The New Review
"X-Men First Class"
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon
Jump with me......
Background Check: The original X-Men Trilogy had some hard hits, mainly from a director change, little to no continuity with the Comics, a storyline with some big holes, and some laughable(not funny ha ha) moments... but they also had their breakthrough moments as well, including, but no limited to, the performances or Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart as Magneto and Xavier respectively, the Wolverine role that made Hugh Jackman a household name(including not one but two spinoffs), and certainly not least: "X-Men 2:X-Men United" was pretty damn good movie(at least best of the Trilogy. I was hoping that the first Jackman spinoff was going to be good, and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was better than the whole Trilogy itself. How was First Class going to be any better? Right?
Concept: A young Charles Xavier and young Erik Lensherr meet up and become close friends at the dawn of public mutant exposure. The ensure mission to stop The Hellfire Club and their journey lead them to different goals and down different paths... leading ultimately to the formation of the X-Men and the Brotherhood. A possible first in a series of prequels to the original Trilogy(ala the Star Wars saga)
Execution
Cast: I will admit that this is the most complete cast of any of the X-Men movies so far. I was slightly irritated at James McAvoy's Xavier, mainly because his accent was too damn thick, but he killed it anyway. Kevin Bacon was nearly godlike as the leader of The Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw. The mid to minor roles were cast in a favorable fashion, and plenty of good eye candy for the guys(and some gals) with nice jobs from January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Zoe Kravitz, and Rose Byrne. But the attention getter is Michael Fassbender. After mid level roles in "300" & "Inglorious Basterds", he needed a major role, and I think he has found it. McKellen was gold as the older Magneto, but Fassbender is platinum as the younger... and you can quote me on that...... Score: 9/10
Characters: My love for the cast helps this one. The characters were well thought out, the featured mutants and their powers were well picked and well matched. The Hellfire Club members were well placed. The X-Man team felt unbalanced though, as I guess it was meant to be, but I mean compared to the Hellfire Club, it felt like a mismatch. The movie handled it in fine fashion, but still felt slightly weak. It could be because the core "famous" X-Men were so prominently featured in the first 4 movies...... Oh, and where is Moira's Scottish accent?... Score: 8/10
Story: I had one gripe about this movie. The continuity of Havok/Alex Summers. Alex is the younger brother of Cyclops/Scott Summers, and wasn't a part of the team before Scott, as for as I know. Unless this is explored and/or explained in the next one, this one will bother me. Other than that, "First Class" had a better story than the Trilogy, not quite as good as Wolverine, but close, but the inclusion of a real life event made it even better as well. I expressed how fond I was of "Captain America: First Avenger" for being a period piece, and the inclusion of the first moon trip into the story of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon", well "First Class" does it too, including a leaser known event in it's story, that being the "Bay of Pigs/Cuban Missile Crisis"...... it added the elements of relevancy and time period to this movie... Score: 9/10
Visual: Of course, it's an X-Men movie, you're going to have some awesome powers effects. The time period mood was also handled with care, like Raven's and Emma Frost's nearly go-go boots. The powers effects were awesome, I especially liked Banshee's sonar effect and how Havok's plasma/energy blast being the same color and intensity as Cyclops' from the other movies(maybe to reference their shared blood). One hiccup, and it's a major visual problem. I understand that mutant powers aren't real, and I understand some visual magic is involved, but when you can point out a moment of shitty CGI, then it's bad. If you haven't seen the movie, then let's just say, you'll know the scene. But again, it's only one scene, not enough to effect the tone of the movie at all...... Score: 9/10
Sound: Bangs, blasts, booms, zaps, flutters, cranks, crunches, zooms, screeches, screams...... and if I may go so far, Michael Fassbender showing off some multi-linguistic magic as well, speaking English, Spanish, German, & even French...... incredible... Score: 9.5/10
Humor: There were certain moments were humor needed to be injected, even some points of interjection and even some prejudice humor at that. Never took away for the rest of the movie, actually added alot to it...... Score: 9.5/10 (added note, look out of the cameo)
Action: Of course, it's a comic book movie about mutants fighting each other, and the normal humans. Their is going to be alot of action, and most of the description for sounds can apply here. The fight between Beast and Azazel was thought out and the air-fight between Angel and Banshee was cool to follow. Mutant powers everywhere, need I say more?... Score: 9.5/10
Flow: Amazing enough, this movie seemed to flow right along. Never once did I ask myself "why is that scene there?" or "why did they do that?"...... which was a huge improvement over the Trilogy. Each scene you had who, what, why, and how did we get to this point all covered. And being a comic book fan, I knew in the vicinity of the direction this movie was headed, but it lead you to forget about that, and focus on how they were going to get there...... I was really impressed this time... Score: 9.5/10
Closure: I liked the way this movie ended, regardless of if I knew how it was going to. It left it open for the next one, and that was the point. It wrapped the story enough, and still left you thinking "what is the next step?" With the Hellfire Club gone, where else did it need to go for now? Nowhere...... It set the mood for the future of both the X-men and The Brotherhood. It answered so many comic book/X-Men movie questions, and actually left you with new ones to anticipate for the next movie, something NONE of the Trilogy actually did, aside for the Phoenix reflection at the end of "X2"...... Score: 9/10
Extra Oomph: I had high expectation for the movie, and it didn't let me down. Sadly, I didn't get to see it in theaters, but I can say for the movies I have seen, this one ended up being a "Movie of the Summer" runaway sleeper hit, hiding within Thor and Captain America and Cowboy & Aliens and Pirates...... and even more so, "X-Men: First Class" is actually "Certified Fresh" by "Rotten Tomatoes", and that site is almost always wickedly harsh. So, if that doesn't scream awesomeness, I don't know what would...... Score: 10/10
FINAL SCORE: 92/100 I think that would be an A-
Conclusion: All in all, I liked this movie, maybe not enough to put it on my list, but good enough to make me say it was an awesome movie. Definitely head-and-shoulders above the Trilogy, but maybe still about 3 hairs under "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". It was surprising to me that it was that good, considering the Trilogy was only decent, but oh well right? That's not a bad thing, that's a good thing.
It's all a matter of opinion: I cannot stress enough that THIS is MY opinion, you can either agree with me or not... I don't have to justify my opinion, because *clear throat* that's what this blog is about. Whether I like it or not doesn't mean you have to or not...... it's just my justification for giving you all MY recommendation...... which leads me to my FINAL JUDGMENT
FINAL JUDGMENT: You can see it coming, can't you? This is a BUY!!!!!!! PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you haven't bought it, do so... if you can't afford it, get someone to buy it for you... if you can't do that, conjure up some black magic, and "Bamf!" it to you. Possess this movie!!!!!!
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There you go, I just gave "X-Men First Class" a 92... an A-!!!!! pretty damn good if you ask me.
Pick it up soon... watch it soon...... or Sebastian Shaw will getcha... lol
Stay tuned... soon I will finish catching up, I have "Green Lantern", "True Grit"(finally), "Unknown", and "Sucker Punch" all lined up to finally be tackled and sacked for a loss......
LOL Football on the brain...
When it's over, come back and thank me...
~The Master Is Out
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