The publicity for X-Men: First Class has been in overdrive these last several weeks, and finally the movie has arrived in theaters.
In 1963, Charles Xavier starts up a school and later a team, for humans with superhuman abilities. Among them is Erik Lensherr, his best friend… and future archenemy.
Did you see the movie? Did you love it, or hate it, and most importantly, why? Did you agree or disagree with the assessment made by guest reviewer Antonio Sanciolo? Did this movie redeem the franchise, or further push it to the pit of despair? It’s time for you to talk back! Use the comment section below to discuss the film, the pros, the cons, the Hugh Jackman cameo appearance, and more!
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21 Comments
I liked the film, but the revelation that Mystique is actually a doppelganger existing in both present and future with a Good side and an Evil side was too much like the Jean Grey dichotomy from the last film.
Wow, I didn’t get that idea at all. The film explains that her genes age slowly, which explains why she still looks young during the other movies. And her good/evil side is clearly explained by the way Erik valued her physically more than Charles (and Hank) did; she seemed to recognize that she would never be accepted by humans, and so siding with Erik was a better deal. And Erik’s own good/evil dichotomy was certainly more pronounced than Mystique’s…..
Overall I’d give it 3.5 stars out of 5. The last act (the last third or so) of this fairly long movie was good – lots of action plus some fairly strong acting from both of the leads, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. But the first two-thirds of the movie were quite slow-moving, I felt.
I thought that there were too many characters on both the X-team and the Hellfire-team for us to care about. They could easily have cut out at least one of the young X-men and one of the Hellfire baddies to allow more on-screen time for the rest of the characters so that we could get to know them. The problem was that, for much of the time, I simply didn’t know enough about the characters to care whether they lived or died.
Having said all that, the film was much, much better than X-Men 3. I would like to see a sequel. I guess their only problem is what to call it. X-Men Second Class doesn’t sound so classy, does it?
I enjoyed it enough. There were some fun parts, some good parts, and parts that I didn’t think work as well as they could have. Overall, worth checking out, and I’ll give it 3.5 Stars.
Not that good. Enjoyable. But not if you’re a continuity geek. Fassbender is great. 2 / 5.
F**K continuity
Kevin Bacon does a great James Bond villain, come to think that’s how half of the movie is like, a James Bond movie whenever the villains are in action, the other half is an origin story.
At parts some of the dialogue is cheesy but not many. I also actually prefer these uniforms to the ones in the other movies.
But it’s very good movie, not great but pretty good. I liked it.
if they intended this to be a prequel to the original trilogy, then i’ll have to say that the post credit scene had more continuity errors than the entire movie.
also, i’m obviously joking. there is no post-credit scene for the movie, which was surprising coming from a Marvel film.
I don’t know about this movie. I wouldn’t consider myself a particularly big X-Men obsessive, but even for me every change they made to the canon just kept nagging at me. I saw it with someone who knew nothing about comics and they said they enjoyed it, so maybe that’s just my own anal-retentiveness.
However, even my bad movie alarm was going off in my head. The fairly important characters that made up Sebastian Shaws posse (Azazel and Riptide), received almost no treatment, merely existing for the sake of providing support, to the point that I left the theatre having no idea what Riptide’s name was. I found myself cringing at the final lines “You’re X-men” “Next thing you know I’ll be going bald”, etc.
Highlights of the movie:
Hugh Jackman’s cameo as Wolverine
Magneto’s origin story
Banshee and Havok (in spite of the horrible treatment their canon recieved)
Lowlights:
Everyone in the Hellfire Society save for Sebastian Shaw
The creepy and really unsettling CIA agent that first helps Xavier, Mystique and Moira, who delivers the worst line, with the worst acting, and the most unnecessary zoom ever.
Beast’s make-up
Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, about Mystique
Overall I’d give it 2.5 stars, but I have a feeling that it might have been 3 or 3.5 if I knew less about X-men (like how Irish Sean Cassidy should be)
Definitely better than the third X-men movie. Bryan Singer back on this movie is noticeable and a benefit. Personally, I was not thrilled with the lesser mutant characters that made up Xavier’s team (and Shaw’s also). Didn’t understand who the red devil teleporter was. No back story there. I kept thinking he was somehow going to hook up with Mystique and be the father of Nightcrawler from the second movie. Magneto’s scenes were great.
