Marvel Mania 2: X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class (2011)
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence
Directed by: Matthew Vaughn


After the absolute failure of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, plans for the next X-Men movie had to be altered. We were going to get a full-on Magneto origin story next, but when Origins: Wolverine proved to...suck, they altered the plot a little bit. Instead of continue the Origins franchise, the studio thought it best to go back to the beginning and tell the story of how the X-Men were originally formed, essentially rebooting the whole franchise. I remember being really excited for X-Men: First Class because I loved the tone of the original trilogy (at least the first two) and was very interested to see how that all got started. There were so many questions to be answered. How did Xavier and Magneto meet? How did their friendship turn sour? Who was part of the First Class? And on a filmmaking perspective, the biggest question I had was if a different generation of the X-Men story could work alongside the films we've already seen, as well as a film that can stand on its own, and as a first entry in a brand new series of films. All that in more will be answered in my thoughts on X-Men: First Class.

Let's start with the character that has taken a number of re-watches to grow on me, James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier. It might be his youth, but this didn't rub me the right way when I first saw it. I just couldn't believe that this flirty, party boy could grow up to be Patrick Stewart. But, after revisiting this series a few times, I'm starting to see the value McAvoy brings to this part. It gives us the viewpoint of who Xavier was before the X-Men. He had a chance to have a life, to party, to have potential romances. And thanks to the threat of hostile mutants, that has to change for him. His focus needs to be on saving the world and keeping the morale of mutants on the positive side. McAvoy is certainly different from Stewart, but it's the journey to see him evolve into that character down the road that is the most engaging to see.

The REAL star of this series, however, is Michael Fassbender as Magneto. He goes through so much pain and torment, which the audience is able to feel every ounce of it. You understand how he could turn into the world's most famous X-Men villain. This film tells a revenge story for him, as he is out to kill the man who turned him into what he is. That man, Sebastian Shaw, played by Kevin Bacon, ironically plays a big part in turning Erik Lehnsherr into Magneto. Erik actually shares ideologies with both Shaw and Xavier, so the whole film is teasing the fine line his character is walking. The moral dilemma is so captivating and almost provocative because you're able to put yourself in his shoes and question what you would do. Fassbender made a really strong impression here as Magneto and he only gets better with every film in the series.

There are two more characters that play a pretty huge role in the grand scheme of this newer X-Men series. The first is Beast, played by Nicholas Hoult. I was really sympathetic to his story. Pretty much outed by accident as a mutant, Hank McCoy seeks a cure that will retain his abilities, while eliminating any noticeable features the human world would declare "ugly." It backfires and he's transformed into the blue, furry piece of awesome we know and love today. Thankfully, those effects get better as the movies go on, cause they aren't very well done in this film. And then there's Mystique, played by Jennifer Lawrence. I'm not on the whole J-Law bandwagon and I've never been big on what she's done with Mystique, but this is probably the time she's played her that's been the most interesting. The two movies she's been in since this one, she's playing Mystique as this semi-Katniss Everdeen type character and it doesn't remotely sync up well with the Mystique from the other movies. Here, she at least struggles with her identity and being deemed "beautiful" by society. Her big arc through the movie is whether she'll embrace her blue form and the relationships she develops with Xavier, Magneto, and Beast. Not overly bad in this film, but she gets a lot worse as these movies go on.

If it wasn't for a cameo from Wolverine, this could have easily been in its own universe and succeeded very well. Instead, the timeline is effected to the point where the universe this film is living in will eventually lead into 2000's X-Men. Not to say that it was a bad decision, but I'm very curious to see what could have happened had this been a full-on reboot, instead of a prequel. Like Bryan Singer did for the original movies, Matthew Vaughn did a great job in setting the tone for this new era in the X-Men universe. With other great comic book films in Kick-Ass and Kingsman: The Secret Service, Vaughn has quickly ascended the ladder as one of my favorite modern directors. Add a number of memorable breakout performances from the main cast, and you've got all the makings of an extraordinary (PUN!) comic book movie experience.


Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The only thing that hurts this movie for me is that a lot of these characters aren't important by the next film in this series, but that could almost be considered a nitpick. X-Men: First Class is one of my favorite superhero movies to come out of this decade and a lot of that comes from the style of Matthew Vaughn and some key performances from the cast, an origin story is told that is compelling and insightful from beginning to end.

X-Men: First Class and movie images are copyrighted by 20th Century Fox