X-Men: First Class
Once again, I have to state that I am slightly biased when it comes to these types of movies. I love super- hero movies as much as I love reboots (as long as they are good) and I love prequels. This one was all three. X-Men: First Class tells the story of how Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik ‘Magneto’ Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) first met and came to form the school that is the basis for the comic book and previous movies. This is a great ride and a satisfying feat of film making considering it had to compare to the great performances in the original movie by Patrick Stewart and Ian McClellan.
I almost don’t consider this a reboot as a reboot tells the story from a fresh perspective or interpretation. This one was definitely meant to be an account (and in that sense continuing the story line) of how things came to be in the first four X-men movies (I’m including X-men Origins: Wolverine). However, this one definitely has a different flavor from the other ones. I would say it almost had a James Bond feeling to it. Especially in the first part of the film which involved the future Magneto hunting down ex-Nazis. Lensherr’s ultimate goal is to track down the Nazi who killed his mother. There has been a lot of scuttle that Michael Fassbender portrayed this role so well that he could be a strong consideration for succeeding Daniel Craig when he leaves the James Bond role. I totally agree. This movie is a true show case for Fassbender as he portrays the future Magneto with a cool, hip, and sinister slickness that harkens back to the Sean Connery Bond of the 60’s (Ironically, the director Mathew Vaughn’s movie ‘The Layer Cake’ turned out to be a career making role for Daniel Craig which landed him the role of Bond).
James McAvoy takes on the unenviable task of the role of the young Charles Xavier, the role done to perfection by the great Patrick Stewart. They are big shoes and almost impossible to fill, but McAvoy delivers. He portrays the younger version of the solemn wise professor as a sort of Austin Powers playboy. Brilliant and accomplished, but just as interested in impressing women as he is in explaining the secrets of mutation to the world. You can’t imagine that he will one day be the impassive Charles Xavier who we know and love from the X-Men movies, even though we see all the personality seeds there waiting to sprout. We learn how far back the relationship between Mystique (played seductively by Jennifer Lawrence) and Xavier goes and the nature of it. The film adds nuanced and sympathetic layers to the one dimensional Mystique character from the previous movies.
Kevin Bacon portrays the film’s villain, Sebastian Shaw; the leader of The Hellfire Club. He channels every Bond villain ever created, right down to surrounding himself with scantily clad, dangerous women and riding around in a flamboyantly decked out nuclear submarine. Shaw is the aforementioned Nazi who Magneto is pursuing. Shaw’s goal is to destroy the human race to clear the way for mutants to become the dominant race. By manipulating events in a Bond villain type fashion, Shaw orchestrates the Cuban missile crisis.
Xavier’s future wife, Moira Mac Taggert (Rose Byrne) is the CIA agent who discovers the secret plot and enlists Xavier to help explain the mutant phenomenon and enlist other mutants to combat Shaw’s team of mutants.
At this point the movie takes a different direction as it leaves the Bond arena and enters the world of super-heroes. Xavier and Magneto become fast friends as they team up to try and enlist mutants they find through an early version of Cerebro (you have to have watched the previous movies to understand). It’s always fun to see the introduction of characters and their unique powers. Some characters work and some don’t. Some of the standouts in this movie are Lucas Till as Havok and Nicholas Holt as The Beast (Nicholas seems to be making the transition from child actor to adult extremely well). The movie plays liberally with the events from the comic book series, but the characters remain faithful in their interpretation. Again, the seeds for the future are planted. Everything from the space that will become the Danger Room to the prototype for their future jet are seen in their infancy. Fan boys will be able to pick out numerous timeline inconsistencies from the movie, but the regular audience will enjoy it for the fun movie that it is. People who haven’t seen the other X-men movies probably don’t like super hero movies anyway and this movie probably won’t change their minds.
This movie breaks the trend of showing a scene after the credits, but everything else captures the magic of the X-men movies and breathes fresh life back into the series. Exciting plot, fun action sequences and humorous cameos, this movie leaves us wanting more. This is a good passing of the torch to a new cast without having to totally reboot the series.
I give this movie **** stars
No comments:
Post a Comment