X-Men: First Class review
In 2000, the first “X-Men” film was a landmark. Not only was it the first Marvel film ever that didn’t suck (arriving 2 years before “Spider-Man”), but it had the difficult task of introducing not one, but an entire team of angsty superheroes to general audiences who may have been unfamiliar. It had it’s flaws but was remarkable for how much it got right. “X2” was the fan favorite in the series, now that the characters had been introduced there was more time to explore their relationships and just kick a lot of ass (remember that White House sequence?) Unfortunately the third film was rushed into production and Brett Ratner stepping into the director’s chair practically signed the franchise’s death certificate. Six short years after it had been launched, the X-Men films were now creatively bankrupt. Even if the third film did outgross the previous two, its budget was the most inflated and fans on the whole, were not pleased. After exploring the idea of spinoff films, with the horribly titled and even worsely produced “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” and an unproduced “Magneto” origin film, the studio decided it was time to scrap everything and start over.
“X-Men: First Class,” set in the 40’s and 60’s traces the beginnings of Professor X and Magneto before they had their monikers (or knew what to do with their powers) and pulls off the trickiest juggling act of prequel/reboot since 2009’s “Star Trek.” 90% of prequels don’t work because you already know how they’re going to end and though the finale was etched a little too concretely for my tastes (would have preferred more ambiguity without wrapping everything up in this film), everything leading up to it was thrilling. The film has a lot of ground to cover and even more characters to service, so it moves fast and you rarely get a breath from all the globetrotting. The film only starts to disappoint when Charles assembles the actual team and suddenly there are more characters than the film has time to give proper arcs to.
I would have preferred more focus on Moira MacTaggart, Raven, Hank and definitely Charles and Erik. If the whole movie had been focused on the relationship between those two, I would have been happy. Michael Fassbender is amazing here and early sequences of him hunting down Nazi’s are some of the highlights of the film. They prove that the film doesn’t need huge special effects or increasingly elaborate action sequences to be absolutely worth geeking out over. The best effect here is a great character and Erik/Magneto, as portrayed by Fassbender is magnetic (sorry). (Unfortunately the special effects do come later and don’t seem as polished as they could be, some of the flying around outside just isn’t as convincing as it could be.)
The Bryan Singer films were fun but also took themselves seriously but ‘First Class’ keeps things pretty light and comic-booky. Mostly it’s breezy fun but it’s almost a little too frothy and sometimes you want to dig in a little deeper and the film doesn’t oblige. You would also think that the film’s 60’s setting would be a great chance to dig into some of the racial and gender issues of the day but the film leaves them completely untouched and uses the period only as a groovy backdrop for it’s cast. (Women in the CIA are treated as equals and African-American’s face less prejudice than a white genius with hairy feet? Not in 1962, my friends.) It seems like a wasted opportunity and and there is so much potential to be mined here I wondered what a filmmaker like Christopher Nolan would have done with this film. The effects would have been immaculate, the story weighty and the cast all given proper arcs.
Director Matthew Vaughn (“Kick-Ass”) is a much scrappier filmmaker, when the film is working it’s firing on all cylinders but a few sequences seem rushed in their execution. The irony here is that Vaughn was originally slated to direct the third X-film but left when he realized the tight schedule wouldn’t allow him to make the film as good as he thought it should be. He returned to direct here but the schedule was just as tight. A few of the scenes are a little clunky (particularly the coming up with the names sequence), one of the villains (Azazel) looks like he was rendered from a 90’s Jim Lee drawing and not a 60’s one, but on the whole my nitpicks are small ones. Under the circumstances it’s even more impressive what he’s pulled off. The 60’s setting is great eye-candy and (as many have pointed out) recalls Connery-era Bond films.
Overall though, the film is a blast. There was definitely audible geeking out during our screening and a few small ties to the previous films that fans should find really fun. While watching some of Marvel’s other recent offerings I found myself wondering if I was just too old and cranky to get the same sort of geeky thrills I’d gotten out of superhero movies past. “X-Men: First Class” proved to me last night that it was definitely not the case. While the film is not perfect (and a few scenes shy of being great) it’s an extremely fun summer movie that should satisfy all but the pickiest comic book fans by giving them a fresh take on the X-Men series.
