X-men First Class Review

X-Men First Class is an interesting animal. Knowing the love of the first X-Movies, the hate of the later ones, the insanely short shooting schedule, ret-conning the continuity, Matt Vaughn's movie reputation (including another comic adaptation, Kick-Ass) and everything else going on with this property, its a wonder as much of the movie works as well as it does. The very first trailers were a glimpse at something special. 

Early on, there were talks of reboots, talks of prequels, and talks of a Magneto spin-off movie. X-Men First Class is a mix of all of these things. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if it all comes together. By now, many have praised the movie, and to be fair, it is a lot of "fun". It manages to balance the comic book sensationalism with the real world backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis fairly well. 

Full spoilers 

The X-Men movies have always had themes of prejudice, but now, being set in the 60s, they had a chance go even deeper with it (which the filmmakers promised) and sadly, it was a missed opportunity. There was no racial tension whatsoever with some of the minority characters (is this the 60s or not?) but overall there is no real sense of hostility towards any of the mutants outside of typical teen teasing stuff that could apply to any time period. In Bryan Singer's movies, you get the real sense the mutants have to hide. First Class is a pretty straight-forward revenge movie with the cold war material dominating the subplot. There just isn't enough room to really examine the mutant prejudice in detail. 

Also, it is sad to see the cliche that a black character is the first, and only mutant to die in this film. The other black character is the first to switch to the bad side, btw. Take that as you will. 

 

If you just look at the structure of the movie, its not as "fresh" as some are making it out to be. The protagonist is Erik Lehnsherr all the way, he's the one driving the plot, moving the action forward, and while he and Xavier share some nice scenes together, their friendship feels slightly rushed, as does Xavier's transformation from playboy Oxford grad to gung-ho human rights activist. Magneto essentially plays the "Wolverine" role, focused squarely on revenge and haunted by his past. Kevin Bacon's Sebastian Shaw essentially plays the "Magneto" role- a superpowered villain who has big plans for the future of mutantkind. And even Emma Frost is basically just the "Mystique" role, as Shaw's right hand woman. Frost is such a great character that deserves better. 

Also, if you think about it, Magneto's hatred for humans is unjustified since the man who ruined his life, who made him who he is, is a MUTANT. Shaw's part in the story completely betrays Magneto's character motivation, so by the time he has his "Darth Vader" moment, it doesn't quite feel earned. 

For a movie about the creation of the X-Men, that comes into play relatively late in the movie, and is basically a brief series of montages before they are ready to go stop NUCLEAR WAR. 

 

But ignore thematic missteps. Ignore storytelling structure. What matters most to me is if it does right by the comics. If you can ignore the extreme changes made to the core mythology, you can like this film. But it took great effort for me to do this, and I've concluded that if you can ignore these things, you either don't know X-Men or you just don't care. Not even getting into the new mutants chosen for the "first class", this is a film that suggests Mystique and Xavier were best friends since childhood. That it was Beast that created Cerebro (the existence of Magento's helmet now makes no sense). That Moria MacTaggart isn't a geneticist, but rather an agent of the CIA- Rose Byrne is really weak in this btw (between her, January Jones, and Jennifer "Mutant and Proud!" Lawrence, why are all the women in this film so bad?). 

It should be noted that outside of his telepathy, McAvoy could have really been anybody because he just doesn't look or feel like Charles Xavier. But many characters aren't right in one way or another, be it nationality or anachronisms like Alex "hula hoop" Summers (Cyclops' younger brother), and having Nightcrawler's father (Azaezel) and mother (Mystique) in the film, but seemingly unconnected. 

Perhaps that falls into reboot category, but if it's a reboot, why directly lift from Singer's opening Nazi scene, and why keep Mystique's scaly design? The mere fact that the first class are all new mutants suggests they didn't want to step on the continuity of characters' ages. 

 

It is very clear Matthew Vaughn just wanted to do his own thing; Specifically, he wanted to make a James Bond movie, using X-Men characters, and he does. I suspect this is how David O Russel's Uncharted would have turned out: the studio letting him just do what he wants, core material be damned. But with all this said, X-Men First Class works more often than not. Fassbender truly is great, and there are a couple of excellent scenes (the the Argentinian bar, a memory sequence, a particular cameo) that are as good as anything the X-Men movies have ever delivered. Matthew Vaughn's direction is strong, especially the action sequences, Beast's transformation, and the final battle. As different as Xavier is, he is very likable, as are many of the new kids, especially Banshee who I wish was in this more. 

First Class is good. Sometimes its great. But I think its getting overpraised, and I wonder how well it will age. Everyone is already dying for a sequel, and I'm not sure if I want one or not. It's reinvigorating, for sure, but this just means we'll be even farther away from that ever elusive "proper" X-Men movie. Because this still isn't it.