I've had a day to think about X-Men: First Class and I have several thoughts. This review will start out more or less with no spoilers, and then I'll go into more detail. Don't worry, I'll warn you.
Right off the bat, I want to say that I liked the movie very very much. Both James McAvoy(Charles Xavier/Professor X) and Michael Fassbender(Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto) were excellent, especially Fassbender. I loved Sir Ian McKellen as Magneto in the other X-Men movies but Fassbender is equally good I would say. You get the perfect mix of brilliance, pain, evil, and deep sadness, and all of that just by looking in his eyes. McAvoy as I said was excellent as well. Xavier is less interesting I think at this age, I thought he was too polished. Hitting on coeds aside he didn't really behave the way a brilliant 20something would. I was hoping to see more pranks or childish behavior that suggested the events of the movie would change him mentally, as well as physically.
The rest of the cast was good too, Jennifer Lawrence(Raven/Mystique) was breathtaking. Not only is she beautiful even when blue, she gives off an innocence as Mystique that was clearly gone later in life. Kevin Bacon as the evil Sebastian Shaw was classic. It was tough not to laugh while he was on camera, and I'm not sure why. He played the supervillain role very well, and didn't make the mistake of explaining everything to the good guys. They find out through other means, but that was refreshing. I'm still not 100% sure what his evil plan was, but more on that later. I really don't have any meaningful comments on anyone else. January Jones as Emma Frost was HOT, and delightfully villainy, but other than just another henchman for Shaw she really didn't do anything.
The story of the movie was actually very good. When I saw in the trailers it was occurring around the Cuban Missile Crisis I did get worried. However, they do it well, and remind us all that THIS IS FICTION! I don't think this is a spoiler since the trailers give this away, but the events of October, 1962 are not exactly the way they appear in the history books. Actually, imagine the historical account, now change virtually everything about it other than the very basic background, and you will be close to the events in the movie, but again more on this later.
Unless you are a huge stickler for X-Men canon, both from the comics and the other movies, or a stickler for American History, you will love this movie. I was annoyed at first by the canon errors, but then I realized this is a whole new movie. Let them make it the way they want to. If every comic book movie follows the comic book 100%, they would be entertaining but ultimately useless. This was a great story that would be impossible to tell if they stuck to canon. That brings us to the more in depth review.
SPOILERS BELOW
The movie starts out frakking brilliantly. With a PERFECT shot for shot re-creation of the first scene of the first X-Men movie. I literally thought it was the same exact scene, and then was informed it was brand new. I want to see them side by side, cause wow. We then see the beginning of the torturous life Erik would live at the hands of Shaw. The shooting of the mother was pretty shocking for a PG-13 movie. We also meet young Xavier living in luxury. I liked how they went back and forth between the two lives. Erik living in misery and horror, and Xavier living a perfect life where his mother doesn't even have to enter the kitchen. Gives an interesting early explanation of why these two men would turn out so very differently.
When we first meet Raven, Xavier basically invites her to live with them. I wonder what his parents thought about this, and if they knew she was a mutant. Did they even know he was a mutant? The flirting with coeds scene was great, and I guess it helps to look like James McAvoy when you use genetics as a pick up line. Something tells me if I pointed out a girl's genetic mutation, the night would have ended differently. With that scene I was also a little disappointed we didn't see Xavier using his power somewhat childishly, but oh well.
I wont go through the whole movie, but I'll point out scenes that stood out. The introduction of Shaw's power was GREAT. Sometimes these movies have a habit of introducing them through exposition, but in this scene he explained it more as a "bet you didn't see that coming" to the General, and then shows off just to scare, and then kill him. I loved the quick mention of William Striker Sr., and his son, who clearly will become the William Striker Jr. we see in the later movies.
The montage of finding the other mutants was fun, and included by far the best scene of the movie. Wolverine's appearance was so great I still smile while thinking about it. I'm not going to discuss the differences in canon to the other movies cause for me, this is a whole new movie. I know they are saying it connects to the others, but there are so many mistakes and errors that it would be easier to just say "this is a brand new vision". Comics do it all the time, so why can't comic book movies do it and not get shit?
