Review - X-Men First Class

Is this the best X-Men movie? Well it certainly has a couple of things it does better than any of it's predecessors. The costumes are excellent. Spot on. An homage to retro but still looking sleek and stylish. And the story is strong too. It's an origin one of sorts, showing the creating of the personas of Magneto and Professor X and the formation of the X-Men. In fact, some of the strongest parts of the movie involved pre-Magneto Erik Lehnsherr as a child in Nazi concentration camps as he is tormented by a brilliant Kevin Bacon and then as an adult on his one man crusade against the Nazi who got away. Charles Xavier's story is a little less interesting but James McAvoy does a fine job as a young, brash and idealistic soon to be Professor X. However once the background is set the movie pushes full steam ahead into the conflict part of it's story, culminating in the inevitable epic battle. There is an interesting take on Xavier's paralysis here but it's also a let down in that drawing of the line between Magneto and Xavier is predictable and safe, laying down the groundwork for the next movie but not leaving anything interesting to ponder in the meantime. The other negative was the haphazard manner in which the team was assembled and the X-Men formed. There was no explanation or reasoning why these particular mutants were selected, and the code-name sequences were a little corny. Nevertheless, this is mostly nitpicking. The strong points are brilliant and these negatives are minor. As I mentioned, Kevin Bacon is awesome. If you don't consider him a bad-ass you will after First Class. The acting is very strong overall actually, Michael Fassbender particularly impressive, though I swear I said January Jones as Emma Frost was terrible before it became a Twitter storm. And Michael Ironsidemaking an appearance was good to see too. Did I mention the costumes? The whole look and feel of the movie, coupled with the strong acting, effects and story telling certainly put this high on the Marvel movie list, let alone the X-Men movie list and it bodes well for future of the series. Definitely a must see.