X-Men: First Class

Vlad Piranha · Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 10:49 pm Post subject: X-Men: First Class

Just got back from a showing. I'll make this short and sweet as this movie has surprises in it that shouldn't be spoiled. I'm serious, stay away from most movie reviews as they'll blow some nicer elements for you.This film is, as you probably know, a prequel to the X-Men films you're familiar with.

We open up to Erik Lensherr's childhood concentration camp experiences in a similar fashion to the original X-Men movie. After frightening the guards with his ability to manipulate metallic objects, he captures the attention of an officer in the camp with an interest in the nascent mutant phenomenon. He makes it his goal to research Erik and see how he can push these abilities for the sake of study. These horrors are what drive Erik to become his Magneto persona and give him his taste for vengeance and rage.

Charles Xavier is a well-to-do young man growing up in New York State. Already aware of his potential at a young age, he comes across another mutant with whom he bonds and finds relief in the notion that he isn't alone. This encourages him to seek out other mutants to offer them a sense of community. When the USA and the USSR start to ramp up aggression toward one another, he begins to believe that, as an interested third party, mutants can prevent nuclear war between the two nations, and in doing so, find acceptance and praise with the normal human population.

The events that unfold in this movie drive Magneto beyond his simple lust for revenge and expand his views on intolerance to all of humanity and its inferiority to mutantkind. Consequently, Charles accepts his role as Professor X and becomes that much more obsessed with finding a diplomatic solution to the hostility mutants face and convincing the world of their honesty and good intentions. The best part of this film is the bittersweet experience of watching Charles and Erik become friends and allies and make each other into better people only to have them abandon one another for their respective, and opposing views. It was the best part of the comic, I always thought, and it truly does carry this film. It's not the point of the plot, but it is the underlying theme that carries on into the trilogy that we all are familiar with. Characters make this film.

This is definitely an A- film for me. It delivered on its promises and yet can be entertaining and coherent apart from the other films in the series. It's easily my favorite of the entire series. It's great to be able to see a comic book movie sequel with someone just getting into the concept and have them pick up on the situation immediately. It pleases the geeks and makes sense to the average moviegoer. The icing on the cake in this film is the references to famous literary works to explain motivation for characters. I've read Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and was impressed to see them come up in discussions in this film. Some very smart people wanted to make a damn good superhero movie and succeeded. "Nuff said.

massive · Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:25 pm Post subject:

Thanks again
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Vlad Piranha wrote:

I'm offended that a zombie holocaust isn't on the list. It would be terrifying, sure, but it would be pretty sweet if you think about it.