From Comic to TV Cartoon to Big Screen - X-Men: First Class - Review

Normally this is Hollywood's thought and we get more and more diluted sequels until taking dip. Either that or go for the now trendy "Reboot" starring a young, hip cast of up and coming early twenties prettyboys and prettygirls.

They decided, this time to go with the reboot. However, with a twist. Instead of churning out some soulless cash in they decided to make a proper movie, hiring Mathew Vaughan, the director of the excellent Layer Cake and recent critically acclaimed Kick-Ass. A bold choice, as these were serious and adult movies. Not exactly the person you would expect Hollywood to give the reigns of one of their summer tentpole blockbusters. Vaughn then wrote the story with Jane Goldman and Bryan Singer.

They then decided to fill the cast with hot young actors who can actually act! James McAvoy one of the hottest actors in Hollywood after his turns in Atonement, Wanted and The Last King Of Scotland played a young Charles Xavier while the equally hot Irish/German actor Michael Fassbender, fresh from stealing the show in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and taking on the challenging role of hunger striker Bobby Sands in Hunger. (Even if he was in Jonah Hex. We won't hold that against him). Kevin Bacon played the bad guy (Which should help in your next round of "Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon"). Rose Byrne and January Jones and others filled out the younger roles ably.

The story was articulate: Set during the Cuban Missile Crisis it charts the creation of the X-men and Michael Fassbender journey from Nazi concentration camps to his eventual Magneto persona. As a result, Fassbender gets the meatiest role. His character arc is, by far, the most interesting. We see the torture of his youth in concentration camps and his relentless pursuit of revenge afterwards. He is always a charismatic and sympathetic character. Who doesn't want to see Nazis get their just deserts?

He is also the character most at ease with his powers, encouraging his fellow mutants to embrace their differences rather than hide them. If there is one flaw in his performance, it is his accent. For some reason, as the film goes on, his Irish accent becomes more and more apparent. While he never sounds like Jackie Healy Rae (Fassbender's father is from Germany but he was raised in his mother's home of Kerry) by the end of the movie his accent is pretty obvious. At least it is for an Irish audience. It probably isn't so apparent for others.

The action is slow to start as the film really is about the creation of the X-men so we see the introduction of various characters familiar and unfamiliar to viewers of the movies (All will be familiar to the comic readers of course) but once the action starts it comes thick and fast: flying submarines, nuclear missiles, and mutants aplenty.

All in all Fist class is a surprisingly mature comic book to TV to big screen film with a decent cast and director and story. I'm looking forward to checking out the sequel. Oh, and it has the best cameo EVER and it's not even the ubiquitous Stan Lee!

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X-Men: First Class Movie Review

I feel like I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but Marvel has done it yet again! I recently saw X-Men: First Class and I honestly feel it is one of the best comic book movies ever. Even though I was more a fan of DC Comics, the one series of Marvel that I read was the X-Men. I was always able to relate to the plight of the mutants because they were always on the outside of society looking in and had to deal with prejudice, ridicule, persecution, and exile. All of these are clearly shown in this new film, which is set in the 1960's where tolerance and acceptance were almost a foreign concept around most of the world. Add to this drama of the mutants "coming out" to the world at large the real life drama of the Cuban missile crisis and you come up with the best script, best acting and overall best film in the X-Men franchise.

This film helps us to understand better a number of the relationships that we are familiar with and also raises some new questions that we hopefully will see in future installments. First, we get a little more back on both Magneto and Xavier's childhoods and what influences them to go down the paths that we have seen in the previous films. What pushes Magneto to become the villain we know? How does he learn to master his abilities? What puts Xavier into a wheelchair? How did the two of them meet and form their friendship? What is the origin of Mystique and how does she become Magneto's second in command? I love that these answers are provided in this film as I was unaware of most of these answers because they were told so early in the timeline of the X-Men universe. Now, whether the events of the film relate to the events as they were told in the comics, I couldn't quite tell you because I only began reading them in the late 80's, but I really enjoyed how they explained these things in the new film.

Another great thing about this movie is that we are introduced to a number of different mutants, both heroes and villains that we haven't seen yet on the big screen. We get to see Beast before he was turned into the blue furry guy he is to become, Banshee, Havoc, Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost, and Azazel. All of these guys are supporting characters behind the big guns of Magneto, Xavier and Mystique, but it helps us get a better understanding how the X-Men were formed and how Xavier's school began. Also, I'm not certain if the movie follows the same story as the comics. In meeting Alex Summers, aka Havoc, I wonder if he will turn out to be Scott Summers', aka Cyclops' father or other relation. The villain Azazel has the same ability to transport like Nightcrawler. Does this mean they are father and son with Mystique being the mother giving Nightcrawler his blue skin? Again, more questions I hope to have answered in the next installment.

This movie works on all levels but none so much as the great acting talent they cast in these iconic roles. The standouts include Michael Fassbender as Magneto, James McAvoy as Professor Xavier, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw. These four performances steal every scene that they are in and made each of their roles their own. Kevin Bacon really surprised me with his mastery of German and Russian and he reminded me what an incredible bad guy he can play. I've never seen Jennifer Lawrence before, but I can absolutely see how she is now an Oscar nominated actress for Winter's Bone. I've always been a fan of James McAvoy, and he knocks it out of the park yet again with his witty, charming and sincere performance of the Professor. Lastly, Michael Fassbender, who wowed me with his performance in Inglorious Bastards, makes Magneto his own and gives the best performance in the film.

I really can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this film. It really upsets me that it didn't make more money in its opening weekend and I truly hope that more people get out and see this in the theater. I would hate for the studio to stop doing these films because they didn't make as much money as they were expecting. If they can keep the quality of future films as high as they have on this one, they could have a franchise that will be around for quite some time. So please go support this amazing picture and show that you want to see more high quality comic book films that aren't style over substance.

J. Chandler, Grade: A

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