Sometimes I wonder if you people are ever happy. After the lackluster X-Men: The Last Stand and X:Men Origins: Wolverine, we cried out for a good X-Men movie. Many of us seem to forget that Bryan Singer's original X-Men movie was the movie that opened the door for the comic book movies we see now, and it proved that if a comic book movie was adapted well enough, it could please all. It's sequel, X2 was even better and became the standard for all following comic book movie sequels. Then we had a disappointing third movie and an even worse prequel. After all hope was lost, we got X-Men: First Class, a movie no one wanted. First Class is surprising people by actually performing well at the box office and by also getting good reviews, with many people are comparing it to Batman Begins. But of course, there's still those detractors. People are out there, still complaining, pointing out changes made to the comic books, changes in character, and goofs in the continuity between this and the other X-Men movies.
Who cares?
The fact of the matter is that if you look past the changes and continuity glitches, you will see a damn good movie. No, it's not 100% true to the comics, but no comic book movie ever is. People have been complaining about the changes this makes to the source material, especially not using the "original First Class". First off, it is impossible for any X-Men movie to be 100% accurate to the comics. These days, the X-comics are more like soap operas with all these intersecting character stories, storylines, and character deaths and resurrections. No two hour movie can ever perfectly translate the X-Men to the big screen, at least not without losing the interest of most of the general audience. Another thing fans forget is that studios want movies to be as concise and easy to view as possible, especially for general audiences. As hard as it is for fanboys to grasp, but you are not the audience the studios make these movies for, hell, you are just a small percentage of the audience that sees these movies. The studios want an easily watchable, entertaining, summer popcorn flick, which First Class was.
But lets look at the changes made to the comic books. Fans love to point these out in the X-Men movies, when in fact every comic book movie, even the good ones, make changes. Don't believe me? Take a look...
Batman Begins: Bruce was never trained by Ras Al Ghul or the League of Shadows, in fact he never had any contact with them until later in his career. In the comics, Ras is immortal and wants Batman to be his heir. Also, the gunman who killed the Waynes was never caught or identified (in the newer continuity). Gordon and Wayne/Batman never met before Year One. Lucius never supplied or created any of Batman's equipment. Scarecrow doesn't wear a suit. Bruce's travels over the world was public knowledge, he was never seen as dead.
The Dark Knight: In the comics, Joker had his skin bleached by chemicals, and his smile was natural, not scars. Harvey Dent was scarred by Maroni, not an explosion caused by Joker. Dent is schizophrenic in the comics, not out for revenge.
X2: In the comics, Stryker is a fanatical priest, not a military scientist. I'm sure there's plenty of other little changes I missed.
Iron Man: Tony was captured in Vietnam, not Afghanistan. Obediah Stane was a business rival, not a mentor to Tony. Jarvis is a butler and not a computer program.
Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2: In the comics, Peter invents web shooters, they aren't organic. He never grew up next to Mary-Jane. Doc Ock was never controlled by his arms, nor did he have a relationship with Peter before his accident.
And that's just scratching the surface. The fact is that changes are necessary to make a comic book movie flow. If we pick on X-Men: First Class for changes then we have to pick on every comic book movie. But we fans like to play forgiveness with our favorites, letting Christopher Nolan make changes because "we have faith" but attacking other comic book adaptations for the smallest change. So no, it wasn't exactly faithful, but it was presented in a fun and exciting, and different way.
One change everyone is complaining about is the lack of the real "First Class", which is Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Ice Man, and Angel. Seeing how this took place in the 1960's and was pretty much about the birth of the school, it would be hard to fit in Cyclops, Jean, and Storm. In the first X-Men, Charles did say that Cyclops, Storm, and Jean were some of his first students, but since the school wasn't even open in this movie, we can infer that they came later on. Plus, if we would have had the original First Class, that would have messed up your precious "continuity" that you all are so content on keeping seeing how in the later movies it would make Cyclops, Jean, and Storm way too old, Angel wasn't even introduced until the third movie, and when we see Ice Man, he's still a teenager.
Then there's the issue of continuity. The big issue is including Emma Frost in this movie despite her having a (rather pointless) cameo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I've brought this up in previous articles and I'll bring it up again: it seems like everyone is pretending Wolverine didn't happen, and is that a bad thing? Both Matthew Vaughn and Bryan Singer have said that they ignored Wolverine when asked why they put Emma Frost in this movie. Also, when asked how they were going to explain Deadpool's fate at the end of Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds has said that the Deadpool film will ignore the events of Wolverine. Hell, even Hugh Jackman has said that The Wolverine will be standalone and ignore the events of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. So, considering that, it seems like Origins never happened, which is something I'm okay with.
There are two other big continuity goofs in First Class, the first being in the first X-Men when Xavier says that Magneto helped him build Cerebro yet in First Class we see that Hank McCoy invented it. This is a pretty big oversight, yes I'll admit it. All I can think of is that it was a change made for brevity's sake. While it would have been cool to see Charles and Magneto figuring out how to build Cerebro, it would have meant the movie stopping in it's tracks for fifteen minutes or more to do so. While having Hank build it was a change from the previous movies, it kept the plot moving at a steady pace, and that's essential, especially when the movie is already two and a half hours long.
Another big continuity goof is in X-Men: The Last Stand when we see a young Charles and Magneto recruiting Jean for the school, yet in First Class they go their separate ways before the school even opens. All I can guess is that Singer and Vaughn chose to also ignore The Last Stand, but once again, is this a bad thing? X-Men: The Last Stan pretty much undid all of the awesome from the previous two movies, and I'm totally fine with it being wiped out of continuity along with Origins.
But the fact is that we can on and on about the changes First Class made, but if we take our fanboy egos out of the equation and just watch it as a movie, we can see how good it really is. As a comic book, X-Men are some of the hardest to access, being so bogged down in years of convoluted plot lines and such, and it's hard for anyone to keep track of things. X-Men: First Class was a great way to present a different spin on the origins of the team for fans and general audiences alike. No, it really didn't show us a "first class" but it showed us Xavier's first time showing young mutants how to use their powers, and we see the seeds planted for the school, which is necessary for an origin. We asked for a good X-Men and we got it, and there are still people being ungrateful, but lets not forget that it wasn't so long ago that it seemed like we would never see any of our favorite comic book characters on the big screen. X-Men opened the door for the comic book movies we see today, and though the series fell on hard times, it returned triumphant with First Class and we should be happy to see it. For those of you complaining about First Class, just go watch X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine then come back to me and complain about X-Men: First Class.
Go ahead, I'll be waiting.
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