Let me start off by saying that I’ve believed this movie could be good since day one. Bryan Singer has never faltered for me in the X-Universe on film and he’s got story and producing credit on this film. And with Matthew Vaughn (from Kick-Ass and Stardust) in the director’s chair, I’ve put a lot of faith in the fact that this movie will turn out much better than the last two film forays into the world of the X-Men.
Then the marketing campaign started and everyone started writing this movie off as terrible. A lot of people don’t understand (or don’t care to understand) that the marketing department at FOX has NEVER known what to do with these films and are a completely separate department from the filmmakers. Vaughn and Singer aren’t exactly cutting trailers and designing posters. And while these horrible marketing missteps did lessen my faith just a bit, I never thought this would be a bad movie. Maybe it would look a little silly, maybe it wouldn’t be as good as the first two X-Men movies (the ONLY X-Men movies….)
I thought we’d get a pretty good movie out of this at best. Boy was I wrong. We got a phenomenal, incredible movie out of this.
X-Men: First Class is the X-Men sequel I’ve been holding my breath for since X2 came out. The more I chew on it, the more I think it’s as good as that film. In fact, as much as I loved Thor, I MIGHT have liked this one better. I’ll need to see it again to be sure, but it begs to be watched again. In fact, I’m buying tickets to see it at least twice more. It was incredible.
This film has a very, very tight screenplay that is constructed in such a careful way that Clang! Boom! Steam! and I left the theatre and were literally marveling at it for hours, talking about how each nook and cranny of it was so tight and efficient. Yes, the story is good and the screenwriting was great, but the direction proves that Matthew Vaughn might just be the better director amongst X-Men filmmakers. He brings the story to life with an economy and speed that sucks energy from you (in a good way) and leaves you breathless. This film was 132 minutes long but didn’t feel like a minute over 90.
And I have to say: the cast was perfect. I had reservations about seeing a younger Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr and their origins (it’s not something I’ve read much of in any of the comics) but it serves this story and the film X-Universe so well that I couldn’t argue. They completely offered new depth to a host of characters I thought I new and showed me things I simply didn’t know about them or expect. And they did something I didn’t think was possible for a lifetime fan of the X-Men: they showed me something fresh and new with the relationship between Charles and Erik. The First Class team was completely appropriate and they kicked a lot of ass. I never thought Banshee would be so cool on screen, and they knocked Beast out of the park. (Particularly with all of the Robert Louis Stevenson subtext with him… And Frankenstein with Magneto… It was all so literary, but also never pretentious.)
And the style of this film is so wonderful that words can barely describe: This feels like a cross between a James Bond film (the music sounded like Bond music without 007’s trademark theme and there were shots of Magento straight out of Goldfinger) and an X-Men movie (X2, actually, since that one was the best.) There were nods in the cinematography and style to the other X-films, echoing conversations between the main players, motifs (like Chess) were brought back, but never obtrusively or inappropriately. And the villain? Wow…
Let’s talk about the villain. Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw is so ruthless and scary I couldn’t even believe it. His first scene in the film is as good as the opening scene in Inglorious Basterds and has very much the same tenor to it. His evil schemes were brilliant and everything worked about him. I’m completely okay that they took some liberties with The Hellfire Club and his character, because this worked so much better.
Emma Frost is something else to talk about. January Jones played Emma Frost in a way only January Jones could. And they minimized her part accordingly. All of her interactions were appropriate for the film and since everything else was so good I gave her a pass on this one.
The star making parts, though, went to James MacAvoy and Michael Fassbender. They were incredible in this film and their relationship was heartbreaking, even coming close to drawing tears to my eyes. Twice. There’s a fascination they have with each other, and they feed off of each other, proving that neither could exist without the other in the most tragic of ways. Seriously, the climax of this film isn’t dealing with Sebastian Shaw, that’s long settled before the real climax, and that’s the confrontation between Charles and Erik. It’s beautiful. It was an excellent story, well told.
And I wouldn’t be opposed to them throwing Daniel Craig out of the Bond role and them installing Fassbender. Or he should play a Bond villain. He’s tremendous.
There’s so much more to say about this film but I just don’t want to ruin it. I could spoil all of the cameos (which were amazing!) but I won’t. I will say, though, this film had the single best use of the single F word allowed in a PG-13 film ever. Period. Not a single one of you could possibly disagree with me.
Damnit. More than anything, this film was just fun and exhilarating and goes a long way to elevate the genre of superhero movies into high art. I haven’t seen Captain America yet, but it seems as though Marvel might have three homeruns on their hands this summer.
I know a lot of you are on the fence about this movie, but you shouldn’t even consider skipping it. It’s dynamite and you’ll love it, as long as you can get over being a nerd… I’ve heard some people calling the lineup sacriligeous because it wasn’t the original First Class, but guess what? This isn’t the comic book First Class. This is a prequel to the first two X-Men movies and it couldn’t have been done more beautifully. Ignore the marketing campaign and just go see it. It’s a better movie than you’d think.