This brings us to really the only thing about the whole movie I didn't like. I was not at all a fan of the group of kid mutants and their scenes at CIA. It looked like it had been written by someone who worked at the Disney Channel. "You know what they say about guys with big feet. And you have small feet". Then the dude with "small feet" turns out to be, by far the more terrifying of all of them is like "move back" and they do this horrible little rascals scene of looking over the wall, then moving down, then looking again, ugh. It was so bad. If the movie was rated PG and was for 10 year olds then fine, but this movie was not for kids. Then the CIA guys walk by looking at them like they are in a zoo and call them freaks. In this scene, I feel they should have added a caption that read "THIS MOVIE IS ABOUT RACISM" because I think that was lost on everyone. The constant making fun of Hank McCoy's feet bothered me a lot. Firstly, because Hank McCoy didn't look like Beast(yet), and second, yeah they were weird looking feet, but Havoc shoots lighting out of his body. They are all weird. One thing I was sure they were going to do was have Raven change her feet to match his. I thought that would have been a nice touch.
I was also a tad confused with Hank's "cure". It would keep their abilities, but make them look like normal people. So does that mean Mystique would look like Jennifer Lawrence normally, but be able to shape shift still? I'm not sure how that could work. Plus, what power would Hank have if his feet were normal? He'd be super smart? That's a fine power, but it also gets you the desk job in the X-Men.
I want to point out that I was still attracted to Raven when she was blue. That might have been because Jennifer Lawrence is hot even while wearing all that, but still. So yeah, if there are any mystiques out there, don't worry. Just cause you're blue, you will not have a hard time finding a boyfriend.
So, Shaw's plan was to have the US and Russia start a nuclear war and kill everyone. This he thought would lead to mutants surviving, and thereby he would be their leader. I don't exactly see how that would have worked. Perhaps, I missed it, but my theory originally was that he wanted a nuclear war so he could absorb thousands of nuclear explosions and become basically a god. That sounded very super villainy and very Marvel to me. But I was proved wrong mid way through.
Quick history lesson for those who do not know. The Cuban Missile Crisis is probably the closest we ever came to all out nuclear war. The Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons in Cuba in 1962. One reason for this was because in 1961 the United States had attempted an invasion of Cuba and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro felt the US would never invade if Cuba had nukes. In October 1962, a US spy plane saw the nuclear installments, and this began the crisis. President Kennedy and his advisors came up with 3 options. 1)Bomb the sites before the missiles become active, 2)Invade Cuba before the missiles become active, or 3)Set up a blockade of Cuba preventing anymore ships from entering. The problem with the first two is that it most assuredly would start World War Three since in either event Soviet soldiers would die, plus Cuba was an ally of the USSR. The problem with the third option was it doesn't eliminate the missiles. Kennedy chose the third option, and tried to get the Soviets to remove the missiles diplomatically. There indeed was a standoff on the open water as ships approached the blockade, but at the last moment they turned away. For the moment, the US had won. But again the missiles that already were in Cuba were still there, and they needed to be removed. Kennedy negotiated the removal of the missiles from Cuba by promising to remove the US missiles in Turkey. There is a great movie about all this called Thirteen Days. They take some liberties with the history, but for the most part it's spot on.
Now that the lecture is over, back to the movie. The reason I explained all that was because I was not sure why a single ship carrying nuclear weapons to Cuba would start World War Three. It would be a step in that direction sure, but one reason there has never been a nuclear war is because cooler heads have always prevailed. People are willing to negotiate, or compromise since looking bad, or losing a small battle is far better then destroying the world. But I guess we have to assume war would have started.
With all that said, I loved everything about the Cuba scenes. The great partnership of Xavier and Erik, the awesomeness of the other mutants like Banshee, and Beast, and the final showdown that started the split. I was confused why Xavier didn't stop Riptide from creating his tornadoes, but whatever. I loved Magneto raising the Submarine, and then having it smash on the ground. Magneto's final revenge was excellent too, and you knew it could only end that way. Erik tells Xavier that peace was never an option. He knew killing Shaw wouldn't bring him happiness or closure. He just wanted revenge. Which again was refreshing. When Xavier is shot, Erik has true sadness and you can see that this is just adding to his hatred of humanity. I was hoping he'd say "You humans and your guns". I love callbacks, what can I say.
The final scenes of the two of them also were very well done. Xavier setting up his school, with the first mention of the X-men was a nice touch. Magneto in full gear freeing Emma Frost, and telling her to call him "Magneto" was a great way to end. Magneto clearly likes surrounding himself with hot ladies, nothing wrong there. I've been told the Magneto movie is shelved, which is disappointing. Apparently there will be two more First Class movies, so we can look forward to more of that.
I definitely enjoyed this movie. What did you think? What did I leave out? Who was hotter, Jennifer Lawrence, or January Jones?
on Comedy Central on June 23. This epic series returns for the 2nd half of its 6th season. Since this is not a serialized show I'm not sure if we'll do reviews for them. I personally love the series, so I promise I will try.