movie review
X-Men: First Class
Prequel explains the X-Men origins
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Thank you, Michael Bay and James Cameron, for turning every action movie you’re not involved with into a less-than-stellar project. So WHAT if a mutant lifts a submarine out of the water with his mind, then tosses it into a mangled mess on the beach? Big deal! That’s nothing compared to the final battle in ‘Avatar’ or the massive war between the Autobots and Decepticons in ‘Transformers.’
Ok, that’s not really fair. There are plenty of great action filmmakers, including Bryan Singer, who wrote and produced ‘X-Men: First Class.’ But the point I’m making is that even though this movie had some cool special effects, I kept waiting for something more, something bigger. Part of it’s that the movie was overly long at 132 minutes.
But maybe I should be focused on the characters, because that’s really what ‘X-Men: First Class’ is all about. The story takes us back to WWII and the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. One such victim is young Erik Lehnsherr (played by Bill Milner as a child), whose telekinetic powers are recognized by the evil Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon, who makes a great bad guy).
Lacking control over his abilities at this age, Erik isn’t able to comply with Shaw’s demands, and the results are tragic, instilling an anger and thirst for revenge in Erik (played by Michael Fassbender as an adult). When he crosses paths with mind-reader Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), the two become friends and find themselves involved in the U.S. government’s Cuban missile crisis. It’s always odd – almost sacrilege—to see real-life news footage in a comic book movie. This one features a few clips of President Kennedy during the 1960s.
In their quest to help the government thwart a nuclear war, Charles and Erik begin gathering mutants. Here’s the rundown: Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is Charles’ shapeshifting foster sister; Janos Quested/Riptide (Alex Gonzalez) can spin at great speeds and create a vacuum; Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz) can sprout wings and fly; Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) possesses superhuman strength, speed and reflexes; Sean Cassidy/Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones) can scream like a banshee and fly; Armando Munoz/Darwin (Edi Gathegi) can adapt to any situation; and Alex Summer/Havok (Lucas Till) can generate plasma blasts and absorb cosmic energy.
There are also some mutants under the reign of Sebastian Shaw, including telepathic Emma Frost (January Jones of ‘Mad Men’), who can shapeshift into a diamond-encrusted form. She’s kind of the ice queen on ‘Mad Men,’ too, so good typecasting there. Rose Byrne plays government agent Moira MacTaggert, who turns out to be a pivotal character in the X-Men universe.
Even though I started this review by saying I wanted more action, the stunts and special effects are really fun, and the young mutants have a blast learning about each others’ abilities. It’s also nice to see comic book characters who are smart and have good chemistry, even if the dialogue is a little cheesy at times. McAvoy and Fassbender, in particular, almost seem like they’re doing a Shakespeare play.
I also love the fact that the movie takes on heavy issues like racism and genocide by connecting the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany with peoples’ fear of the mutants. Then the question is this: do the mutants have a responsibility to protect the world when they’re not treated like heroes?
That’s also the basis for the division of the two leaders, with Magneto breaking off to form the Brotherhood of Mutants and Professor X creating the X-Men. I stayed through the credits to see if they’d tease us with any upcoming movies, but alas, the credits ended and the lights came on, so don’t bother sticking around at the end.
One thing that really bothered me is a tiny scene where Erik and Charles visit Wolverine (Hugh Jackman in an uncredited appearance), and he sneers at them and uses the f-word. Is that really necessary for a PG-13 movie? And with the Nazi scenes and violence, ‘X-Men: First Class” might be a little too intense for some 13-year-olds, so proceed with caution.
But it’s still a fun summer blockbuster, especially if you or your kids are fans of the ‘X-Men’ characters or comic books. And with upcoming ‘X-Men’ movies, including ‘Deadpool’ in 2014, it’s almost a necessity to see them all to get the full scope of the characters.
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