As this is my first ever review, I’ll begin with the most general part, the story itself. Like many when this movie was announced, I was very excited for what could be. However, as more information came out about the film I became very cynical of its prospects—random mutants pulled from oblivion, a glaring omission of certain key characters, and storyline set during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I must admit that I was adamantly against the naming of the movie as “First Class” when only one of the original team appeared. The audacity and arrogance by which the often vilified Fox (deservedly so most of the time) seemed to be spitting in the faces of the fans was just beyond me. That aside, I believe the film itself was overall a good film. I did have problems with certain parts of the story such as the building of cerebro by Hank McCoy, Moira MacTaggert being CIA, and some of the characters used. The story itself though was easy to follow, had good flow, kept the audience involved, and was entertaining.
As I mentioned one of my biggest problems was the characters placed in this movie. That’s not to say it didn’t have its bright spots. I thought Fassbender (Magneto), Hoult (Beast), McAvoy (Xavier), and even Kevin Bacon (Shaw) were extremely engaging. Fassbender and Hoult in particular really stole the show for me. They brought layers to their characters and seemed to really connect to their roles. I think McAvoy was a great balance on screen to Fassbender and his performance was overall impressive. I also haven’t come across anyone who has seen the movie who didn’t despise or hate Shaw within a few scenes or minutes. Kevin Bacon really brought the audience a villain they could connect with and dislike. These four characters really made the movie for me, in particular Fassbender. Unfortunately, after these characters I really didn’t feel like the others were very impressive. Azazel (Flemyng) and Riptide (Gonzalez) were forgettable overall and did not really add much to the film, dialogue or otherwise, with the exception of a few action sequences. And although I liked the look of Azazel overall, I feel like he was a poor man’s Nightcrawler circa X2. As for the so-called “X-Men,” I was most impressed with Banshee. His look was pretty accurate, although I wish he would’ve had the traditional accent. The others (Havok, Darwin, and Angel) were all very underdeveloped characters and overall slightly less forgettable that Riptide. Also, as a side note, the nerve of Fox to call the movie “First Class,” not have the original team, and then have a character called Angel bothered me. And yes, before anyone comments I do know it was Angel Salvadore, but she takes the name Angel in the film. As far as Mystique (Lawrence), I’m quite torn. At times she was good, but at others she was very whiny, annoying and just flat out bad. Overall, her performance was slightly above average, but nothing that impressive in my opinion. And finally, Emma Frost (Jones) and Moira MacTaggert (Byrne) were complete busts in my eyes. I wish I could forget some of their scenes honestly. January Jones seemed completely uninterested, devoid of emotion, and disconnected almost the entire time she was on screen. Her performance was cringe-worthy in spots and I was beyond disappointed. The one positive thing I can say was that she looked the part. Likewise, Moira (Byrne) was unimpressive and seemed overmatched by most actors she shared the screen with. As a final note on the characters, I thought the cameos were all great—Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Romijn, the slight nods to Storm and Cyclops—all great.
All that being said, I thought the movie was pretty good and I would be interested to see Vaughn continue the franchise. Some comic book movies like Thor, Batman Begins, and Iron Man had me leaving the theater wanting more. First Class left a similar impression on me, although with one slight difference. I left First Class wanting more: more from Vaughn, more Fassbender/Hoult/McAvoy, more X-Men, but most of all I left wanting the ever elusive and still never captured proper X-Men film. I want to see the original members come together, Cyclops lead, and a story more faithful to the material take place. Hopefully, Fox can take the positive momentum from this and give the fans what they’ve been wanting all along.
Good effort, overall good film though. (3.5/5 stars)