To be honest and to start off, I actually was initially pissed by the decision of this 'First Class' to not feature the original five, which I was so curious to see. Nevertheless, as things started to come out, I agreed that everything looks great, and so I tried to forget the original five for a while and to accept this movie as what it is. I think of less a loyal adaptation and more as a movie. The result? Let's just begin:
Story and Script:
If asked what makes First Class a good movie, one of them should be the story. From highlighting the relation and development between the characters, the twists, and of course, how the action scenes are presented and how those are featured to be neccessary to the main plot, the parts of the story are very well structured. The writer smartly puts enough twists to avoid the story from being monotone since the main idea in my opinion is pretty simple; on the other hand the twists do not cause any great confusion. Do not forget how they successfully blend real world historical events with the mutant affairs to build a great story.
Don't forget to mention the fun, well-placed cameos. It may feel a little bit unnecessary but in the end it is not completely pointless.
The script isn't bad at all. The dialogues are smart and fit each characters well. There are some dialogues that sound pretty cheap or what, but overall those do not cause much disturbance.
Acting and Characters:
The performances presented by the actors featured in the movie are just solid. It's safe to say and we all know that Michael Fassbender, who is Erik Lensherr in this movie gave the strongest performance overall. Nonetheless, he didn't completely steal the spotlight; James McAvoy who portrays his friend and future rival Charles Xavier, also gave an equal performance. Not as great as Fassbender in my opinion, but there are no much differences in them. And not just their personal performances, but the chemistry between them was also very strong.
I have to say that what kept me interested of this movie is, surprisingly, the lesser-known characters that are presented in this movie. I was pissed indeed that the original five was not used initially, but at the same time I also thought that these new characters are fresh, and their lesser known aspects made them interesting to be seen. Correspondingly, from Lucas Till, Caleb Landry Jones, Jason Flemyng and the other actors who portray those characters have managed to deliver good performances. What is lacking from the movie is the fact that characters like Havok, Banshee, Angel, and Riptide merely got any character treatments. Nevertheless, I thought of it for a second and realized that it should be acceptable since they are new to the franchise, and in this first appearance of theirs it is not the development that becomes the focus, but who they are and what are their powers. Developments can be saved for sequels.
As for the villain, who is Sebastian Shaw...at first you won't be easily convinced of Kevin Bacon portraying him. Physically, there's no striking resemblance between them and as for Bacon himself, it's hard to see him in the movies not as himself. That, for me is the weakness of casting a well-known star in a comic book movie. Despite of that, Bacon managed to show his talent in acting and managed to portray Shaw pretty much very well.
Visuals and Techniques:
The CGI used in the movie was extremely smooth. From the projection of the mutants' powers to the objects that are crafted using CGI were all believable to our eyes. Of course nothing is perfect, but the flaws in the CGI crafting in this movie were nearly not visible.
Vaughn is a great director. He managed to avoid audiences from boredom by not putting the scenes to be shot from one single angle, at the same time the switching angles is not confusing. He also smartly put the camera shots on angles that capture the actors' emotional projection well. In action scenes, which mostly are fast-paced, Vaughn managed to capture them well with still keeping the intensity and enjoyment by not moving the camera too much; a problem that was present in movies like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, if I may do a comparison.
Weaknesses:
Even with all the good points that have been pointed up above, X-Men: First Class is not flawless. First, for a movie which premise is to set in the 60's, First Class really doesn;t get it. The sets, costumes (except for the X-men's uniforms, which were fairly acceptable), and other minor aspects look pretty much too modern for a 60's era. It may doesn't mean a lot but it disturbs me pretty much.
The second is continuity. Since I won't spoil anything in here so I won't say much words on it, however there are pretty obvious disgrace toward the continuity that has been built. I'm not talking about its loyalty to the comics continuity, but the continuity that has been built by Fox from the previous installments. Even after it being said to be a reboot, but there are some aspects like the cameo (don't tell me you haven't heard of it) that keeps it from being a complete reboot. Or even more obvious, the trailers and promotional stuffs have also featured footages from the previous X-films, which means this should be a prequel. It may be a pre-boot but still, in the end the intention of this movie and how it relates to the others is still not clear.
Overall:
Matthew Vaughn is a great director. Even if you don't like the changes Fox has made, you will still enjoy this as an overwhelming movie once you've seen it. Throw in great actors in the line-up of the cast and strong story, X-Men: First Class is exceptional.
And my rating; yes for me it is the same great as
Thor:
8.5 /10
Definitely a must see.
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