Now You Will Receive Us(Initial thoughts about the Film)
I honestly had very low expectations for this film. I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by what I found on the screen. This was a well crafted film. It was well paced, costumes were well crafted, the look of the film is solid and all in all it was a fun watch.
With that being said this IS a CBM Assassins review so we will drop the film to its knees, say a prayer and look at those good qualities as well as some of the film’s failures before we decide to pull the trigger.
Veritas (How TRUE are they to the original Characters?)
The amount of divergence from the source material in XMFC was staggering. They basically took characters from the comics and made their own little world. It almost felt a bit like reading an old “What if…” comic.
However, with that being said… They did a fantastic job creating this new world and somehow managed to stay true to the characters themselves (with a few exceptions) within the context of this new world.
Aequitas (Did they do the Characters JUSTICE?)
This is a hard call to make because there was really very little character development (outside of Magneto and to a lesser extent Xavier) in this film. With that being said I think it best to focus on what they got right (and what needed improving) with the main characters.
Magneto: The life that Fassbender breathed into this character (with the help of a great script) rivals that of Heathe Ledger’s Joker. He was the absolute highlight of the film.
Xavier: I felt like they really turned Charles’ conservative nature into a villainous trait. Instead of coming across as pure in motive he really felt weak and ashamed in his interaction with Mystique and Erik. However, with one exception (see the Erin Go Brag section of the review) James McAvoy’s performance was great. When I saw him, I believed he could one day be the great leader of the X-men.
Shaw: I applaud the special fx department for making Shaw’s Power look as cool as it did on screen. It was a difficult power to represent well and they pulled it off. However that’s about all I can say for Shaw because I felt that his potential as a villain was, well, squandered. He really didn’t do much.
Erin Go Brag (Biggest “facepalm” moment in the film)
Every time you hear Xavier use the term: “Groovy”.
In Nomne Patri, Et fili, et Spiritus Sancti (Closing thoughts on the Film)
The biggest problem I had with enjoying this film was the marketing of its release. Leading up to XMFC we were told over and over again that this film was a prequel to the original X-men Films. Honestly, the injured my ability to enjoy the film. I found myself constantly finding reasons why this could not possibly be a prequel. I know you have heard most of these reasons (or thought of them yourself) already but I will list the TOP FIVE (and there are plenty of others, but I don’t want to bore you) reasons as a part of this review.
TOP FIVE reasons that First Class can’t be a PREQUEL.
5) Emma Frost. Like it or not Wolverine: Origins IS a part of the original films. In X-men origins Emma Frost is a young girl (in her teens?) whereas this film (which takes place in the sixties) has her as a fully grown woman.
4) In the first X-men film Xavier Tells Wolverine that Jean and Scott were his first students. I don’t remember seeing them in the Film! I have heard people say that this was a throw together group and that these mutants were not actually his FIRST CLASS but COME ON! It’s called: FIRST CLASS!
3) Cerebro. In the first X-men film Xavier shares that Erik helped him build Cerebro. In this film Beast built Cerebro. Even if you justify it by saying that this was a prototype and the real one is built later… by the end of the film Erik is GONE. I don’t foresee him coming back on weekends to help Xavier build something that might help stop him.
2) Beast does not turn Blue and Hairy until X3. We see him in X2 and he still looks normal. Whereas in XMFC he is already Blue and Hairy in the sixties.
1) Xavier. By the end of First Class Xavier still has hair BUT he’s in a wheelchair. Whereas at the end of Wolverine we see Xavier pick up all of the mutants and he is bald BUT he’s walking.
So with this review we will have an interesting end…
We will have two review endings…
As a PREQUEL… We pull the trigger and leave the corpse of this tragedy for the cops to find after we leave.
(0 Stars)
BUT
As a REBOOT… We give it a stern talking to about some of the flaws we’ve seen and hope it gives us a better sequel.
(3 Stars)