Young Mystique is the most adorable thing in the universe.
Also, cutting a yacht in half with its own anchor chain? FUCK YEAH.

 

So yeah, here's my tl, dr review of the film that I saw instead of writing.

Let me make one thing very clear right from the premise of this review, just so you all know where I might be coming from on this: for the most part, I really like most of the properties Marvel puts out. I like the Avengers. I like Spider-Man (still not sure about the reboot to the franchise in next year - yeah, for those of you who don't know, that's happening). I can't fucking stand the Fantastic Four, but I like Doctor Doom.

And for the most part, I really don't care for the X-Men, regardless if they're in the comics or the movies (actually, especially the movies).

Don't get me wrong, I like some of them (Gambit, Rogue, Beast, Bishop for heroes, and Magneto, Pyro, Apocalypse, Sebastian Shaw, and Mr. Sinister for villains), but the problem has been that the movies have instead focused on the ones I really don't like, almost to the extent of everything else. And, to be completely honest, the X-Men have a real problem with formula plotting and moralizing - namely, that the entire series is an extended treatise on the treatment of minorities, one that I find falls more than a little flat when presented by characters with foot-long adamantium claws or beams shooting out of their eyes and general obnoxiousness exuding from every other pore (yeah, if you can't tell, I hate Cyclops and pretty much every plotline ever associated with him).

So when I sit back and tell you that X-Men: First Class is really, really, really good and that you need to see this movie right the hell now, you know I'm not screwing around. This film is bloody excellent, and is exactly what an X-Men film should be. Furthermore, this film is easily one of the best superhero movies ever. Is it as good as The Dark Knight or Watchmen? Well, not quite, but it's better than all of the Spider-Man movies and probably just a shade better than Iron Man.

Yeah, it's that good.

Let me be very clear about this: there are three things that make this movie really work, and strangely, one of those things isn't the plot. Let's be clear - it's a good story, but anyone who is remotely familiar with X-Men mythology (or who has seen any one of the movies) knows the basic moral and story, and in that respect, it loses a few points in my books. I mean, one of the many reasons The Dark Knight was so damn good was because of the excellent and intellgent plot. In my books, First Class could have had a little bit more meat, and I wish the script was a little stronger.

No, what really does work is the setting and atmosphere: this is 1960s-era X-Men, for better or for worse, and in my humble opinion, this is the best possible step the series could have taken. Instead of cutting through all the historical setting that the Wolverine movie avoided (as if they had a crippling fear of making the movie actually good), First Class revels in being a very 60s era story. This is the swinging 60s, complete with a Cold War atmosphere and raw sexuality that you really don't get to see much of in superhero movies. In fact, most of the setting feels ripped straight from a golden-age James Bond movie, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. And suitably, most of the characters behave very appropriately according to their setting, which I found quite refreshing - and it's one of the reasons the first two acts of this movie are fucking amazing. This movie has some serious style to it, and I hugely appreciated that style, simply because it lent an abundance of energy to the movie.

And not just style, I might add - this is easily one of the most implicitly and creatively violent superhero movies I've seen in a long time. Of course, to preserve the rating, there are a lot of quick cuts, but if anything, that only amplifies things to a new level because it lets the imagination take over. Of course, there are a couple particularly brutal scenes (namely one with Emma Frost and two with Sebastian Shaw, or basically all of the scenes when Erik is being brutally awesome) that leave absolutely nothing to the imagination.

The next thing that really worked for First Class was the cast - and boy, does this movie have a great cast. Unlike the previous X-Men movies (which, for the most part, really felt like Hugh Jackman star vehicles), this film has a great supporting cast that gets a lot of screen time. Standouts for me are Nicholas Hoult as Dr. Hank McCoy and Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, and I really have to say that their interwoven origin stories really do wonders for this movie. The rest of the supporting X-Men do okay, with Lucas Till doing a great turn as Alex Summers (infinitely better than his brother Scott Summers) and Zoe Kravitz bringing great attitude to Angel Salvadore (seriously, this girl has so much screen presence and confidence, and there's one scene she has when she first meets Charles and Erik that's pure undiluted awesome). And I must say this: the one cameo that has been mentioned so many times in this thread is fucking AWESOME.

And on the 'villains' side, Jason Flemyng is great as Azazel and Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw is... well, Kevin Bacon being awesome. And while I will agree that January Jones doesn't have huge range as Emma Frost, I'd argue it fits her persona quite well - and that she does wear the hell out of her costumes.

