“X MEN: First Class”
Written by Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn; Story by Sheldon Turner and Bryan Singer; Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne and Jennifer Lawrence. Story: The events leading up to 1962, when 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.
Seen by Lars & Adam, June 5, 2011
LARS:
It’s really hard not to hate Matthew Vaughn. He started his career as a producer of Guy Ritchie’s movies, “Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch”, arguably two of the finest films to come out of England in the 1990s. He then decided that he could probably do this directing thing himself (presumably after producing Ritchie horrifying remake of “Swept Away”), and did the brilliant gangster film “Layer Cake”, which, for my money, was one of the best genre flicks in many years. Then Vaughn was attached to do the last X-Men movie, “The Last Stand”, but walked out over the usual ‘creative differences’, which can mean anything from ‘I want more money to make this film’ to ‘If you insist on these poodles being in the movie, I’m out’. This led him to jump into “Stardust”, a film of the adventure story by Neil Gaiman. While not terrible, it was a low point in Vaughn’s career so far. Last year’s “Kick-Ass” did just that. With the addition of “X-Men: First Class”, the best superhero movie since “The Dark Knight”, it’s becoming clear that Vaughn has by now surpassed his old comrade in arms, Ritchie, as a director and is now one of the go-to guys for modern, cheeky action flicks. On top of that, he’s just turned 40 and he’s married to Claudia Schiffer. Bastard.
So what makes “First Class” such a great addition to the superhero movie genre? First of all it is, as far as I can recall, the first of its kind to be a period piece. It takes place in the early 1960s, during the Cuban missile crisis. The fact that the plot revolves around a series of real historical events anchors the movie, both historically and in the real world, which makes room for all the super-stuff to be mainly just good fun, as they don’t have to waste a whole lot of time on world building (hello, “Green Lantern”).
The story jumps from location to location all over the world. That, and the 60s setting, reminded me a lot of the best of that period’s James Bond movies. And, every now and then, there was a touch of “Austin Powers”. Just enough to make it fun and not so much that it took you out of the story. And while it is an origin story, it’s not one of those origin stories that have been told time and time again (see Bat, Super, Spider and other Men). It’s the story of how two best friends, Professor X and Magneto developed different points of view on the relationship between us regular Homo sapiens and our more evolved mutant brethren.
In terms of the bad guys, we finally get to meet The Hellfire Club, who were my favorite bad guys when I was reading “X-Men” as a kid. Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon who has the time of his life hamming it up), Emma Frost (January Jones; a little stiff) and Azazel (Jason Flemyng), who, in the convoluted world of Marvel, will eventually father Kurt Wagner (whom we met in “X-Men 2”) with Mystique, played in this film by Jennifer Lawrence. Phew…back story overload.
Where the film really excels is in the casting. In addition to the above mentioned, we have Michael Fassbinder as Erick Lehnsherr/Magneto and James McAvoy as the young Professor X. They are both magnificent and provide a believable heart to the story. And then there’s a bunch of youngsters, led by the aforementioned Lawrence (who does well with her slightly clichéd arc, which could have been set to the Smith’s song “When Will You Accept Yourself”) and the kid from “About a Boy”, Nicholas Hoult, who is fine as the reluctant scientist, who ends up turning himself into the Beast.
So tons of fun and a great story – surprising, really, given that no less than 5 people are credited with it – and an all-round charming tone of voice has given me new hope that with the right directors on board, there’s no reason why we can’t get many more great X-Men movies in the future. Because let’s face it, they are a whole hell of a lot more interesting than most of their super friends.
ADAM:
If you’ve read much of this blog, you know that I’m not a huge fan of the superhero movie, mainly because I wasn’t a big comic book reader as a kid. In fact, my graphic novel reading is bigger now than ever. I do promise to get excited later this summer when Captain America comes out, as he still is my fave of the genre. And even if I’d been a comic lover, the rash of superflicks in the past few years (with the exception of Nolan’s Batman films) have left more than a little to be desired; repetitive, forgettable action shot too close, storylines that make little sense, character we don’t care about and predictable finishes. Earlier this summer, Thor finally bucked the trend for me, a film with good action and even better performances. Quality casting and nice directing by Kenneth Branagh made it more than watchable. It was actually good. And that’s why even though the trailer for “X-Men: First Class” looked tight, I expected the worst. Thank goodness for surprises.
I’m not going to re-hash the storyline; Lars has done that perfectly, above. I will say that from the first sequence, we know this is something cool; a Nazi camp sets the stage for a revenge theme that threads throughout the film and beyond into the sequels. All the characters we know are set up with care and cleverness and without getting too hokey. And Matthew Vaughan (“Layer Cake”) helms the film with precision. Action is never too close, and the story flows well, if not a bit too long.
Most clever may be the way real events in history, specifically the Cuban Missile Crisis are woven into the story, creating more depth and believability in the story. The building of backstory for Magneto, Charles Xavier, Mystique, Emma Frost, etc. is spot on, and (take it from an X-Men outsider) welcomed. The action is solid as are the effects and even if you’ve seen the sequels and know how things must turn out, the way the twists and turns are employed satisfy.
So everything works behind the camera; what about in front? For the most part, more of the same. James McAvoy as Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Erik/Magneto and Kevin Bacon as Heavy Sebastian Shaw carry their weight, while January Jones as Emma Frost is as stiff as a board. Her only saving grace: looking as hot as can be in bond girl way with the delivery of every line. And that’s certainly not enough to get me off the happy train with this film, I really did like it. So as a non-superhero movie lover, I’m on a streak; this can’t last, though — “Green Lantern” is coming…
