X-Men: First Class Review

This year looked a bit iffy for comic book movies.  Thor was always a hard sell for the big screen (and yet it worked wonderfully), The Green Lantern got some serious criticism when it launched its first trailer. Since then there have been vast improvements. But even this new X-men movie had a few niggles over costumes and posters as they were released. The trailer itself looked a little all over the place and unfocussed. It is with please then that I get to report that overall the film is a success.

X-Men : First Class, or How Xavier met Eric opens in war-time 40’s where we meet the young Eric Lehnsherr in the camp we saw him briefly in at the opening of the first X-Men film. This is extended as we get a faster grasp of how and why he is such a tormented character. It also introduces us to the film’s key player in Kevin Bacon’s villain Sebastian Shaw.

Once the film moves up to early 60’s it breathes a little. Taking it’s time to show us Charles Xavier making the most of his academic life, not to mention the ladies, and also Eric slowly taking out his retribution on the men who made his life a misery.

Once the two come together in the common cause of chasing down Shaw, the two combine their efforts to find and recruit fellow mutants for the good of mankind. There is an great montage sequence where we find them approaching various mutants just for this cause and gives the film a much needed lightness of tone for a while.

Vaughn smartly plays off the real world events of the time (Cuban missile crisis) as well as explores the 60s popular vibe at the time and often feels like the X-Men version of a Bond film (although when we hit the club scenes it does feel a bit Austin Powers). There is plenty of time for character though for the supporting characters as well as the leads. While James McEvoy puts in a good performance, even if it doesn’t quite sound like the Xavier we know from Patrick Stewart, it is Michael Fassbender who gets the meatier role. He gets to have all the fun doing bad things to serve his own good; wrestle with his fears and emotions later on before finally giving over to the dark side. And it is literally all of his dramatic beats that make the film so strong as well as the friendship he makes and then breaks.

If there is any weak point in the cast it is probably Rose Byrne (who pops up in many good films, but is usually pretty forgettable herself. I barely remember her in Sunshine or 28 Weeks later, but I enjoyed the films). She is perhaps cast too young here, but ironically her character in comparison to the rest of the series is cast too old! (Moria MacTaggert appears as a former beau of Charles in X-Men: The Last Stand (mainly for the post credits coda of that film), and you’ll notice there she is a good 20 odd years younger than Charles – which would make her under 10 in this film???

January Jones may look the part; but she needs to hone in the acting skills a little more for her character to work beyond the two dimensions she ends up being. And it isn’t like she wasn’t given enough screen time to prove herself. Instead it is all wasted on looking like model and wearing very little.

So is it reinvention? Clumsy mistakes (Seriously you could have just had any old character in that role for this film?) Or do they just want to have their cake and eat it and damn the linear qualities of character and story-telling.

There is also time for notable actors in smaller roles like Jason Flemming (Vaughn’s good luck charm) and Oliver Platt, but also a few neat cameo spots (one being the films funny highpoint).  Vaughn also seems to have grabbed as many “I know that guy” actors as he could to fill in for the role of Generals, Admirals, Commanders, etc. Just have a look at those names: James Remar, Michael Ironside, Ray Wise, Matt Craven, Glen Morshower, Rade Sherbedgia…

A film full of treats then. This may not rank up with the heights of the series, but it is far far above the lows. A welcome return to the franchise and assurance that there will be more to come.

Steven Hurst