Geekscape Movie Reviews: X-Men First Class
X-Men First Class is the best X-Men movie since X2. I want to get that out there from the outset. I say that because it should have been what we got as X3. Matthew Vaughn was originally slated to take over the X-Men franchise with X-Men 3, but before he could get out of pre-production he had to bow out. He went on to complete Stardust and Kick Ass and then got invited to direct First Class by producer Bryan Singer (returning to the franchise that he left to do Superman Returns). Say what you will about Vaughn’s style, his movies are at the competent, and going into First Class, that’s really all I was hoping for, competence.
First Class is the story of how Magneto and Professor X came to be on the opposite sides of the mutant relations coin. The movie opens with the exact same scene from the original X-men in 2000, it’s this opening nod that gets you on its side early. Little touches like this are layered throughout the film. I have no desire to ruin any of the nifty surprises, but know that there are some great easter eggs linking this to the rest of the franchise.
The plot of the film revolves around the Hellfire Club trying to start World War 3 in 1962 by orchestrating the Cuban Missle Crisis. The Hellfire Club, consisting of Azazel, Emma Frost (never referred to as the White Queen in the film), and some other guy is being investigated by CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne). I refer to the other member of the Hellfire Club as some other guy for a couple reasons, his name is never said in the film, he has no dialogue (even though he’s in a lot of scenes through out the movie), and I have no idea what mutant he’s supposed to be in X-Men canon. His power is generateing tornados and I was left drawing a blank as to who it was supposed to be.
When MacTaggert discovers that the Club is actually a group of superpowered individuals with genetic mutations she turns to a leading academic in the field of mutation, one Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). All while Erik Lensher(Michael Fassbender) is hunting down the Nazi doctor who, in an effort to trigger Erik’s mutant powers, tortured Erik and killed his mother. The doctor responisble is Erik schmidt AKA Sebastian Shaw, leader of the hellfire Club (Played adequately by Kevin Bacon). It is this hunt for Shaw that causes our two leads to finally meet and begin a friendship.
Because Shaw has a team assembled for the Hellfire Club, the CIA decides it is in their best interest to put together a team of mutants of their own with the assistance of CIA Suit Oliver Platt (I don’t think I ever caught his characters name or notice it even said in the film). The team of mutants they assemble include Xavier’s adopted sister Raven Darkholme aka Mystique, Sean Cassidy aka Banshee, Hank McCoy aka Beast, Darwin, Alex Summers aka Havok, and Angel. While Angel seemed like a strange choice at first, her character fits so perfectly with what transpires her inclusion feels natural.
Fassbender and McAvoy are superb in their roles of Magneto and Professor X. While late in the movie Fassbender does have trouble hiding his native Scottish accent, he does an exceptional job bringing the conflicted Erik Lensher to the screen. His Magneto is not quite regal in the way Ian Mckellan played him, but you can see him starting to get there by the end. James McAvoy is spot on the entire movie. Every scene he appears in is engaging and fun to watch, which is one of the major pluses or the movie, because he’s in 90% of the scenes. The chemistry Fassbender and McAvoy have is perfect and matches the balance Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart brought to the characters’ dynamic in the original films.
And while we’re on the subject of great acting, Jennifer Lawrence is increbile in her role of Raven(Mystique). She easily takes what was a throw away character in the original trilogy and makes her the most tragic figure of the franchise. Her performance is so good, it gives Rebecca Romjin’s Mystique in the previous X-Men film more depth and a much richer subtext. The character has so much turmoil going on under the surface, she could easily be compared to Anna Paquin’s Rogue. In this version of X-Men history, Raven was a runaway that broke into Charles house where she then stayed to be brought up as Charles’ adopted sister. She’s been hiding her true appearance for years and is made to fear what would happen if she were to slip.
The exact opposite of the acting spectrum from Ms. Lawrence is January Jones performance as Emma Frost. Every apprehensive impulse I had to Jones playing this role was validated whenever she was on screen. Lots of empty staring and bland line recitation could be found when she had screen time. Every scene she appears in during the film could have easily had a card board cut out replacing her. I think what makes this worse is that we’re left to wonder what might have been if Alice Eve had been left to star in the role. Perhaps an Emma Frost with a personality?
The film has a fewproblems but we lucked out as all of the many flaws were so tiny they are easily overlooked. None of the films problems bring the movie to a grinding halt (exception being January Jones awful acting) so we never really have to deal with them or let them get in the way of our enjoyment of the movie. A number of the movies problems clearly stem from a rushed production schedule but as they say, the devil is in the details.
First, I’ve already mentioned the fact that in the third act of the film Michael Fassbender’s Scottish accent comes bleeding to the surface but we got off lucky that they didn’t dub it with ADR, because the ADR that was used doesn’t match the tone of what’s happening in the scene at all. Bad camera choices, several times in the movie while a line of dialogue is being said, the camera cuts to the worst place you can think of at the time. Big bad talking about slavery? Don’t cut to your only black character, the African American gentleman behind me said it best, “C’mon, seriously? Why ya gotta show the black guy?!” And just a word of warning, Darwin gets no respect in this film. Almost the worst example of token black guy since Jazz in Transformers.
I think the biggest distractions come from just knowing too much X-Men history, which is why I can easily dismiss some of my qualms, but enough of these built up, it bugged me. The nationalities of the X-Men have been completely thrown out the window, remember when Banshee was Irish and Moira MacTaggert was Scottish? Well they’re not anymore. I was genuinely sad to not hear Banshee speaking in an Irish accent after reading his dialogue that way for so long.
Another distraction for X-Men fans was Havok. Alex Summers backstory isn’t given in this film, but we do see him use his powers quite a bit, and it’s in a way I have never, ever seen them displayed in the comics. Apparently someone at Fox thought that it would be cooler if Havok shot off ringlets of energy by doing the twist instead of power blasts. It’s laughably stupid when he does it the first time. Luckily the put his signature chest piece on later in the film so he can focus the ringlets into blasts.
Speaking of dialogue, this script is lucky it had as many talented actors as it did, because the dialogue they had to work with was clucky and bland. “Cerebro, that’s spanish for brain.” So many lines in this movie include the names of characters for no reason, it gets frustrating. I was thinking to myself while watching, “Dammit, I know his name is Erik! If you say it one more time…”
X-Men First Class has an incredibly classy ending (ugh, no pun intended), and I wouldn’t mind seeing another X-Men adventure set in the still early days of Xavier’s school. Just please, Fox, don’t rush the next one, recast January Jones, and include less pointless characters. It’s fun with some minor flaws and worth seeing in the theater.
