X-Men: First Class (Matthew Vaughn, 2011)
Posted: June 26, 2011 Filed under: Films | Tags: Charles Xavier, Cinema, Film, James McAvoy, Kevin Bacon, Magneto, Matthew Vaughn, Michael Fassbender, nazi hunting, review, X Men Origins: Magneto, X-Men First Class 5 Comments »Would you like to see another magic trick?
The problem with X-Men: First Class is that school is no fun. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) stalks through the film like a Dad on a camping trip; ‘come on everyone let’s find some fire wood’, ‘great work guys, I’ll get the guitar out’ etc. “…true focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity” – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
There is some good here. Kevin Bacon is in fine form as the uber-baddie whilst Michael Fassbender instils Magneto with real charisma and his Nazi-hunting Argentine shenanigans hint at the ‘what could have been’ of X-Men Origins: Magneto. Similarly, the early concentration camp based scenes provide more weight to a rather light rehash of the previous four and contains a great reveal that brilliantly balances all the thematic elements and the comic book world that they are being played out in…
…of course this also highlights the main problem with this film and the previous entries in the series; nothing has yet lived up to the daring and power of the opening of Bryan Singer’s original movie. Even the re-staging presented here doesn’t quite do it.
X-Men: First Class is in cinemas now and has been for a while but I’ve just been lazy about seeing it.
Aw I’m sad you didn’t really like this film, I thought they were finally getting back on track. I agree that the back story for Magneto is well played, I do wonder what it would have been like if they’d stuck to their guns and made his Origins movie.
I thought McAvoy was really good, but I did giggle at your camping trip.
I’ve seen most of the X-Men movies, but I was not a reader of the comic books so I’m not a hardcore fan or anything. I enjoyed “First Class,” and it was great to see *serious* actors like Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy in the cast.
I think you are being very harsh on this film. It has many good aspects that you have not touched upon. Have a read at my review and see what I mean,
http://pgtipsonfilms.com/2011/06/07/x-men-first-class-film-review/
Do you agree?
Cheers for the link. To be honest with you I don’t think I was being very harsh at all; the film had some good ideas but was ultimately unremarkable which, for a subject with so much going on thematically, was a real disappointment, Bryan Singer’s X Men movies were ‘gay and proud’ but the series has become much less strident since then and has lost it’s way a bit.
Fair enough; although, I thought the film was intelligent and enjoyable for even non-X-Men fans (which is no small achievement). We’ll have to see what X-Men: Second Class is like before we can say whether the latest X-Men series has lost its way. Thanks for reading my review and keep up with my blog,
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