*possible spoilers* look away....
Here we go folks, my first article; and judging from the reviews I have read on here so far, this may not make some of you happy. Let me be perfectly clear: I did not like X-men: First Class, but strangely enough, it had nothing to do with continuity issues. I made peace with this 'what-if' scenario prior to walking into the theater. This movie managed to completely sabotage itself even without taking continuity into consideration. But enough with the preface, let's get down to reasons why I did not like X-Men: First Class:
-The intro lacked originality: It started out with the same Nazi camp scene that X1 began with. I get why they did it--it is a crucial moment in Magneto's life, and it reveals his powers to Shaw--I know. But they should have done it from a different perspective, perhaps looking down from Shaw's vantage point, something to make this original, as opposed to using the exact footage of the fence bending, etc...not a good start.
-January Jones' acting was terrible in this movie. Awkwardly terrible. I have never seen the TV show Madmen in which she stars, so i know nothing else of her acting chops, but this was bad. On a sidenote, while she is attractive, she is dangerously skinny. Anorexia skinny.
-Jennifer Lawrence's acting was terrrible in this movie. I have seen her in other movies where she was great, but here she came off flat.
-I am bored of Mystique. Please no more of her. Ever.
-Everything about Beast was awkward. It only got worse when he turned blue and furry. Terrible make up and costume. Biggest flaw of the movie. yeesh.
-Shaw CGI was not cool when he absorbed kinetic energy. Similar CGI was done in Matrix over a decade ago. (Shaw in Magneto helmet was also not cool)
-Azazel looked like he was wearing bright red oily makeup. Really, in this day and age that's the best they can do? and Nightcrawler 2.0? C'mon, we've already seen it, but it was cooler in X2 in the White House!
-I never got pumped up or excited during this movie. The movie did not engage me and I found myself wanting to leave the theater because the only character I cared about in the movie was about to turn into the bad guy.
-Why aren't Marvel's movies more innovative and on the cutting edge? Why are they not more visually stunning like "Sucker Punch'? Remember when 'Matrix' came out and revolutionized movie making? '300' felt new and cool when it came out, despite it's flaws. The Asgard scenes in 'Thor' were magnificent, and I would like to see more of that quality. I want something to blow my mind!
-And just so no panties get in a ruffle, there were some great things bout this movie. About every scene with Fassbender was good. bright future for that guy. The relationship between Eric and Charles is the stuff of legend. Very nice, indeed.
This movie left me with the same bad taste in my mouth as X3. In short, I expected more. Perhaps that is why I rate this movie so low. Or, maybe, I was drowned in footage before the film came out. I had already viewed most of the images that composed this movie, before stepping foot into the theater. Overactive media campaign. Maybe I need to lay off ComicBookMovie.com for a while.....naaah...