My wife surprised me by taking me to Ruby Tuesday (had a coupon) and the movies for Father’s Day. Yes Father’s Day…what, do you think we’re waiting for next week when everything will be unbearably busy?
The movie that she chose to go to didn’t really surprise me TOO entirely much considering one of the men on her “list” was in it, Mr. James McAvoy: “X-men: First Class”.
I remember back when the first “X-men” came out as it was a VERY different time than it is now. Superhero movies in the late 90’s weren’t a dime a dozen as they are today and comic book fans were anticipating the release of the adaptation with much skepticism. We wanted our X-men to be as close to what made us fall in love with the comic to begin with, but we didn’t feel from the trailers that we would get it. There was no spandex, Rogue was too young, Jean was too old, and Wolverine was too tall. Professor X was ok though.
While not perfect, the X-men movie ended up being rather good and the sequel was an even better experience.
I want you, for a moment, to forget that the previous X-men movies existed. Forget about the good and bad. I want you to forget about the comic book that came before it.
Can you do that? Because I did. SPOILERIFFIC REVIEW:
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
I don’t want to dive, head first into a sea of hyperbole, but I can’t help it. Not with this movie.
This is the X-men movie that we should have gotten in 1999.
There. I’ve said it.
The issues that I have with the first four movies in the series (“X-men”, “X2”, “X-men: The Last Stand”, and “X-men Origins: Wolverine”) were finally completely clear to me after watching “First Class”. They were too safe, the performances were stilted, the dialogue was horrid, the action was poorly executed, and everything looked too new and sterile. It was as if no one lived in the world that they were in as the sets were obviously brand new.
“X-men: First Class” falls victim to none of that.
The film starts out where the original does in Poland during the holocaust, but doesn’t stop there. We learn so much more to what made Magneto the villain that he became. In the context of this movie, typing that Magneto is a villain seems wrong. I know why he feels the way he does and in many ways, you sympathize and agree to an extent. Magneto didn’t become Magneto because he was a bad guy, but because he has seen the full extent of human evil and he can never forgive our race for what we had put him and others like him through.
This obviously has many undertones that are obvious as he is essentially writing every human being off as an enemy due to his experience and his turning point in the finale when he declares that he will never be subject to people “just following orders” is chilling and satisfying. You understand, but it doesn’t make it right.
Xavier, who has become close friends with Erik over the months of working to prevent nuclear war, tried so hard to tie everyone together as a team, makes the ultimate sacrifice trying to save the very people who fear and mean to kill all of his kind, is just as sympathetic, but differs in his ideology.
Xavier, played by the fantastic James McAvoy, wants nothing more than to live in peace with normal men. He can literally sense the good in mankind wants to share his gifts and hopefully convince those in power that he wants nothing more than to help. In the heartbreaking final moments, he runs through the most emotional turmoil as he experiences the pain, the joy, and the futility of life and it is handled through the masterful performance with the kind of subtlety that makes me hope he is remember for an Oscar.
I feel that the performance is that good.
I know that I only touched on the performances and journeys of two characters, but they were the most important ones. I think that FOX, with all of its idiotic ideas from movies past, has finally “gotten it”. It truly saddens me that it isn’t making as much money as the other X movies.
“X-men First Class” doesn’t seem like a proper prequel for the X-men films because of all of the liberties that it takes with the continuity. Sure, there are a lot of things that they do to explain the reality that they have created in this flick in relation to the existing X-Men movie cannon, but there is just enough where it wouldn’t make sense either.
The movie isn’t a retelling of any specific X-men story from the comics either. A lot of back story is wrong, the characters are wrong, and the time frame is all wrong.
The truth of the matter is if you are a stickler for any of the above, or some sort of unreasonable fanboy who can’t handle change in any form, or even a nitpicker who will freak out at some of the choices being made, then you will hate this movie.
That, and you have no soul.
5 out of 5 X Genes
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