Ok. I caved. I saw X-Men: First Class. The decision to see it was not an easy on e though. For the past few months, I have written editorials and left comments on articles about the film, saying why I thought it would be bad. However, as of late, I had been questioning my stand on it, and felt that there was no way to know whether it was good or bad without actually seeing it. I also did not want to pay to go see it, because giving money to FOX is encouraging a badly behaved child to behave in a n even worse manner. Fortunately, I had an AMC gift card, so I figured I may as well go and kill 2 and a half hours.
The story is about how Charles Xavier and Eric Lensher formed a bond and how that bond was also destroyed. In the process, they also form a team of mutants to fight a more sinister team of mutants called the Hellfire Club, who are trying to prevoke the United States and Russia into igniting the Cold War, so that humanity can wipe itself out, leaving only mutants behind. It was a cool story, not a great one, but also not horrible either. The movie has an almost James Bond like quality to it, just with mutants added in.
As for the performances, James McAvoy did a good job of playing the ever optimistic Charles Xavier. Just like in the comics, and the original X-Men films, Charles is always doing everything he can to promote mutants and humans living together as one society, and making sure that neither side resorts to violence. The real star of the show is Michael Fassbender as Eric/ Magneto though. Just as Charles is ever the optimist, Eric is constantly playing devil's advocate, and although, he does fight alongside Charles, you really get the sense that he was never fully on board with Xavier's ideals or agenda. By the end of the film, you will know exactly where he stands, and needles to say, it is no longer along side Xavier. On a side note on Fassbender's performance; while I absolutely want to see Daniel Craig continue as Bond for as long as he can, Fassbender should absolutely be the man to take over for him when the time comes. Nicholos Holt is also very good as Hank McCoy, and looks great as the fully transfrmed Beast. He does a good job of conveying Hank's shame of his feet and his further mutation into Beast, and he's a pretty good nerd too. Jennifer Lawrence is also good as Mystique. I'm not going to get into the rest of the team, because just like in all of the other movies, they seemed like they were there for filler. Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw played a pretty standard villain and really was nothing to write home about, and January Jones really did not seem to have enough to do at all as Emma Frost. The rest of the Hellfire Club seemed like filler too. There were a few nice cameos though. At one point before bedding Eric, Mystique briefly morphs into Rebecca Romain from the original trilogy, and I got a good laugh out of Hugh Jackman's cameo as Wolverine.
So how does the movie fare? Simply put, if you are a hardcore fan of the X-Men, this movie gets very little right, and what itdoes get right is twisted and altered way too much. This movie skirts between the line of a prequel and a reboot a lot, and I honestly wish, that if they were going to go so far in their own direction, even not really adding up to the first trilogy, that they had just went all the way and did a real reboot with the real first class. If you can look at this movie as an all together alternate take on the X-Men, then you will probably get some enjoyment out. Plus, having the Cold War as the backdrop, gives it a nice spin on American and world history.
Let's get one thing clear here. A lot of critics and other folks have been holding this movie in a very high position, saying it the best CBM ever, or the best one since The Dark Knight. At the risk of sounding arrogant, let me tell you that those people are all wrong. This movie does not come come close to Nolan's Batman series or Iron Man and the rest of the line up from Marvel Studios laeading up to The Avengers. Those movies were able to retain a lot of what made the comic books great and still appeal to non comic books lovers. This movie though, does not. So call it a good movie if you must, but not a good CBM.
So in conclusion, X-Men: First Class is a good way to waste 2 hours, and that is all it is. Matthew Vaughn has directed a somewhat entertaining movie, but nothing really memorable.