Thursday 2 June 2011

X Men First Class gets top marks from the teacher!

Last night I saw the new X Men film with Daughter and Daughters Boyfriend. It was AMAZING!
This film shows the origins of the X Men, how Proff X came to create the XMen and how the enmity between him and Magneto came about. Spoiler alert!
The first half of the film was fantastic, the back story of how Eric Lensherr came to his powers was extremely well written and quite heart rending.  The scenes in the concentration camp were well staged. Kevin Bacon was ruthless as the German scientist who wanted Eric's mutant powers for his own dark deeds. The back story of Charles Xavier and Mystique was also very well done. The story arc of Eric looking for and killing the Germans responsible for his torture in the concentration camp would not have been out of place in a James Bond novel (the books, NOT the films) and Michael Fassbender bought a lot of gravitas to the role. James McAvoy bought a lightness to  the role of Proff X that was a welcome ray of light in an otherwise dark beginning.
The CIA role in getting the mutants together was a bit flimsy but it moved the movie along. We got to see a young Hank McCoy (Beast) played beautifully by Nicholas Hoult and a young Mystique played by Jennifer Lawrence. A younger looking Kevin Bacon was then introduced (which was a bit confusing) as the same character he played in the beginning, wearing a lounge suit and inhabiting a space that looked straight off the set of The Spy Who Shagged Me. The searching for and recruiting the mutants was fun (a laugh out loud cameo from Hugh Jackman and a tantalising glimpse of a young Storm) and the lesser known X Men came to light.
The denouement however felt rushed. The writers seemed to realise that in the last 20 minutes that they had to
get Magneto and Charles to become enemies, get Mystique onto the dark side, get the school for mutants up and running and get Charles into a wheelchair. All this happened at a speed which left you breathless and feeling that they could very well have stretched it to 2 films without losing any impetus.
Also, after spending most of the film looking mighty fine and arguably the best dressed person on screen it was a little ridiculous when Magneto turned up in the last scene dressed in his cape and helmet;-/
If you are an X Men geek (myself and Daughters Boyfriend fall into this category) the messing with time lines and peoples ages will send you up the wall, however it is MUST SEE for all X Men fans.
Definitely 4 out of 5 stars.
PS.....the adverts for films out this summer seems to suggest that I will not be getting any sun at all, too many good films coming out, which is good news for this blog :-)

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