X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class is a good film, no doubt. Set in the 1960's during the Cuban missile crisis, the Prequel to the X-Men trilogy explores the past of Magneto and Professor X much like the Star Wars prequels did (Obi-Wan and Anakin) or the latest Star Trek film (Kirk and Spock). You'll be happy to know that it suceeds wonderfully in scoping out the past of these iconic characters, and you generally get a sense of their growing friendship before it all comes crashing down like a matchstick tower. The two leads, James McAvoy and Micheal Fassbender don't look or feel like their older counterparts but that can be quickly excused because this is set FORTY Years before the main X-Men films and I suppose alot can happen in that time. They are pretty striking characters, and acting is top notch from the pair. Young Magneto, oh sorry, Erik starts out as this seriously troubled orphan (his parents were put in a Nazi concentration camp and his mother shot right in front of him because he couldn't show off his magnetic powers to the bad guy), turns into James Bond and then becomes the very person he tried to kill at the end is simply beautiful to watch. Xavier starts off using his powers to, among other things, attract Women but gets much wiser and troubled as the film goes on. By the end of this Prequel, you'll prefer the younger versions to the older ones. Their Story is the main crux of it all, and it does not disappoint one bit. What about the other characters though?

Mystique, Beast and perhaps the CIA Agent aside, I'd wager that most of the other characters are either seriously underdeveloped or just there in the backround for most of the time. Banshee and that guy that could shoot lasers out of his stomach are barely passable, but the main villain Sebastian Shaw and his bunch of nasty mutants aren't really given ANYTHING. It's like the film spent all its time developing Magneto and Xavier and simply forgot all the other characters! Take Shaw, he's hidiously evil but thats all we really know about him. No backstory, no explanation of his origins or real motivation. Heck to call him stereotypically evil is not that short of the mark. Also he goes from being this nasty piece-of-work Nazi scientist with no indication of any Super-powers whatsoever to being this all powerful, scheming bastard of a guy that knows several languages with no explanation! Yes he was there to offer forsight about Magneto's future (at the end, Magneto basically turns into this character) and sure twenty years had passed, but still. The rest of the bad guys feature quite prominently in the film but apart from Emma Frost (this mind control, bikini wearing, diamond changing shapeshifter!) they have NO lines of dialogue at all! Yes, out of the six members of the Hellfire club only two of them get dialogue in the WHOLE GODAMN FILM! Now that's an error that simply cannot be ignored. I couldn't care about any of the other mutants either (aside the main ones), one girl goes from being good to bad with the flick of a hat for simply NO REASON. And when a character in a movie trys to save the day but ends up helplessly dying for it has only a few lines of dialogue beforehand, you have a SERIOUS problem movie! But what about the Special Effects, the Art Design, were they any good?

Well yes and no. The era of the 60's is beautifully recreated, the characters walk, talk and act like they're from that period. The idea of fusing a super hero film with the Cuban Missile crisis was done well also, lending the film a strange atmosphere and feel that no Marvel movie has done before. Although, the special effects were poor compared to todays standards, probably a few years out of date. Action was alright, but wasn't that prominent again, as you can see this isn't your typical super-hero action flick. The film did have a rushed production schedule though, so I suppose this is to be expected. This film undeniably has quite a few flaws, but in the end I suppose it doesn't really matter. In the context of the Story, the only main thing is Magneto and Xavier and the relationship between the two leads is so well done, and so enthralling, that it would be wrong to say this was a bad film. I did enjoy it quite alot, but it wasn't anything special. 

So despite its many flaws, X-Men: First Class is a thouroughly enjoyable film.