Overall worth seeing in the theater.
well,saw the film and realy enjoyed,for me it made up for the abomination that was the last stand and wolverine,was good to see caracters such as havoc and banshee,whom never normaly get a showing in this sort of media.
@ashen Well that’s exactly what Azazel (“red devil teleporter”) does in the comics so maybe that’s something they’ll explore in a sequel.
Otherwise, I loved it. Not better than X2, but a great Super-movie that I hope Matthew Vaughn and the writers and McAvoy/Fassbender will be allowed to continue the story.
To the guy who hated Mystique, you’re wrong, but that’s just my opinion. And to anyone whining over comic book continuity: how does this still bother you!?!?! With all the changes EVERY SINGLE comic book movie has made, how do you think you still have the ability to cry about it? And to anyone crying over continuity within the X-Men Movie-verse, did you really want the creators of this movie to be more handcuffed and restricted by people who made movies before them? WHY? Let the best stories be told so we can see more mutants mutating and more Fassbender being an awesome Magneto.
I don’t read Marvel in general, and I stopped reading the X-Men when Storm got a mohawk and everyone moved into the sewers, so maybe Magneto was always as complicated emotionally as the movie makes him, but I found Fassbender’s performance to be very strong, making the character’s contradictions (he’s a killer who can still cry; he’s a leader who doesn’t mind letting Charles pull rank and help him focus his own powers; he’s out for revenge but he also has a desire to be the hero; etc.) believable even when I’m wondering why Erik would make some of his choices. Fassbender makes him convincingly vulnerable and even shows his lost innocence.
Loved it! The best movie I have watched this year (which may be influenced by THOR & Pirates of the Caribbean being the last movies I watched before this one …). My kids – – non-comic book fans – – loved it too and I consider that high-praise.
Definitely recommend it. I couldn’t care less about the lack of continuity (“f— continuity” or so says my t-shirt) because this is the first time this year that I feel I got my money’s worth.
Kudos to the director and producers. Bringing Bryan Singer back makes a huge difference in the quality of the series.
I found the movie enjoyable but there were some serious problems with the film, mostly in the directors ballpack. Azazel and Riptide get no speaking roles and 0 character motication, they become redshirts with powers. Mystique is suppose to be sister-like to Xavier but leaves him while he is bleeding out in the end?
Kevin Bacon was disapointing in this movie as he plays two different characters, an elderly professor like Josef Mengola in the beginning and the rest of the movie he plays the role of Kevin Bacon with super powers.
They also kill the black guy first, which is cheesey and bad writting. Angel is nothing sort of laughable in the end of the film.
I give it a 7 out of 10.
I actually really enjoyed this movie despite the fact that it strayed so far from comic book canon.
My only big beef with the canon though was that Havok’s power instead of being energy blasts coming from his hands he instead has some sort of energy hoola hoop?
I enjoyed the movie, and I’ll give it 3.5/5 stars. With that out of the way, I’ll give you my complaints, because that’s what the internet is for. The look of Beast when his secondary mutation kicks in is balls. Banshee should at least have an accent. Moira MacTaggert=all wrong. Angel Salvadore is useless. I really liked McAvoy & Fassbender in this, and the kid Magneto stuff was nice. One of the best cameos ever with Logan without a doubt.
This film was excellent in my opinion, and as such I give it a 4/5 stars. The music was great, and so were the visuals. Because I don’t read the comics, I honestly don’t know how accurate the characters were, so I can’t judge that. I will say that it lacked characterization for most of the characters, at least as far as I saw, but overall it was a great move. For me it was one of those movies were you started getting sad towards the end, especially with how Mystique left the good guys, and makes you wish things played out differently. There’s my opinion, if you don’t like it, too bad!
I’m not a big Xmen freak, only having read Morrison’s and Whedon’s time on the book. Couldn’t care about continuity or how faithful to the books it is – because a movie isn’t the comic book.
Saw it with non comic book fans and the overwhelming opinion of the movie is that it was good.
Loved the cameos and glad I wasn’t aware of them before going in.
Action/Sci-Fi Movie 2.5 stars, continuity 1/2 star, cameo with Wolverine: wasn’t impressed, in short waisted my movie money, “the whole your mileage may vary bit…”