Review: “X-Men: First Class” is a Blandly Competent Prequel
After misfiring badly with The Last Stand and Wolverine, the moribund X-Men franchise is the latest one to embark on the path of the origin story. X-Men: First Class takes us back to the 1960′s to explore the origins of telepath Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and metal-controlling mutant Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) before they became Dr. X and Magneto. While it’s a competently made movie and a nice shot of adrenalin to the franchise, I can’t help but feel that it’s one of those blandly executed movies that ultimately leaves you indifferent with nothing truly worthy of discussion.
Director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) opens the movie by revisiting the Nazi concentration camp from the first X-Men. There, young Erik Lensherr (Bill Milner) becomes lab fodder due to his unnatural ability to manipulate metal. He watches a sadistic Nazi officer (Kevin Bacon) murder his mother during an experiment, effectively providing him with the vengeful hatred against the man who soon becomes megalomaniac supervillain Sebastian Shaw. Flash forward to 1962, Shaw has set in motion the Cuba missile crisis in an effort to wipe out humankind. Erik must join force with the telepathic Charles Xavier as well as a ragtag bunch of mutants to prevent him from sending the world into World War III.
X-Men: First Class is at its most compelling delving into the uneasy relationship between Xavier and Erik. While the idealistic Professor X is convinced that super-powered mutants can peacefully coexist with humans, Magneto doesn’t hold any hope that this will ever happen, believing that mutants are superior beings. This conflict is played brilliantly by the two lead actors who do their best to infuse some gravitas into what would otherwise have been a terribly mediocre movie. Even though we know where these characters ultimately stand, there is a certain satisfaction in watching the two friends progressively turning against each other.
There is no doubt that Michael Fassbender is well on his way to become one of Hollywood’s brightest star. He is by far the standout here, displaying an intense mix of pragmatism and rage. Even while wearing that ridiculous helmet, he is so compelling that it’s difficult not to root for his character. Fassbender overpowers everyone around him, including McAvoy who is charming enough but rather uninteresting. Then, there is the pitifully underdeveloped group of young X-Men. Talented actresses such as the Oscar-nominated Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) and the versatile Rose Byrne are completely wasted in one-note characters. It also goes without mention that the much maligned January Jones is as robotic as ever as Emma Frost.
Credited to no less than 6 screenwriters, the script is exposition-heavy, stuffed with extraneous characters and riddled with silly plot holes one could drive garbage trucks through. The tone is overly serious and self-important with very little humor except for a few unintentionally hilarious title cards such as “Covert CIA Facility” or “Moscow, Russia”. It’s always nice to see a director ensuring that we, mentally challenged audiences, can follow his movie without a hitch. Overall, it is so blandly executed, with little vision or excitement. Where is the director who gave us the outlandish and sarcastic Kick Ass last year?
“Covert CIA Facility”
Because we already know what happens to the characters, there is little tension generated and while some kind of romantic subplot would have helped in that regard, there is none here. Prequel movies are at their best when the main characters start as average joes who clumsily venture into becoming superheros. Think Aaron Johnson buying his turquoise wetsuit in Vaughn’s previous film Kick Ass or Christian Bale drive-testing the Tumbler in Batman Begins. There is none of that in X-Men: First Class as both Xavier and Erik already have their powers as the movie starts. The franchise’s not-so-subtle allegory of being “mutant and proud” is never more than crudely explored.
From a technical standpoint, everything is about average, from the middling CGI to the unspectacular cinematography and the 60′s atmosphere which isn’t all that convincing (just about everyone is wearing 2011 hairdos). The movie suffers terribly from being PG-13 with bloodless action sequences that lack the hard-hitting spectacle you would want to see from them. I couldn’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed by a movie so wildly acclaimed by just about everyone. At least Thor knew it was just a fluffy and inconsequential bit of summer entertainment.
Competently executed yet utterly forgettable, X-Men: First Class benefits from an outstanding performance from Michael Fassbender. Thank God he was in the movie.
B-
(6.5/10)
![Watch: Creepy Trailer for Slasher Pic ‘Maniac’ [NSFW]](http://www.anomalousmaterial.com/movies/wp-content/themes/yamidoo_pro/scripts/timthumb.php?src=http://www.anomalousmaterial.com/movies/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/elijah-wood-maniac-tb.jpg&w=50&h=50&zc=1)
24 Comments
Told you! For the record I do think you are being kind on it. I do think that the Last Stand is way more entertaining than this one.
