As hard as it is to believe every wise teacher was once a student full of questions, every rivalry has its roots and every story has a beginning. The X-Men showcase their beginnings on the big screen in ways nobody thought possible in incredible visual effects, story telling and a brilliant selection of actors that fit perfectly into the characters they will become.
 |
| X at its best, this is a first class movie. |
In the 1960s Charles Xavier (James MaCavoy) is a young scientist and telepath publishing a thesis on Mutation and an activist for their rights as citizens. At the same time Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) is a Holocaust survivor with a vendetta against Nazi Germany for killing his mother just to see the extent of his mutant powers. When the two meet up they form an alliance and friendship with the intent to train them to control their powers. However both have their own personal reasons for bringing the mutants together as an evil mastermind Shaw (Kevin Bacon) is planning to take over the world and start World War 3 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The X-Men must now set foot on their first mission to save the world.
Whenever a prequel is planned its script must be looked at over twice as much as a sequel and thrice as much as a remake. To satisfy the many loyal X-men fans the climax of this film had to be what put the butterflies in peoples stomach. Once you hear one of the leading characters say or give away something that has a big connection to the first movie released in the series than the fans will realize “So that's how it all began.” Other hints and elements of the original must also be included from time to time in the movie without giving away too much or distracting the viewers from the present. X-Men First Class doesn't over glamorize the rest of the series with sudden references but rather just hits them on and the hints get bigger the further you go into the story.
While the effects are not as infamous as Transformers 3 or other big epics of the summer, it still showcases their visuals very well without making the movie look overproduced or just using the effects as a way to attract people who just wanna see explosions. There are many scenes in this movie with effects that are very gorgeous and put to good use. Raven is the best example, whenever she is transforming it almost looks like shes gracefully shedding her skin like a snake would. Her make-up is as it was in the past incredible.
The core of this X is the relationship between Charles and Erik or Professor X and Magneto in their golden years.We see both men evolve from best friends with a common goal to rivals with different ideas on where the mutants should stand in the world. Being young adults their characters fight a lot and eventually get into fist fights when their arguments get too personal (or use their superpowers.) Our two leading actors showcase that they both care about each other put Erik's dreams quickly become Charles worst nightmare and so like any best friends it comes down to get source of power that either multiplies or divides their love for each other. Their acting showcases the deadly fact that power and love are a lot like fire, both have incredible strength but can burn more than what you want to burn.
Like Transformers: Dark of the Moon real history plays an important role in this movie. In this case its the Cuban Missile Crisis, an event that almost sparked the third world war which may have put today in ruins. I thought incorporating the X-men into this axis point in Modern history was a good idea but I thought they got a bit too close and starting interfering with what really happened. When filmmakers do this they may upset a few people that lived through this. I think the X-men should have played more of a backseat role in this confrontation however that would mean less action. An argument like this locks the conflict in a stalemate.
So X-Men First Class is a first class movie. It has a good choice of actors, a well rounded story, stellar effects, the history and stock footage of JFK was good but i thought they got a bit close with real history. I will say its better than X-Men Origins; Wolverine (2009), and it is defiantly a good example of a strong prequel that leads into a story we all know.
My Rating: 3.5/4 Shamrocks
No comments:
Post a Comment