Genre: Sci-Fi | Action | Adventure
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Writers: Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn, Bryan Singer
Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Oliver Platt, Álex González, Jason Flemyng, Zoë Kravitz, January Jones, Nicholas Hoult, Caleb Landry Jones, Edi Gathegi, Lucas Till
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Synopsis:
Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-MEN.
Runtime: 132 min
“A new species is being born. Help me guide it, shape it, lead it.” – Charles Xavier
Director Matthew Vaughn‘s first foray into the X-Men universe, starts in 1944 with a virtual shot-for-shot recreation of the scene in the original X-Men, which shows a young Erik Lensherr (Bill Milner) in a concentration camp being torn from his parents and displaying his mutant power for the very first time.
The film then flashes to a young, mind-reading Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher) meeting a young, shape shifting Raven Darkholme (Morgan Lily) for the first time. This is not the only deviation from film or comic book X-Continuity in the film, but all are really quite forgivable. After watching this film, the best advice I can give you is to view it as an alternate X-universe of sorts, much in the same way J.J. Abrams’ version of Star Trek rewrote that franchises history to a degree, but not in an absurd, nor disrespectful way.
If you are worried about the performances of James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, or Michael Fassbender as Erik Lenherr, let me set your mind at ease. These two actors did an outstanding job of portraying the younger versions of these characters. Watching a young Charles become a professor, while seeing a young Erik obsessively travel the globe, hunting Nazis from his past is fantastic, and Fassbender could not have played the anti-hero any better than he did.
One of the other great things about this film, is seeing just how, and why Charles and Erik came together and became fast friends. It’s also quite powerful to watch Charles attempt to pull Erik away from his anger and hatred at times, and struggling to do so throughout the film. McAvoy’s ability to portray the emotional desperation of Charles trying to save his new-found friend from himself, and Fassbender’s ability to volley his emotions between anger for those who did him wrong, and compassion for Charles, knowing that he does truly care for him, is pretty wrenching at times.
January Jones as Emma Frost was passable. She lacked the personality that I’ve always imagined from that character via the comics, but she looked the part, her mutations (diamond skin & telepathy) were done very well and she did portray a flat-out, emotionless bitch quite well, if that was what she was going for. Because I have always been a huge fan of Nightcrawler, I was really looking forward to seeing Jason Flemyng‘s portrayal of Azazel, the man who would become Nightcrawler’s Father in the future (if they followed the comics). The effects they used for Azazel’s teleportation were essentially the same cool effects that were used for Nightcrawler in X2 (only red instead of blue), his makeup was fairly decent and the combat scenes with him were totally badass, but he did not have one single line in the film, which was quite the disappointment.
Álex González as Riptide had a few cool displays of power, though again had no lines and no personality. Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Shaw, who is the main villain of the story, and was really quite cool. His mutation is the ability to absorb and then use energy from other sources, whether that’s a barrage of bullets fired at him, or the explosion from a hand grenade. Aside from his powers, Bacon played him as an awesome 1960s villain. He pulled off both the look and gravitas of a legendary Bond villain of that era. After so many serious, dramatic roles, it was great to see Bacon having fun in a genre film for a change.
I have to admit that the inclusion of Lucas Till as Alex Summers / Havok, rather than having the young version of Scott Summers / Cyclops in the film did bother me a bit at first, and though Till did do a really good job with the character, I still would have preferred that he, or someone else had played young Cyclops instead, though I do understand the film makers desire to distance themselves from the past films, to a degree.
Jennifer Lawrence did a good job as the young Mystique, Nicholas Hoult was virtually perfect as the young Hank McCoy, and there were things I both liked and disliked about the makeup/effects used when he transformed into Beast, although Hoult’s performance made that easy to overlook, and it would really be nitpicking anyway. Caleb Landry Jones‘ portrayal of the young Banshee was pretty cool, and he offered a few moments of comic relief in the film that were entertaining. Edi Gathegi‘s portrayal of Darwin was ok at best, though it’s not his fault, as his screen time is so limited that his character is really a non-issue of sorts. Zoë Kravitz did a great job playing Angel Salvadore, she’s beautiful, her mutation effects were awesome and she has a really cool aerial dogfight in the film. Watching two flying mutants battle in the air for a bit on the big-screen was pretty cool.
While some of the lesser mutant’s back-stories were left behind, and the more prominent mutants, along with the relationship between Charles and Erik were the main focuses of the film. Vaughn, Goldman and their co-writers managed to pull off a superhero film with a pretty large amount of character development, along with great action, emotion and a message, not unlike those contained in Bryan Singer’s past X-Films, that are still applicable today.
While they may be alternate histories in a sense, aside from the character’s origins, seeing the origins of things like Magneto’s helmet, The (Blackbird) X-Jet, Cerebro and even the X-Men moniker itself, were nice touches. Also, being able to witness the early beginnings of Magento’s Brotherhood of Mutants, the opening of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, along with the moment that placed Xavier in a wheelchair, though maybe not comic book accurate, were (if you’re not totally jaded) still fanboy smile inducing.
In my final assessment, I will say the same thing that I thought as the credits started to roll at the end of the film. Bravo, Matthew Vaughn! You managed to direct one of the best X-Men movies to-date, and you were actually somehow able to make a great Marvel movie without 20th Century Fox screwing it up in the process.
I give X-Men: First Class Four out of Five Stars
