X-Men First Class is Matthew Vaughn’s (Stardust, Kick-Ass, Snatch) film that tackles the movie franchise that arguably, has fallen off of favor in the last few films. Fortunately for the fans, Vaughn does not push the film into a sensationalist drudge of action and flash, but rather carefully constructs an origin story (while wholly different from the comic series) that is accessible to both new and old fans and related to the previous film cannon.
Is this a 60s thriller or a typical comic movie?
X-Men First Class is an origin story that discusses the formation of the X-Men team and goes into depth the relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Eisenhardt, also know as Magneto.
The opening shots recreate and expands upon the same opening shots from the original X-Men movie from the Auschwitz concentration camp where Erik reveals his powers in a vain attempt to save them. (Obviously the child actor used for the scene is different as 10 years has passed since the original). From there we cut to a similarly young Xavier finding a young Raven ‘Mystique’ Darkholme stealing food. In typical form, Xavier of course offers Raven his household and they continue to grow up as close friends.
Where the film takes it’s truly dark tone is when we return to Auschwitz to find the true nature of Erik’s power, fueled by the anger and hatred towards Sebastian Shaw, the administrator of the program which exploited Erik for his powers.
From there, the movie moves quickly to the differences between Xavier and Erik’s lives as they reach adulthood. Xavier uses is telepathic abilities to become charmingly successful while Erik hunts down the various members of the Nazi program of his childhood. Their meeting and turbulent friendship comes at the hands of the CIA though as they have caught wind of the existence of mutants and starts a program to collect and monitor them.
From here, we gain a number of cameos and references for fans, including the initial creation of Cerebro and the Blackbird by Dr. McCoy, the growing relationship between Erik and Xavier, the formation of Xavier’s school, and even a cameo by a certain fan favorite character, who in typical fashion, sneers off the young Erik and Xavier’s attempt to recruit him.
The movie itself spends the vast majority of its time on the origins and formation of the X-Men team, and despite it’s hefty 2 hours 11 minutes length, it flows fairly quickly and maintains audience interest though the entire film. Though the entire film, Michael Vaughn encases the entire film with the undertone of the dangers and reactions to intolerance, a subject that the X-Man series pivots around as a whole.
This undertone manifests itself as a 1960s era Bond film full of espionage thrills and a final climax of a narrowly averted World War Three during the high of the Cold War. It’s a much more interesting balance of character and action as opposed to Singer’s originals and the mindless Wolverine movie.
X-Men is a team, and they all have voices
Unlike Singer’s originals, X-Men First Class actually builds characters that have both depth and intrigue despite the sheer volume of players. While there is obvious emphasis on the headliners, Xavier and Erik, Vaughn includes huge amounts of screen time towards the environments of Mystique and Dr. McCoy to build their characters and provide sorely missed backstory as to what shaped their paths in life. The Mystique of the future, in Singer’s series, always felt like a mere ploy for ticket sales, while Vaughn’s Mystique (well played by the lovely ‘>Jennifer Lawerence) has not only a voice, but a personality and relationship with the audience that acts as a counterbalance to Xavier’s never-ending optimism.
Other notable characters for X-Men fans include Diamond Queen Emma Frost and Azazel, father of Nightcrawler.
Great special effects considering there were hardly any
As a film of espionage, there is still plenty of action and superpower special effects to go around. Unlike many superhero films, X-Men first class has a well sought for balance of character development and effects that doesn’t over load the viewer’s senses with frivolous CGI that is common today’s film. Interestingly, Vaughn effectively demonstrates many of the super powers without actually showing much detail.
A prime example of Vaughn’s cleverness would be Havoc’s training room sessions where we never see his uncontrolled practices. Rather than waste money and screen time showing Havoc destroying the tunnel, we retreat to the hall in safety to return to a room on fire.
Another example is Vaughn’s restraint of showing the detail of Magneto moving the satellite dish. In other films, I’m sure we the viewer would be subjected to the minute details of gears moving and parts falling as the dish moves. Rather, Vaughn just shows the dish rotating while focusing on Erik’s strain as he balances his rage and serenity.
Considering the film went from green lit to final release within a span of about 10 months, I applaud Vaughn for spending his resources wisely and providing the best utilization of his surely limited time budget.
Wouldn’t be a comic book movie without nitpicks
Like any comic book film, the passionate fan base will have a number of nitpicks about mistakes made in production. One of the most glaring ones for me was the fact that Mystique was able to shape shift into Shaw (with helmet) despite never having seen him. We could imagine that she saw his file, but how would she know that he had a helmet or what he sounded like?
Furthermore, McCoy notes that Raven’s DNA allows her to age at a rate 10 times slower than a normal person, yet she obviously ages from a little girl to a young woman at the same rate that Xavier does. One could write that off as her self aging to keep up appearances, yet her natural form obviously aged as well.
Final Verdict
When I first heard about the fact that they were making X-Men First Class, I was highly skeptical about the quality of the film. With the arguable exception of the first X-Men film, all of the films have been a terrible injustice to the series. With the additional information of a mere 9 months total of pre-production, photography, and post production, I was also worried that this would merely be another shallow attempt to milk revenue for a dead franchise.
In the end, I would have to say that Vaughn’s film is a great “reboot” to the X-Men movie franchise that has suffered greatly at the hands of it’s predecessors. This is the way the X-Men films should have started to begin with 10 years ago. Slated as the first of a new trilogy, I sincerely hope Vaughn and his writing team continue in the same vein as they have started here for the next two.
4 stars out of 5