Quick sidebar while we're on the subject of costumes - I'm a huge fan of the costume design in this movie. Not only does it feel very era-appropriate, it also feels very much like an X-Men movie, something I think every other X-Men film suffered from. So yeah, it's yellow spandex for the X-Men and outrageously awesome outfits for the Hellfire Club - and I'm completely fine with that.

But really, this is a two-man show between James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr. And when I say that McAvoy is easily on par with Patrick Stewart as Xavier, that's saying something. He brings a great dynamic to the character all throughout the movie (particularly early on), and his chemistry with Fassbender is easily one of the best things about this movie. And Fassbender... hell, I'll say this right now: what Fassbender does for the first third of this movie (until he meets Xavier), I could watch for three hours straight. Seriously, this guy is amazing. But even after that, the screen lit up for me whenever he was on - this guy is a seriously talented actor, and he is to this movie what Robert Downey Jr. was for Iron Man.

So let's talk about the best thing about this movie, and which does elevate it a lot in my eyes: the conflicted friendship between Charles and Erik. I will say that it's a great relationship to watch, as the two have genuine chemistry as actors and you can buy the friendship between them (admittedly, that scene involving Angel Salvatore helped that a ton). Best of all, you can tell where the schism in their friendship sprung, namely from very differing beliefs on how mutants should approach the rest of the world, and it's here the movie shows some real intelligence and depth, much to my satisfaction. And in the finale, the dynamic of their friendship is done amazingly well.

On the technical side, this movie does a lot of things right. Director Matthew Vaughn is great for this material, and the cinematography is gorgeous, with dynamic lighting and great camerawork. The CGI, for the most part, is pretty damn good (although there are a few iffy shots, and sharp observers will spot them very quickly), and the score... eh, most of it is really good, but I really wish there had been more period music in some scenes - it really could have added a lot of atmosphere (but then again, I actually liked the majority of the music choices in Watchmen, so that might just be me talking).

Really, my biggest problem with the movie is the third act - namely, it's not nearly as good as it could have been. Sure, the costumes are still great and the drama is still very solid and the acting is still top-notch, but even with the way the story inevitably has to end, I really think the movie lost a lot of energy it could have held. It's not even that it feels rushed, but rather that it was missing the extra twist in the script or truly brilliant finish that made The Dark Knight or Watchmen so damn good. It just feels that with all of the build-up, the ending just lacked the touch to make the movie genuinely epic. Don't get me wrong, it really, really tried, but it just fell short. And considering this movie clocked in just over two hours, I think an addition fifteen minutes would have done wonders for the third act, just saying.

But, to be completely honest, Iron Man had the same problem, and as much as I love watching Robert Downey Jr. and Jeff Bridges be awesome, I enjoyed the richer cast and atmosphere of First Class just a bit more. It's a top-notch film, a must-see for this summer, and I highly recommend it.

 

At Silens. I first wanted to see Suckerpunch because of the skirts. Cheap thrills. After reading your review of it, I wanted to see it for the depth it held.

^...I did not want to see this movie in theatres, I thought by the trailers it looked half-decent. But, since you're pretty spot-on your reviews, I do think I will be checking this out. I'm a pretty huge X-men freak, but the last one left a bad taste in my mouth.

Good job on the review.

 

It was all right to good. Like a 3 and a half out of 5. Before everyone jumps on me, I'm going to give the good and the bad:

The Good:
The characters. The good mutants in this movie were all very interesting (except in heel turns, which'll be addressed in the bad) and the relationships between most of them that developed were very well done.

The Xavier-Magneto relationship. So good. So freaking good.

The cameo.

The fight scenes. Hell yes.

The special effects were great, and the production values and all the scenes in the last third of the movie really made it good.

Shaw was a nice villain, very interesting, even though Shaw was more of a proto-Magneto than his comic book version. He even had the damn Magneto helmet.

The Bad:

This movie seemed set in the sixties, but it sure as hell didn't sell it. Modern-style stripper clubs, the way the female agent dressed, how a lot of the backgrounds came off... It felt more of a 90s or current-day situation than anything from 1962. The only thing that had me not calling bullshit was the rampant anti-communism.

The Heel Turns. Where do I begin? How about Angel turning on the people she's been befriending with practically nothing said by her to explain it, or Magneto and Mystique's heel turns in the last ten minutes. Nostalgia Chick said it best, in that a sequel with their schisms being developed would have been so much better.

