Is First Class The X-MEN’s Finest Hour?
June 3rd, 2011 | Posted by in Featured Posts | Movies | Reviews
MUTANTS ARE BACK!
X-Men: First Class was not very high on my list of anticipated movies of 2011. I just couldn’t fathom a reboot of the franchise without Wolverine. Still, as the ‘many’ trailers emerged, I warmed to the idea of Professor Xavier with hair and Mr. Adamantium himself M.I.A.
The hype continued to build once I started skimming through a few reviews online. Is First Class really the best X-Men movie? I couldn’t wait to find out. Now that I’ve seen it, the answer is simple:
IT’S THE BEST X-MEN MOVIE EVER.
It just took a while before I realized it. Ensemble movies like X-Men are tricky to pull off. It has to be extremely difficult to balance so many amazing characters while still telling a singular coherent story.
The first hour of First Class is exactly what you would expect. One by one, you get to meet a ton of powerful mutants and get a sense of their individual stories. What surprised me was how well each of these introductions fit into the bigger picture. Director Matthew Vaughan did a fantastic job re-establishing the world of X-Men.
However, I thought it took a little too long to finally get Magneto and Professor X together. I say that because the second they meet, the film turns into one hell of an entertaining ride.
X-MEN = ACTION
I think my main concern about this film and the approach they were taking was too much story and not enough action. I was completely wrong. The final hour of this movie easily surpassed any other mutant action we’ve seen in the series thus far. At one point, I felt myself lean back and just enjoy the show.
So many movies like this tend to take way too long to setup a grand finale and then rush through it. (The Iron Man movies come to mind.) That’s where First Class shines. The last hour alone made it my favorite X-Men movie period. Mutants fight mutants, mutants fight humans, humans fight each other, mutants fight each other and submarines fly. Sweet.
Upon further reflection, I think my favorite part of the film was and Professor X and Magneto’s relationship and NOT the action. We already know they become enemies eventually so the suspense is gone but the relationship is actually very interesting. Again, they didn’t rush things and the final payoff is far from a let down. (Think about how quickly Darth Vader turned in Episode 3. That always bugged me.)
My only real complaint was Kevin Bacon. I never bought him as a villain here and the movie suffered a little bit as a result. He was far more interesting as an evil Nazi doctor than a mutant trying to spark a third world war.
There were a couple annoyances and cheesy lines here and there as well but X-Men: First Class is still a winner because it’s FUN. Plain and simple. It’s a great X-Men movie, a great comic book movie and a fine addition to this year’s summer blockbusters.
PS: There are a couple great cameos in the film too. One is very easy to guess… I hope he shows up in the sequel. I just realized I’m excited for First Class 2! Nice.
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FINALLY managed to go watch it.
It was indeed great, although I’m not sure I can place it at the level of 1 and 2. Definitely better than 3 though.
- I liked the story, and although Kevin Bacon was kinda underwhelming as the villain, he did his job. The pacing was great, they didn’t rush through anything just to get to the action, and everything seemed right.
McAvoy and Fassbender carried this movie, and they did a great job.
- January Jones was just a terrible “actress”. So dull, so lifeless, she was probably told to do all the emotional depth of a lump of carbon so she can get into her “diamond” scenes better,
- What I find really strange, is why did they have to definitely make this a prequel to the trilogy? They tried to tie it in the best they could, and there were some nice touches here and there, but for the most part plot holes and inconsistencies were left.
There was nothing wrong with just making this a reboot that has nothing to do with the previous movies.
Now, for little individual things:
- First off really dumb scene where Shaw kills Magneto’s mom to make him show his powers. The kid goes from unable to do a thing under the threat of his mom getting killed, to a complete monster after that. Right. And couldn’t he just fling a saw from the wall to Shaw’s neck while he was screaming? Most natural thing to do. He did kill those 2 guards though. Guess Shaw pulling the trigger was not enough.
- And I was sure that after the absolutely hilarious scene in Origins where little wolverine is screaming after killing his father, they would never make another scene like that. I was wrong.
Never let a kid scream in rage in a supposedly very dramatic scene, it’s just laughable.
- Charles letting his supposed sister of 20 years go with the supposed future villain and genocidal maniac at the drop of a hat. They have lived together for so long, love each other, and at the end it’s just like “Right. Go on then.” Ridiculous.
- Charles being a complete dick about his sister’s mutation. I can’t imagine the professor constantly putting her down, and saying “this is unnatural/your natural blue look should be concealed most of the time/I wouldn’t date you while you’re blue” thing. Asshole.
- The “nuclear war is bad” scenes were just unnecessary.
- I didn’t really buy the Banshee mutant thing, he was just stupid.
Most of these minor gripes, anyway. The movie was very good and I am glad for it.
8/10
I found professor x annoying when he kept touching his forehead while he was using his powers. I get that he isn’t a master yet but seriously? Lol
What are your thoughts on the green lantern? I’m hoping to catch it next week.
Actually, I haven’t re-watched the animated series in a long time(nice thing to do soon btw) so I may be wrong about this, but I think he used to touch his forehead there too. Stand by…
*elevator music*
…yep, it’s even featured in the opening, so I guess it’s kind of a standard thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EnSttefHeI
Otherwise, I won’t be able to catch Green Lantern soon, I haven’t had the time to catch Super 8 yet. If I can’t go to Super 8 this Friday, I will have to leave it for next week sometime. Soon my work schedule will change and I will have all the time for movies I want.
After that, I *might* go to a cheaper thursday screening for Green Lantern, since I fear it won’t be worth my money.
Hope I’m wrong though, but it looks really bad – the screen will hurl CGI at me most of the time, the rest looks like a mess.