X-Men First Class Review

X2 is one of my favorite comic movies ever made, and I was quite disappointed in the last two X-Men movies. Enter First Class to go back to the roots of Professor Xavier, and Magneto and the early state of the X-Men. This movie reclaims the series on the top of the comic film world, and is going to be one of the best movies of the summer when it's all said and done.

The story is focused on Charles Xavier(James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr(Michael Fassbender) meeting each other and helping each other's cause. Erik is in pursuit of Sabatian Shaw(Kevin Bacon) for killing his mother during WWII, and Charles is trying to find mutants and help them with their struggling. The government becomes interested in Shaw later in the 1960's and him tampering with Russia during the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The story is well woven into dealing with actual history and not coming off cheesy.

The story is well done, but the heart of the movie is the characters and how they are handled. Beast, Emma Frost, and Mystique are just a few of the characters in the here. Seeing what all the characters can do is what makes the X-Men such an interesting franchise. The scenes where Magneto really gets to show off his power are some of my favorite scenes. Kevin Bacon's character really steals the show though. He can absorb powers and explosions and unleash them, and it leads to some interesting scenes. I really wish he would have had a scene where he really gets to unleash his power, but it's fine that it doesn't.

The visual effects are well done here. The last half hour shows the strength of them quite well. The score is handled well, and never gets in the way. Some things were altered from the comics, but they are done well and even fanboys will not mind. The acting is a strong point here, and with most of the cast unknown, I was impressed with it. This movie also has one of the best cameos in a movie i've ever seen, it caught me off guard.

My problems with the movie are pretty minor. I wanted to see more of what Bacon's character could do. He was such a powerful villain, and he is underused. I would have liked to see the pace slow down a bit and explain each character a bit, These are minor complaints, I know, but....ya know.

X-Men First Class is the second best X-Man movie in my opinion, right behind X2. They get the feels of the characters down pat, and the powers they do. This is a must see summer movie, and will be in the front of the pact at the end of the summer.

4/5