Fifth Time’s the Charm!
“X-Men: First Class” (3 Stars out of 5)
The latest X-Men flick follows the story of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr; how their relationship came to pass, before they were known as Professor X and Magneto. Taking place primarily in the 1960s, director Matthew Vaughn (“Kick-Ass”) and his screenwriters place the very first class of mutants amidst the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the climax of which comes to pass with fictional help from Marvel’s merry mutants. The problem with “X-Men: First Class” is that director Vaughn and Co. present the audience with a story that casual fans never realized they cared about; and it features characters that at their best to die-hard Marvel fans, are as exciting as celebrities on Hollywood’s C-List.
Charles Xavier is played by James McAvoy (“Atonement”). Xavier is a brilliant young mind, obsessed with studying the mutant genome. There’s no bald man riding around in a wheelchair for this installment. One of our first glimpses of Charles Xavier is as he chugs beer from a glass boot while trying to pick up young girls in a pub. It is when federal agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Bryne, “Bridesmaids”) approaches him to seek help bringing another mutant, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) to justice; that Xavier realizes there are a lot more like him in the world. It is his obsession with the evolution of mutants that brings Xavier to the States to lend his aid to the United States government.
Meanwhile, almost twenty years after the end of World War 2, another mutant named Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender, “Inglorious Basterds”) is hunting down his former captors one by one. Erik seeks vengeance for the murder of his mother, a woman the Nazis killed while they were trying to force his mutant power to manifest itself. Erik travels the globe seeking out each person on his list and the only person left to kill is Sebastian Shaw. Lehnsherr shows up at the exact same time Xavier and MacTaggert are leading a sting operation to arrest Shaw while Shaw is on his private yacht. Things escalate quickly as Shaw escapes via a submarine that shoots out from the bottom of his yacht and Xavier must save Erik from drowning.
The government gives Xavier and Lehnsherr over to a top secret program. It is in this program, that Xavier and Lehnsherr both learn that there are many more mutants in the world just like them. They also learn that Shaw himself is a mutant, one that can absorb energy, channel it and use it to his own devices. It is at this facility and with this program, that Xavier and Lehnsherr come together to seek out and train a new generation of mutants to harness their gifts in order to stop villains like Shaw from using their powers to do wrong.
Using Cerebro, an invention of Dr. Hank McCoy, another mutant blessed with super intelligence as well as heightened agility Xavier and Lehnsherr locate mutants and bring them back to train at the facility. Their new team includes Raven (Jennifer Lawrence, “Winter’s Bone”), Xavier’s childhood friend who can shape-shift and later becomes Mystique from the other X-Men films. Also on board is Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult, “Clash of the Titans”) who later becomes better known as Best. Sean Cassidy (Caleb Landry Jones, “The Last Exorcism,”), can control sound waves by the pitch of his screams and later is known to the rest as Banshee. Armondo Munoz (Edi Gathegi, “New Moon”) can adapt to any situation and is known by his codename Darwin. Angel Salvatore, (Lenny’s daughter, Zoe Kravitz,) later known as Angel, has got fairy wings and can spit balls of molten hot fire. Finally, Alex Summers (Lucas Till, “Battle Los Angeles”) better known as Havoc can generate powerful plasma blasts that he has trouble controlling without the help of a specially made suit that Hank McCoy invents for him. Brought together, their primary focus is to stop Shaw and his plan to start a nuclear war that will bring an end to the planet; as well as begin the reign of evil mutants.
The film is full of inside jokes from other X-Men movies as well as the comic books themselves. Also, aside from the main plot of X-Men versus Shaw, there are a half dozen subplots like what transpires for Hank McCoy that eventually transforms him into a blue monster and what happens to Xavier that puts him in a wheelchair. It’s well acted and packed with explosions and great special effects. There are bunch of little things that die-hard fans will find bothersome; like the fact that Moira MacTaggert and Sean Cassidy do not have accents. Also, Sebastian Shaw played by Kevin Bacon is horribly miscast. Bacon looks nothing like the graphic depiction of Shaw in the books, and when he puts on the helmet invented to keep out telepaths he looks downright stupid. Furthermore, the only thing that the movie got right about the Hellfire Club is the character of Emma Frost, better known as White Queen (played by “Mad Men’s” January Jones). Finally, the fifth X-Men movie also fails to get Magneto’s costume right again when Erik finally dons the red helmet and purple cape. The outfit itself looks downright laughable, and on the helmet they try to incorporate Magneto’s little medallion, but the finished product looks ridiculous and Michael Fassbender appears really uncomfortable wearing it.
It is the best installment since the first X-Men movie, and if it truly is a restart to the series, than it leaves the doors open wide for things to come. However, die-hard fans might be bothered with some of the character changes the movie makes to old favorites. McAvoy and Fassbender give their all and the outcome is the best X-Men movie in ten years. I just hope they make the sequel with some more exciting mutants next.
“X-Men: First Class” is rated PG-13: It contains violence, profanity and adult themes.
