FU Movie Review - X-Men: First Class (2011)

Title - X-Men: First Class

Year - 2011

Generic Genre - Sci-fi, Super-hero

FU Genre - Sci-fi, Super-hero, Action-Adventure, Fanboy, Philosophical

Source - Movie Theater

A young Professor X (James McAvoy) and a young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) join together to fight a mean-spirited Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon???) in order to save the world from destruction.

Hmm… I know there has got to be something more to it than that, right? Nope, not really. It’s a super-hero flick. Good guys vs. bad guys and that’s what you get.

To be fair, there’s a lot of other stuff going on, but it’s really just about character interplay and establishment of background for characters that have been around since the 1960s in comic-book format. Anyone who has read the comic knows most of this stuff already, though in a slightly different form. For those who haven’t been geeks since birth, most of the information contained in the film may be potentially useless if they don’t decide to continue the franchise.

But anyways… I digress. Charlie (that’s Prof. X) and Erik (Magneto) go out and find some other mutants like themselves and form a little army to fight off the danger of Shaw and his nasty mutant squad. There’s some interplay here between Charles and Eric, between Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) and Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) which gives the philosophical bent to this film which makes it more complex than most other super-hero flicks. Mutants against humans plays a role as well, being one of the themes that the original series delved into.

A lot of them. These team super-hero movies always have a ton of characters, most of them sitting silently in the background with no development. Here’s a list of the more important ones... i.e.: the ones with the most lines.

James McAvoy as Charles Xavier/Professor X. He does a great job here. We see a side of the Prof. that isn’t readily accessible when you think of the bald-headed brainiac that Patrick Stewart portrayed in X-Men 1-3 and the character from the book. It’s a welcome change of pace and McAvoy pulls it off well.

Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto. Another brilliant performance. The interplay between him and McAvoy is what makes this film. It brings to light the philosophical ideas that are at the heart of the film. Fassbender holds up his end of the deal in the face of a rather intimidating performance by Ian McKellan in the first 3 films.

Nicholas Hoult as the Beast. Does a great job, and aside from McAvoy and Fassbender, he’s the best in the film. Not too many lines to spread around, unfortunately, but what he gets he rocks.

Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique. Cute and fairly talented. She does a good job of being there as a rebound for the other characters’ better lines, but her own lines are washed out and she’s a mediocre actress at best.

Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw, aka The Evil Bad-Guy. Bacon manages to worm his way into a super-hero flick at last, and does not disappoint. He downplays the character and uses his limited screen-time to create a nice villainous presence without trying to infuse too much personality. Bravo.

Others include… ah screw it. There’s just too many to list and they all get about 2 lines each and some of them would have been better off being written out.

Cold war, 1960s, Cuban Missile Crisis.

The over-all feel of the film is good enough to take you back without spending too much attention on details that just aren't important in a film of this type. We don’t feel like we’re sitting in the year 2000, but where we are is fairly irrelevant. There are Russians and JFK is president and everything looks a little bit out-of-date while still being science-fictiony.

The costumes work, the settings work, and the music is decent enough to be non-obtrusive to the film.

Good vs. Evil, ‘nuf said.

Actually, the real plot lies in the philosophical content that lurks throughout the film.  You probably have to be a geek to really appreciate it without just pointing your finger at the screen and screaming “Wow!  They gots super-powerz!!!”  But it’s there.  Anyone who’s ever been an outsider will pick up on the undertones and appreciate the real point of the film, which is more about the ambiguities of morality and justice.

Complexity.  The bar for super-hero films has been consistently raised over the last decade, and people, namely directors and producers, are starting to take the genre seriously as a medium of expression.  Thank fucking god.  We have gone from Adam West as Batman to Christopher Nolan directing The Dark Knight.

The acting!  The main cast puts a serious face on these comic-book heroes and villains.  X-Men impaired viewers and fanboys alike will not be disappointed.

It’s the f’kn X-Men!  I grew up on this shit.  I love the X-Men.  You should too or there is something wrong with you.

Dialogue!!! They needed a serious re-write. It was a shame that actors who obviously put so much effort into developing their characters had to spit some of this crap from their mouths. And the incessant need to shove every bloody X-Men affiliated catch-phrase into the last 5 minutes of the film? Seriously, someone should be slapped.

It’s a damn shame they had to try and cram as many cast members in as possible. They could have spent that extra time on developing the better characters instead of just showing off what kinds of neeto powers mutants have.

Also, I waited til the end of the credits, since every super-hero film has some bonus scene that tempts us to wait for the next film. Nothing. Fk you guys.

Geeks, nerds, fanboys, and fangirls.

Anyone who has had any enjoyment from past super-hero flicks (excepting Daredevil… if you enjoyed that film, please stab yourself in the face with a pencil).

It’s one of the best comic-book films out there so far, competing with the Nolan Batmans for level of complexity.

Heck, even people who just want to see things explode and people beat the crap out of each other in new and exciting ways will get a kick out of this film.   There’s a reason it’s #1 at the box office as I’m writing this.

4 out of 5 - The Thumbs up of Approval

I’m gonna go see this one again when I get a chance, just to check out all the little things that normal people don’t pay attention too (like editing and camerawork and all that crap). The movie was complex and done well enough to keep me from getting all the awesome in one sitting.

Go see it!

Disclaimer –

This review expresses MY opinions of the subject. If your tastes differ from mine, I don’t care. You should listen to what I have to say and agree with it. If you don’t agree with me, I don’t care.