Rating of
3/4
First Class Almost Makes the Grade
Chris Kavan - wrote on 06/05/11
A successful reboot - a good example being the Batman franchise - requires you take familiar characters and present them in a new light. Batman took a much grittier, darker tone and it worked. Likewise, X-Men First Class moves away from the straight-up action of the previous films and presents a much deeper story that brings out much more personality from its characters.
I have to hand it to Matthew Vaughn - he did get a great cast together. While the names are familiar, there are no huge stars here - which means for me you get a much more nuanced performance from everyone. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender turn out to be perfect choices for the younger Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. McAvoy has the intellect and the compassion - Fassbender wrestles with anger, pain and revenge - and with good reason.
The movies opens just like the original X-men - at a concentration camp where the future Magneto manifests his power. Kevin Bacon shows up as the German in charge of the camp and couldn't be happier he's finally found the real future of humanity - a mutant. But in order for this power to come out, he finds anger is a catalyst, brought about when he callously murders his mother. We're only given brief bits and pieces, but it's obvious that over the next few years he goes through some painful and terrible experiments to unlock this power.
Meanwhile young Charles lives in a huge, sprawling mansion when he comes across his mother late at night but soon realizes she's an imposter and that's when he meets blue-skinned shape-shifter Raven - a mutant like him, and realizes he's not alone.
Of course, it turns out Bacon is also a mutant - and he soon ditches Germany for Argentina and then Miami where he looks even younger than before. Now going by Sebastian Shaw he plans to start World War III by increasing the tension between the U.S. and Russia leading to a nuclear holocaust he hopes will wipe out the humans and give rise to mutants. His own power - being able to harness energy to not only prolong his youth, but easily dispatch enemies - will come in handy. This is a Cold War in an alternate reality and the tension runs high throughout the film.
You have plenty of people along for this ride. Jennifer Lawrence gives Raven (or Mystique if you prefer) a great balance between being proud of her ability yet at the same time having to hide behind a facade in order to pass as human. Likewise, Nicholas Hoult as the whip-smart Hank McCoy is so embarrassed by his own mutation he hopes Raven's unique ability can provide a serum to reverse the effects. Of course, we all know that Beast doesn't succeed in this endeavor.
January Jones is a cool character - literally, the diamond-skinned telepath Emma Frost who proves to be a thorn in the side for Charles. You have other mutants along for the ride who don't quite get as much development - Lucas Till as Havok, who struggles to control his power; Jason Flemyng as the teleporting demonic-looking Azazel (who will at some point get together with Mystique and give birth to future X-man Nightcrawler); Caleb Landry Jones as the screaming wonder Banshee - who learns how to fly the hard way; Zoë Kravitz as Angel Salvadore, who is really there to look good and occasional shoot fireballs out of her mouth; and Álex González as Riptide who I don't think ever says a line but whips up some mean tornadoes when called on.
Most characters are given enough to work with that they don't feel like some cookie-cutter heroes/villains. Likewise, the overall story is about conflict and how to resolve that conflict. The Cold War is a great backdrop for the tension between Charles and Erik. While Shaw is the main bad guy - Erik only wants to kill him for what he had done to him - preventing nuclear war, saving the world - it's all secondary to getting his revenge. Even when Charles points out that fond memories can be even more powerful than his anger and pain, he never subscribes to his point of view. In fact, he agrees with Shaw on the future of mutant superiority, he just doesn't like the man.
The main reason I can't rank X-Men First Class higher is that this is a story that slowly builds, and keeps building but that's all it seems to do. I was waiting for something to knock me out, but I never got there. In fact, when your two favorite scenes are both under a minute - it doesn't bode well. The fact is, I did like the characters but if I'm being honest, I was a little bored with the story. It wasn't necessarily bad, just not as engaging as I hoped.
I do think this is a step in the right direction. The characters are there and should the studios deem it worthy, I just hope any future installments have a bit more kick.