The Plot. The Hellfire Club was so ... just there. I couldn't buy into anything they were saying, it was just coming off like a rehash of the original series with X-team versus evil mutants saving the world in front of thousands of people.

If they had just been more conscientious of the era and didn't rush an entire movie's worth of plot in the last ten minutes, I might be giving as glowing a review as Silens did.

 

WHAT?! (yes, this required allcaps, bold and size)
Seriously, when did this happen? Who's playing? And for fuck's sake, tell me the rights went to the same company that did the rest of the Marvel movies.

 

It happened a while ago (it's in post-production at the moment, out next year), Andrew Garfield is playing Spiderman, Emma Stone is Gwen Stacey, and the villain is the Lizard. Marvel don't hold the rights - it's still with Columbia.

 

From that picture, I don't like the actor as Spiderman, I definitely don't like the costume, and the Lizard is one of the lesser (and worse) Spiderman villains.
Plus Marvel still got no rights.
This will suck.
tl;dr: I will not pay to see it. Will probably download it when I'm bored. Depends on how epic (if at all) the trailer will be.

 

Review will probably include minor spoilers.

I have to admit that I didn't see the film in the best conditions, and that I'm not a huge fan of X-Men or the Marvel universe. Sometimes I see films that I should enjoy, and they don't work for me. I was expecting some nice entertainment backed by strong character interaction, and to some extent that's what the film delivers (and what most people here probably will get).

That said, I don't think I'm the only one who is utterly unimpressed by this. It has a lot to do with expectations; I've seen the previous films, and this was supposed to be better. It's certainly more ambitious, trying to set the plot in the middle of the

Spoiler

Cuban Missile Crisis

while explaining how Xavier and Magneto meet.

The problem for me was one of suspension of disbelief. This seems like an awkward criticism for a superhero movie, but I think it's mostly the film's fault. Once I got in the mindset, I noticed things that probably shouldn't have bothered me. Instead of being engrossed, I spent my time trying to make sense of the whole thing. The historical setting didn't work at all for me; maybe they thought that if they included a few clichés, and kept the rest of the film in a neutral setting it would work. Then there's the way the characters behave. So the bad guy wants to blow up the world. Great, we're used to that, right? Not quite good enough. Or the way Xavier decides to reveal mutants to the CIA, and then starts 'recruiting' random mutants for some reason. I can't even remember what reasons the film gives, but the impression I was left with was 'plot device'.

Then there's a few lines that really have no place in a smart script. Paraphrasing, "it's only a war if both sides have an equal chance of winning" and "the sound waves have to be supersonic" come to mind.

On the plus side, the interaction between Magneto and Xavier really is good, and McAvoy does exceptionally well with what he's given. If you can suspend your disbelief, as you should in a superhero flic where sound waves are supersonic, I expect it's a very enjoyable film.

@Republic: Every time you post, I'm impressed by how bafflingly stupid your contributions are. Next time you have extraneous questions, practice your google-fu. Then you can start a thread on the Spider Man reboot, how you don't like the actor based on a picture where you can't properly see his face, and how you decide to see films based on the trailer.

 

I just saw this today and I really enjoyed it. It's definitely my favorite X-men movie and is one of my favorite comic book movies overall. Most of the pros and cons of the movie have already been said, but I just want to reiterate that Magneto is a complete boss in the movie. Just the Argentinian bar scene makes the movie worth seeing in my opinion.

 

Just watched this yesterday and I liked it a lot. Way, waaaay better than any other X-Men movies and one of the better superhero movies in general.

 

Nephew's birthday.

I was taking all the kids to it- so watched it again- and since I could focus more on the words than the action this time, the whole "Mutant and Proud" thing? It reminded me of HP with Hermione "Mudblood and Proud"...

 

One of deleted scenes that will be soon available on DVD. Good thing it wasn't in the movie, because I'd have a problem with taking Magneto seriously after seeing this.

EDIT: And that's how I use my 1000th post? For Magneto in drag? Could be worse I suppose. And is there any special club you get in with that many posts?

 

My favourite part was how, as MovieBob at the Escapist put it, it was a good movie that erased two bad movies(a.e. Last Stand, Origins) through problems in the continuity.

All around good flick, I eschewed from going to my prom to catch it's premier.