X-Men: First Class (2011)

Film: X-Men: First Class (2011)

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence

So last night I went to see X-Men: First Class and, for the first time in a while, felt it warranted a review here. I haven't written on A More Enjoyable Reality for a while and that's down to a few reasons, the main one being I've had loads of uni work to finish (final year stuff - important) but now that's all over I can devote a bit more time to blogging. Since my last review on here, of How To Train Your Dragon, I have seen a few movies (Your Highness, Water For Elephants) but I haven't had the time to write about them yet. Fear not, they will be coming, probably over the course of next week.

Anyway, lets talk about X-Men. Whilst I consider myself to be a fan of comics and my graphic novel collection is increasing all the time, the X-Men have never really appealed to me. I just haven't really gotten into Marvel's team of mutants. I enjoyed the first films (not the horrific X3 though) but they were never up there with my favourite comic book movies like Donner's Superman or Nolan's Batman films. It doesn't help that I've always swayed away from Marvel comics and towards the DC universe (I just prefer DC's characters most of the time). Nevertheless I was excited about First Class because I love origin stories and the 1960s setting looked very interesting. I was not disappointed, for most of the film anyway.

X-Men First Class sets out to explain how Charles Xavier (McAvoy, formerly Patrick Stewart in the original films) searched the world for his team of mutants and how they came to be his formidable X-Men. The studio execs at Twentieth Century Fox have taken many liberties from the original source material found in Marvel's archives but First Class is primarily focused on Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto (Fassbender, formerly Ian McKellen). Matthew Vaughn's story concentrates on how Charles and Erik befriend each other and proceed to find and recruit other mutants to join them in their fight against the evil Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and his Hellfire Club. Action and adventure ensue, but its typical comic book stuff so I'm not going go into any more detail with the plot.

For me First Class got off to a rough start and I wasn't quite sure if it was going to hit the heights I'd expected it would. For example some of the acting by the child actors in the beginning was pretty bad and it gave the film an uncomfortable feel, that something wasn't right. In fact, the first 45-50 minutes of First Class left a bad taste in your mouth, it just wasn't clicking into gear and everything felt wrong. Its hard to explain but luckily, once the X-Men got away from all the rubbish with the CIA, the movie picked up a bit and the last half/two thirds of First Class was excellent and really made up for its slow start.

Credit must go to the brilliant cast for making First Class so enjoyable, McAvoy and Fassbender in particular were terrific throughout. McAvoy brought a new element to the Charles Xavier character that we'd never seen before, a bit of a ladies man and don't forget the hair - Professor X with hair! If McAvoy was excellent, Fassbender was astoundingly good. His scene with the ex-Nazis in Argentina was incredible, reminiscent of his role as Lt. Archie Hicox in Inglourious Basterds. Fassbender will surely be high on Hollywood's radar now and when Daniel Craig is done with 007, Fassbender would make a brilliant Bond. When McAvoy and Fassbender were on screen together it made First Class a much better movie. Without them, the film seemed to struggle at times.

The supporting cast were largely good, but some were better than others, as would be expected with such a large cast. Kevin Bacon was particularly inconsistent throughout; he could be very convincing one moment and then laughable the next. Maybe it wasn't Bacon's fault, I expect it had more to do with the dialogue he was given, but First Class is not one of his finest performances. Jennifer Lawrence looked great as Mystique but I don't know if its just me but did she walk a bit funny? She had a bit of a limp it seemed, or was struggling with her heels throughout the entire film. January Jones was a great Emma Frost, as I expected she would be - if any actress is going to come close to the comics version of Emma Frost, it has to be Jones (just look at her). On the whole everybody else was good, and I really liked how the team gelled over the course of the film and each major character seemed to find his/her self by the end. The team responsible for the costume design but be praised, they did such a good job and nailed the look and feel of the era First Class is set in - everything looked so good. One moment that made the entire film for me? A certain cameo from a popular member of the X-Men renowned for his retractable claws. It was hilarious.

Overall, X-Men: First Class is probably more than you'd expect from your average comic book blockbuster. Of course it has great action pieces and beautiful stars to leer at, but it also has a great sense of humour and two unforgettable performances from McAvoy and Fassbender that elevate the film far above its predecessors.

A More Enjoyable Reality Rating: 7/10

Thanks for reading.