Note: the following review contains mild spoilers. For those who haven't seen it yet and don't wanna know anything about the film until they see it, you might want to turn away.
Better late than never, eh? ;)
For those who were wondering, I actually used to be a hater of the First Class movie, much like the majority of us CBMers. I even went as far as to imitate grif in saying 'bring on the X-Men reboot'. But then, slowly but surely, I realized that we shouldn't be hating on a movie we haven't seen a lot of yet, and by the last couple of weeks before release, I was actually excited about watching it. Many who've seen it go as far as to say that it's one of the best comic book films made so far. And after finally watching it yesterday, I can't disagree with that.
X-Men: First Class kicks off in the middle of World War II, with Erik Lesherr witnessing the death of his mother by the hand of Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), who goes on to be the main villain of the film. It was there when Erik fully discovers his ability to control metal. The film then fast forwards nearly 20 years later, with Erik (Michael Fassbender) - bent on vengeance against Shaw - meeting Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), who had an extraordinary power of reading minds. The two then become best friends, forming a team of fellow mutants such as Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Beast (Nicholas Holt), and Havok (Lucas Till) to help the United States in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was then, however, that Erik began believing that all humans were out to destroy the mutants, so he then begins his own revolution as Magneto, convincing Mystique to join him.
Right off the bat, the script is easily the best of any X-Men film, and it’s probably the first one where the story REALLY got my attention right from the get-go. In fact, I was slightly disappointed when it was over because it was so well done (which hasn’t happened to me when watching a film since I first watched The Dark KnightX-Men Origins: Wolverine’s lack of character development for 90% of the characters). You really get to know most of the characters well - especially Erik, Charles, Mystique/Raven and even Hank/Beast - to the point where they’re slightly believable.
The casting is also the best of the series. Fassbender stole the show as Erik, and the overall performance is easily one of the strongest I’ve seen in a comic book film (they need to hire him to play James Bond once Daniel Craig is done!). McAvoy is also excellent as Xavier, as well as Lawrence as Mystique and pretty much the rest of the team. I know many complained about January Jones’ portrayal of Emma Frost, but IMO she did a pretty great job (even if she seemed slightly wooden in the role). Bacon is also great and menacing as Shaw, and his death at the end of the film is pretty mindblowing.
Unlike the recently released Green Lantern or even last month’s Thor, X-Men: First Class isn’t really heavy on CGI at all, and it seems like it’s only used when necessary (such as scenes like when Erik stabbed a dude in the hand, moving a coin through Shaw’s brain, etc). Since the script by itself is marvelous (no pun intended), CGI doesn’t seem to be THAT important (again, unless needed), and it actually helps the story advance (unlike how in Green Lantern, some scenes relied a little too much on CGI).
Perhaps the movie I can best relate this to (at least thematically) is the last Star Wars film, Revenge Of The Sith. In both cases, we had two dear friends - who’ve fought alongside each other and were incredibly close - who were separated by one’s choice to become evil. The final confrontation between the two before Erik dons the helmet and mask is especially emotional, and it greatly reminded me of the final battle sequence in ROTS.
The only major flaw I can think of for First Class is the minor plot holes and continuity issues. For example, in the original X-Men trilogy, Professor X stated that he and Magneto were friends for a long time, while in First Class, they were only friends for a couple weeks or so before Erik turned to the dark side. The way I would’ve done it is have Erik not become Magneto until the second film, but with some over linings of his eventual path in the first film (similar to the Star Wars prequels, in which Anakin didn’t become Darth Vader until the final film). But this is, overall, a minor problem within the film, and it still works with the continuity problems, but not quite as well as it would have otherwise.
For those wondering if this is a reboot or a prequel, it seems a little bit of both - IMO, it’s a reboot of some characters (such as Emma Frost…I won’t go into her previous portrayal on the big screen), while still keeping ties into the original X-Men trilogy (such as having Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn reprise their roles as Wolverine and an older Mystique, respectively) . So in that case, it probably counts as a pre-boot of some sort.
In the end, then, X-Men: First Class is an incredible film, and is by far Fox’s best comic book film to date. Hopefully they learn from this film to put the same amount of quality and talent into every one of their future CBMs. X-Men: First Class joins the ranks of Thor, The Dark Knight, and Iron Man as one of the greatest comic book films we've had so far. Bring on the sequel!
I rate X-Men: First Class 4.5 out of 5 stars.