Recommendation of the Week (05/06): X-Men First Class

Its been a while since I have given out one of these recommendations to you out there on the internets so if you follow this with any regularity I apologize, although I kinda doubt it. Summer movie season is in full swing and we have had hits and misses so far. Thor was good but gets worse the more I think about it, The Hangover 2 and Pirates 4 were disappointing and the less said about Priest the better. The best movie of summer so far and possibly one of the best films of the year is X-Men First Class which over time could prove to be my favorite X-Men movie overall (yes I think it may even be better than X2).

My main problem with the previous X-Men films has been the decision to focus on Wolverine as the main character. I don’t want to get too nerdy but in the comics Wolverine is just as cool as Hugh Jackman is in the films but he is part of an ensemble and not the main focus. As a result the previous films have sidelined characters like Cyclops, Storm and Professor X. The problem with the Wolverine character is that he is a bit of a bastard so its quite hard to find an emotional attachment to the films when they focus on such a character. They soften him up somewhat in his relationships towards the female X-Men but even there he is rubbing another mutants rhubarb so to speak with his desire for Jean Grey. Matthew Vaughan’s funky retro prequel focuses on the friendship between James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier aka Professor X, Michael Fassbender’s Erik Lensherr aka Magneto and most movingly Jennifer Lawrence’s Raven Darkholme aka Mystique. These three characters rarely got anything approaching an arc in the previous movies but here they get a full two plus hours for their stories to play out as relationships are formed, bonds are forged and then tragically broken. The plot basically revolves around Charles Xavier and Raven being recruited by the CIA as agent Moira McTaggart (Rose Byrne) has discovered that the Russians are in league with a team of mutants lead by Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) named the Hellfire Club. This brings them in contact with Erik Lensherr who is after the mutant Shaw because he killed his mother. Xavier brings Lensherr into the fold as he is barely in control of his powers and so filled with rage that he is not reaching his full potential.

McAvoy and Fassbender are brilliant as the two men with common ground but separate ideologies which ultimately doom their friendship. McAvoy wisely doesn't mimic Patrick Stewart except for a couple of moments of vocal inflection and gives the character something of a swinging sixties British charm which makes you root for him from the beginning. Fassbender is all intensity and grandstanding speeches as Erik Lensherr, he also does not mimic Ian McKellan and brings a physicality to the character missing from previous incarnations. During Fassbender’s early scenes of Nazi hunting in Europe you cannot help but think of Bond and Fassbender may prove to be a worthy successor should Daniel Craig decide to hand in his license to kill. Jennifer Lawrence proves that Winters Bone was no fluke but instead here plays a character that is both vulnerable and damaged instead of headstrong and determined. It makes me convinced once and for all that she was the best choice for lead in The Hunger Games.

The rest of the cast are also up to the challenge set by the main players. Kevin Bacon is all sixties bond villain menace and does a lot with the role that proves to be pivotal in the development of the three main characters, Sebastian Shaw’s goal is nothing less than the annihilation of mankind which gives the plot a sense of urgency. January Jones is an actress I’m not terribly familiar with but certainly looks the part as Emma Frost in her sexy outfits even though she is given little else to do but be the dangerous femme fatale. Nicholas Hoult is not an actor that has impressed me greatly in the past but shines as Hank McCoy and then later Beast in particular which feels like a dead-on interpretation of that character. The rest of the mutants are all given their little moment to shine with some quality mutant power based battles which feel more epic than anything in the previous movies. It was certainly a thrill to watch characters with the ability to fly actually use that in a fight combined with characters who can teleport and fire death beams then you have some awesome scenes.

The script was re-worked from a Magneto based prequel movie and something else that was going to focus on a younger team of X-Men and as a result has about 6 credited screenwriters. It could have been a disaster but Matthew Vaughan and Jane Goldman have reworked the film into a smooth and thrilling ride which ties into real world events perfectly and makes everything feel more believable. The film moves at a fast pace and you never feel like you have been sitting there for its 132 minute run time. Although they nod towards the continuity portrayed in the first three X-Men movies this feels like a new beginning. It would be a shame if this was a one off and they didn’t get another film showing what took place in the mutant universe of the seventies. They probably can’t introduce characters such as Cyclops and Wolverine due to the timelines and continuity already in place but there are literally hundreds of mutants in the Marvel universe who can be brought in.

So even if you are not a fan of comic book movies but have a fondness for sixties spy flicks, get out there and see this movie. This is the kind of summer blockbuster that we should all support. Its intelligent, thrilling and finally moving and we need more of that in our summer.

by Chris Holt

I need followers on twitter: www.twitter.com/reformedaddict2

Got a screener? A cool poster? in production on your own low budget gem? Contact us at thelostmovies@hotmail.co.uk