Only slight spoilers ahead!
I loved every minute of X-Men: First Class! This is a great prequel, and an excellent addition to the film series. It made me want to go home and watch the other four in chronological order immediately! (And I will tonight, beginning with Wolverine: Origins, of course!)
After X-Men 3: The Last Stand, it was rumored that there would next be two Origins films, one based first on Wolverine and then Magneto. It seems this film may have morphed out of that initial origin concept for Magneto, because we do get his origin story here, but we also get Professor X's as well and the formation of the first X-Men team. We see first Erik Lensherr's early life in war-torn Nazi Germany in 1944, touched on briefly in the first X-Men film, and here expanded to show what happened next. He meets the nefarious Sebastian Shaw, who wants to force Erik to use his powers. We also see born-into-wealth Charles Xavier the same year first meet Raven Darkholme, otherwise known as Mystique. From there we jump to 1962, and pick up on both men's lives. Xavier has been getting an Oxford education, while Lensherr has been tracking down and killing Nazi war criminals. Xavier meets Moira MacTaggart, a CIA operative who has discovered the existence of mutants. Soon they both meet Lensherr, and a spectacular action scene ensues. One of many in this flick!
They all end up forming a kind of team working for the CIA, and Erik and Charles become friends and go off in search of other mutants to recruit to their cause. (During this segment you will see one of the best cameos of all time!) They end up forming a team consisting of young mutants, namely Mystique, Beast, Havok, Banshee, Darwin and Angel (Not the Warren Worthington Angel, though!). These mutants begin to train because Xavier and Magneto know that Sebastian Shaw is planning WW3 and hoping to wipe out all the humans.
That's as much of the story as I'm going to tell you. You'll find out all sorts of great things in this flick, such as how Beast ends up blue and furry, how Magneto gets his telepath-blocking helmet, and how Professor X ends up in that wheelchair. It's great fun for any fan of the series, and a great jumping-on point for anyone who has never seen an X-men movie. I loved the 60's era goodness, especially Emma Frost's wardrobe! Let's talk about what else was great about this movie:
The cast. I can't say enough great things about the casting of this flick. Absolutely everyone was perfect for their role. Inspired were the choices of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Xavier and Magneto. January Jones as Emma Frost was lovely, and icy cold. Kevin Bacon was great as Sebastian Shaw. Jennifer Lawrence radiated as Mystique. All the other new mutants were perfectly cast as well. I always love Rose Byrne, and she was great as Moira. The supporting cast included so many great character actors, including Oliver Platt and Michael Ironside. It seemed like everyone wanted to be in this flick, so they would even take bit parts! And I love that.
Some fanboys and fangirls who don't understand how comics and movies are different may not love this movie, but I think most will enjoy it. As a longtime reader of X-Men comics, I had a few nitpicks myself, but nothing that subtracted from enjoying the movie. What are they, you might ask? Well, I saw no need to turn Moira MacTaggart into an American CIA agent. Moira is a Scottish geneticist who runs an ancillary facility for research and care of mutants. The agent role could have been given to a new character, and Moira could have been introduced as she is supposed to be, if not here, then in a future flick. Also, Banshee is supposed to be Irish, but he has no accent here. Charles and Erik looked all over the world for mutants, but it seems they only found American ones? Posh!
But back to the serious business. This is a great movie. It has everything. Adventure, action, humor, drama, excellent character development, real emotion and relationships between the characters, and a damn good script; I had a lot of fun watching it, and I'm not gonna lie, I got a little misty more than once.
I really do hope that Matthew Vaughn can direct two more of these "prequel" films. I would love to see more of the early battles between Xavier's X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants. I want to see more of Emma Frost, hopefully with an expanded role. (I also hope they can explain that it was her daughter and not her that we see in Wolverine: Origins!) I want to see more mutants, I want to see more origins of characters, I want to see more of those great black-and-yellow uniforms!
One more thing: don't wait til after the credits, there's nothing there!
My ratings system:
See it in theaters, worth full price! <---------- Agent X says see it!
See it in theaters, worth a matinee price
Watch it, but wait for the dvd
Watch it if it's free
Don't bother
P.S. One thing I did not see: A Stan Lee cameo. Did I miss it?
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