches him for help. Charles agrees to fly to America and explain to her boss that she is not insane and that the type of crazy shit that she reported is actually possible.

For some reason, Charles brings his sister along. Perhaps they need someone to serve them drinks during the flight.

Shaw is ramping up his sinister plan, Charles and Raven have teamed up with the CIA to get to the bottom of it and Erik is on schedule to exact his revenge. The stage is set for excitement and other fun things.

Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Shaw     aka Dr. Schmidt, the German scientist who nurtures young Erik's abilities. Much like interrogators nurture information out of Guantanamo Bay detainees. He has notions of superiority far beyond the Nazi's blonde hair, blue eyed “master race"⁺I put that in quotes so you know I'm not racist. He's a sadistic, Nazi-affiliated scientist who is pro-mutant, anti-humanity and the figurative father of modern day Magneto. He's a villain.

Kevin Bacon aces the aging Dr. Schmidt In the opening scene, but his portrayal of the younger, Americanised Sebastian Shaw in later scenes is less impressive.

Michael Fassbender plays Erik Lehnsherr     aka Magneto, easily the most interesting and perhaps likeable character of the piece. For me, a good villain is someone whose motivations I can understand. Erik's behaviour and attitude is completely rational and I could easily have taken his side over Charles'. He has a healthy distrust of humans and most interactions he has with them as a mutant justifies his cynicism. He sees the humanity's fear of the mutants obvious superiority. He knows that fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate... leads to suffering. ⁺ Actually, fear of not remaining stupidly wealthy leads to your fans suffering through three shitty prequels, which leads to their anger. And Indiana Jones IV? I'd rather Lucas and Spielberg had literally spat in my face. At least it would have been over sooner. But I digress.

Michael Fassbender is brilliant as Erik. His performance is enjoyable and his German, to my ear, is totally convincing. A great casting choice. (Bear in mind that I'm not familiar enough with X-Men to have any preconceptions regarding how and early Magneto should look or act.)

James McAvoy plays Professor Charles Xavier     , the wealthy so-and-so whose life has been so fortunate that his naive, idealistic world view has remained unchanged since childhood. He's charming and compassionate to a fault. His notion of human mutant cohabitation is swell and all, but he just doesn't seem to understand how much he's asking. We humans can't even tolerate other humans.

If you're a WANTED survivor like I am, don't worry; James McAvoy's portrayal of Charles Xavier will NOT invoke scream filled flash-backs to that steaming pile of nonsense. He actually does a pretty groovy job.

Jennifer Lawrence plays Raven     aka Mystique   ,  who doesn't exactly have a whole lot going on besides an understandable identity crisis. She struggles with the fact that her natural state of yellow eyes, bumpy blue skin and bold red hair would elicit a negative response from most people. Raven's shape-shifting ability gives her the opportunity to fit in anywhere, but what she really wants is to be accepted for who she really is.

Rose Byrne plays Moira MacTaggert     , a character that I feel had the potential to be really annoying. Thankfully, she was not. Though ever present, she contributes little more than a bit of whining and a smidge of romance. She also has the manliest Surname in existence. (With the possible exception of Dudeman.) Rose Byrne gives a good performance.

There are plenty of other characters, but the enjoyment generated by you reading about them would fail to outweighed the boredom created by me writing about them. Can't operate in deficit.

Something that bugged me: In 1966, it's clear that Sebastian is a mutant, but what isn't clear is whether this was always the case. He is visibly younger than in 1944 and after demonstrating his energy absorbing ability to a hapless human says “It keeps me young". Then why did he not appear young in 1944? My initial impression was that he had obtained his abilities by researching mutants and somehow abstracting their powers, but none of this is made clear.

Another seeming inconsistency is Sebastian's underwhelming death. Just before his demise, Shaw absorbs a butt-ton of energy from a nuclear reactor. Yet, when Erik turns his head into a piggy bank, not a skerrick of energy is released. What would I would have expected and preferred is something like this.

On a positive note: I like the way the Cuban missile crisis was worked in to the plot.

I don't like it when romance is shoehorned into a movie like it's a prerequisite. Thankfully, X-Men: First Class keeps the romance to a minimum.

Oh, and I know she isn't in this movie, but Halle Berry sucked as Storm. And Cat Woman was so bad that I journeyed to CERN Laboratories, travelled back in time, and made myself promise never to watch that movie.

X-Men: First Class would have to be my favourite X-Men movie so far. It's serious and sometimes dark. The two main protagonists are likeable and relatable (Eric > Charles). It has its tacky moments, but they are few. The sets and costumes are great, the cast is solid and the story is exciting and engaging. I hope the next X-Men film follows suit.

I'm giving X-Men: Fist Class a score of four Nazi coins out of five.

Please share your thoughts and comments on X-Men: First Class below.

Note: There exists an X-Men: First Class comic book series, but it and this film are too dissimilar to bother drawing any comparisons. If you're interested in much darker imagining of the X-men, free from super powers, you should check out X-Men Noir.