X-men First Class Review

X-men First Class Review

X-men First Class isn’t just a movie; it is a uniquely magnificent experience!

Few films have moved me to rave this much (rave parties are a thing of the past… kidding).

After the disappointment of X-Men: The Last Stand and the lackluster performance of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Marvel finally created an X-Men that makes us forget about all other X-Men movies.

X-Men First Class is not going to be a loyal take on the comic version; it tells the story of how the X-Men in the movies is formed. But at the heart of this all is the story of the tragic friendship of Professor Charles Xavier, played by James McAvoy and a pre-Magneto Erik Lehnsherr played by Michael Fassbender. Joining Charles and Erik are shape shifter Raven/Mystique who was given a beautiful origin retelling, hot-head plasma-blasting Alex Summers/Havoc, sonic wave screaming Sean Cassidy/Banshee, the quickly adapting Darwin, mysteriously sexy Angel Salvadore, and the kid genius Hank McCoy/Beast–all in the backdrop of a 1960’s America.

Plot Summary (Spoilers ahead)

In the film, CIA operative Moira MacTaggert links imminent national security threat to Mr. Sebastian Shaw and his associates in the Hell Fire Club: the telepath Emma Frost, the teleporting Azazel and the whirlwind making Janos Quested/Riptide. When MacTaggert accidentally witnessed these strange beings, she sought out the help of Professor Xavier who quite recently published his thesis on mutation. At the same time, Erik Lehnsherr seeks out the man who killed his mother all those years ago—who, surprise, surprise, is also the same Sebastian Shaw. Xavier and Lehnsherr’s paths will cross and that’s when the plot starts to thicken.

Left to Right: Banshee, Magneto, Mystique, Moira MacTaggart, Beast, Professor X, Havoc

Review

Overall X-Men First Class is a thrill ride of well balanced story-telling, humor, great acting jobs and large-scale action sequences. What impressed me with X-Men First Class is how the director, Matthew Vaughn , and writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz were able to keep things from falling off apart. The pacing and rhythm of the film was spectacular in the sense that nothing feels rushed and yet nothing lags too long as well. It’s good!

Clearly the guys poured a lot of themselves in this project and it’s fun to see them pay homage to the previous X-Men films (the opening sequence feels like it was lifted from the prologue of first movie and we get a guest appearance by one known bad-ass mutant: Hugh Jackman).

X-Men First Class will give you the right laughs, the edge-of-your-seat wonder every time you see Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Hank McCoy and Mystique. There’s also that dread when you try to know when each character will become the character we know them to be.

My only complaint with this version of the X-Men is that there are some inconsistencies with timelines and with the existing Marvel Universe. Then I had to remind myself that this isn’t the comic book Universe so studios are allowed some leeway (my complaint is invalid).

Try to catch X-Men First Class even if you’re not a fan of the series or a fan of superhero movies! As a standalone movie it passes with flying colors!

Unbox Rating: 4.5/5

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