X-Men: First Class (7.5/10)

X-Men: First Class (7.5/10)

I grew up on the X-Men and Spider-Man animated television shows and I really enjoyed the first two movies from each film trilogy, so naturally I was ecstatic to hear they were going to be adding to (rebooting?) both series after equally disappointing third installments. First Class was tops on my list of superhero movies for the year and boy did it live up to expectations. The press leading up to the release was phenomenally done as it did a great job of setting the tone and showing how different this new imagining would be from the original trilogy.

While this was not particularly an origin story, it did touch on bits of Charles Xavier/Professor X (James McAvoy) and Eric Lehnsherr/Magneto’s (Michael Fassbender) early years and how they came to be the men represented in the first three movies. The performances of both actors were spot on and although I enjoy the older versions of their characters played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, they brought a new dimension and added life to the roles that didn’t exist prior. Out of the remaining cast members, the strongest performances came from Kevin Bacon as the devastatingly sinister Sebastian Shaw and Nicholas Hoult as the brainy man-child Hank McCoy/Beast who tries so desperately to change his physical appearance in order to be accepted by society.

The most unique and to me the most appealing aspect of First Class was the nearly revisionist historical story that used found footage and actual events to blend the fictional Marvel universe with our own. The story is set in the 60’s Cold War Era, deals with the tensions between the US and Russia, and climaxes in an event that resembles the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even the Bond-esque opening credit sequence fits the retro feel of the film and I was immediately drawn in as soon as they began to roll.

The biggest flaws included sub-par performances from proven thespians Jennifer Lawrence and January Jones who played Raven/Mystique and Emma Frost respectively, as well as a terrible makeup/VFX job for Beast, and a very obvious lack of character depth for the majority of the mutants outside of Professor X, Magneto, and Mystique. When all is said and done though, X-Men: First Class is a fantastic character study and an exciting ride that certainly stands up to the original trilogy, but also creates something unique that will hopefully spawn more stories for years to come.