X Men: First Class

(Warning: there may be some spoilers below; they’re minor, but if you’re a stickler for these sort of things, you might want to tread lightly)

X Men: First Class is about the beloved characters (Professor Xavier, Mystique, Magneto, Cyclops' older generation, and Jean's mother) before they became the X Men.  They work together to stop a major threat, mutant Sebastian Shaw, who believes that in order to feel accepted in the world, they have to dominate it. Some actors involved in the film are Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Kevin Bacon.  

People have been asking, does this film revamp what was the dwindling X-Men trilogy? 

My answer: Yes, I believe it does.

To be fair, this film is not a continuation of the last, rather, an introduction to how it all began.  They managed to no only make concrete connections between the films, but also they maintained the ability to surprise you so that it’s not so predictable.  I recommend brushing up on your X-Men characters to fully enjoy this film, only because if you haven’t seen any of the previous ones for a while, you might forget some details that make it worth watching.  I loved the few special character appearances, no matter how short-lived they were, such as Hugh Jackman as Wolverine or Rabecca Romijn as Mystique. For me it was extremely entertaining.     

All the acting was well done; playful at times, ironic, and stimulating.  I have to give props for using one of George Bush’s famous lines – “If your not with us, by definition, that means your against us”.  Really, truly funny, I have to say.  In addition to historical quotes, the history involved in the film was fairly accurate, which pleased me.  I always find it impressive when you see the effort put in to making a film historically correct.   

The graphics were also well done as well as the sounds effects. 

The only critique I think I would give would be to make some of the transitions from scene to scene more interesting.  The reason I say this is because for, I would say a good third of the film, your following one of the main characters as he moves around the world, while another main character pretty much stays put. All they did was put text at the bottom of the screen to let you know where each character was when they switched from one to the other.  This made it seem kind of boring, to be completely honest. All I’m saying is to make more interesting cuts, so it feels less like – he’s here one minute and then were back, and then he’s here the next minute and then were back.  Oh now he’s here, oh and look, we’re back. We get it!  It was sort of tedious I guess and that’s why it stood out to me.   

Other than that, I recommend the movie for a solid performance, some comedic relief and a nostalgic 2 hours with some of Marvel’s memorable characters.

I give this film 8.2/10 for making a solid effort at keeping what was great from X-Men and not letting it get lost in chaos of film making.