Ahaha yea I guess you did. Don’t get me wrong though, I liked the movie, just didn’t think it was all that interesting.
I thought it was OK. Yeah, I enjoyed the performances of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender (he’s dreamy), and Kevin Bacon along with Jennifer Lawrence & Rose Byrne (who looked amazing in lingerie). Yet, it was typical of all of these blockbusters. No more “X-Men” movies for me. And yes, January Jones was a bore to watch except for her tits.
It’s pretty funny that they have that “Mutant and proud” subtext about minorities but the movie has all the actresses strut around in various state of semi-nudity.
Still better than The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine combined.
No doubt about that but not very challenging to do
I liked this a lot more than Origins and I have to say that Vaughn actually does add more to this material than I expected. Good Review as always Castor!
I thought it was okay too. Competent is the right word. I thought it tried to squeeze in too much, and too quickly, but it was enjoyable enough. Fassebender’s Erik was the only memorable character. The film definitely suffered when he was off screen.
My good friend Neon with whom I saw it actually thought they should have made the movie solely about their relationship (the first half of the movie), exploring it in much deeper details.
I’d agree with that.
You’re a blandly competent prequel.
Glad that you agree Ripley. I thought I was the only one who felt that way.
You’re an inanimate fucking object!
- In Bruges
I would’ve liked to have seen more screen time for Fassbender and McAvoy speaking their minds to each other. We see them together a lot, but it felt as though the friendship could’ve been developed better. They were supposed to be these great minds that did so many things for the mutant world together, but other than assemble four or five newbies, they didn’t do much.
Yea, their relationship was by far the most compelling aspect of the movie but there was so little to it, I was disappointed. I think they could have made a movie about the two kids growing up and developing their powers, instead of having all of those bit players who are nothing more than cardboard cutouts.
I’m kind of surprised at this review,as most reviews i read seemed to be positive. I still want to see this tho
The review is somewhat slanted negatively because of my disappointment but I still liked the movie. It’s entertaining enough and does have a great performance by Fassbender. Just don’t expect it to blow your mind or anything
Bacon makes everything better. Especially if it’s Kevin Bacon. Also Banshee.
He was so Kevin Bacon-ish which is always fun to watch.
I pretty much agree with you, I wish they focused more on Magneto and Professor X’s lives and shouldn’t have brought in all those young mutants so early on in the film. I’m in the minority here about Fassbender, I thought he okay but nothing special, again I wish they went deeper into his background, considering they brought the storyline from the Magneto’s stand alone script.
Also, I didn’t care for Kevin Bacon’s character, he was basically playing Magneto from the previous X-Men films. Somehow his evil submarine lair made me laugh the first time they showed it, reminds me of some bad James Bond flicks or from one of the Austin Powers films.
Ahaha I also love how at the start of the movie, Kevin Bacon kills Erik’s mother and the kid goes berserk and kills everyone… except for Kevin Bacon.
Oh and Beast whose sole superpower is having two opposable thumb on his feet.
Nothing truly worthy of discussion? What, what? I could talk for hours just on Magneto & Xavier alone
I like this more than you Castor, but I think because I have a fondness for this franchise. I haven’t reviewed this yet but despite my love for it, I probably won’t give it a full 5 out of 5 score because of some of the points you mentioned here… especially January Jones’ utterly boring portrayal and Kevin Bacon not being a compelling villain. I mean, he’s fine but a far cry from how charismatic and menacing Ian McKellen was as Magneto, or even Fassbender’s version. I totally agree with you that Fassbender and McAvoy’s relationship is the star of the show, and both actors did the role justice without merely ‘imitating’ McKellen and Patrick Stewart before them.
Yes, we could talk for hours about the potential for Magneto and Xavier. They could have explored that so much more in depth and with far more compelling results than wasting time on all those extraneous side characters.
PS: I saw Tangled, loved it! Review is typed up but I will post it on Tuesday
Glad you love Tangled! I’m going to your review right now.
Trackbacks