X-Men: First Class

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Here it is, finally, the prequel to the X-Men trilogy and Wolverine. Hands up all of those who are excited about this... Brian Singer put your hand down... OK that leaves no excited people and I can fully understand why.

The X-Men trilogy got off to a very promising start. Brain Singer (like him or hate him) understood what to do with a film adaptation of the X-Men comic book. X-Men and X-Men 2 both focused primarily on the social outcast themes that make the comic book stand out from its brethren. Both films were exciting, interesting and very well made, its also worth noting that the first installment pretty much sparked off the current 'comic book movie' trend which we still reside in to this day. Part three was a step backwards, originally Matthew Vaughn was slated to direct it, then negotiations fell through and Rush Hours, Bret Ratner took the wheel. He then proceeded to drive the franchise into a ditch where it lay for a while until X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out and the franchise slipped from the ditch and into the sewer system. All hopes for the X-Men movie franchise were lost, or at least until Marvel would buy the property back and predictably reboot it.

This didn't happen though, instead Fox pushed forward, in fear of loosing a profitable franchise and set the wheels in motion to produce X-Men: First Class, a dubiously titled and foul smelling prequel. This time very much on board is Matthew Vaughn, a risky move seeing as his directorial career is still very much in the throws of acceptance but an acceptable risk in my opinion because, with X-Men: First Class, he kicked the franchises fucking arse like it was a one legged man in an arse kicking contest.

X-Men: First Class is a prequel to the first two X-Men movies only. It completely ignores the last two installments and rightly so. Based in the 1960's and in the mist of the Cuban missile crisis, we follow the stories of young Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, detailing the time when they first meet and their inevitably doomed friendship. Together they are recruited by the CIA to form a team of mutants in order to take on the evil Hellfire Club.

Cast wise its a winner through and through. James McAvoy's portrayal of a young and naive Xavier is both entertaining and believable and quite a pleasure to take in. He's not a patch on Michael Fassbender though, who plays Lensherr as if he was the hero of the story, making it even more poignant when he turns to the darker side in the films climactic moments. Jennifer Lawrence makes for a very good Mystique, displaying both touching and dramatic nuances in her performance and carrying the emotional dilemma of her character with apparent ease. Kevin Bacon seems to enjoy the bad guy role and as a result is very entertaining. Even Vaughn's good luck charm Jason Flemyng does a decent job as the slightly creepy Azazel. The only negative point in terms of casting lies upon the stunning figure of January Jones who is visually flawless while lacking any real substance.

Direction wise Vaughn proves his worth once again. Performing all the tricks he's learned over the years since splitting with Guy Ritchie to put together one hell of an entertaining movie. The tone and the pacing is perfect. Instead of playing the film out in the comic book movie industry standard, Vaughn has gone for an early James Bond vibe. In fact tone wise it reminded me very much of the first few Sean Connery, Bond films from the 60's, the exact era when this film is set. Something which I'm sure in no coincidence. Vaughn's also shifted the focus back onto the social outcast theme again, something which X3 and Wolverine did away with and something which those movies both desperately needed. Its also worth noting that with its bright colour pallets and imaginative composition this is the first X-Men movie that actually looks like an X-Men movie, the other films being relatively dull and lifeless in comparison.

Script wise its a strong movie. The characters are all well realized and have rather good and interesting arcs. The time setting fits into the story perfectly and really grounds the action. Its not exactly a script worthy of any awards but when pitted against its comic book movie competition, it fares very well. Its more adult in its themes than the likes of Thor, has better structure than both Iron Man movies and doesn't try to outdo its competition in the same way Spiderman 3 did. The script is both serious and intelligent enough to be intriguing while being fun and respectable of where it came from. 

To sum up X-Men: First Class, is a game changing installment to this previously dead franchise. It takes all of the first two's best features and turns them up to eleven. The action sequences aren't too in your face and are all clever enough to keep you entertained. The film has retained the level of intelligence that the source material demands while embracing the films comic book origin a lot more that Brain Singers installments ever did. The film is 132 minutes long but it doesn't feel like it. When the closing credits started to roll I found myself wondering if the film had come in shorter than advertised and was indeed quite surprised to find out that I'd been sat in one place for over two hours without noticing that my arse had gone numb.

I know its really rather boring when I enjoy a film and write only good things about it but despite the title and January Jones's performance I really don't have a bad ting to say about First Class. As it stands I would rank this well up on my list of best Comic Book movies. Its not as good as Spider-man 2, but for my money its better than Dark Knight, a film that I personally hold in very high regard. Its true folks, X-Men: First Class is THAT good. Get the fuck off of my blog and see it.

X-Men: First Class gets...

4.5 out of 5