X-Men First Class Review

X-Men, the longest running Marvel movie series yet, with the 5th one in theaters now. The Other day, Adam, a few others and myself went in to see it. Here's my take on it.

X-Men first class is the second prequel to the original X men trilogy, following the early parts of Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lensher as they form the foundations of Mutant acadamy. The movie opens up with a brilliant Nazi Poland vibe as we see a young Erik lose his mothers to the Nazis and is forced into joining Dr. Sebastian Shaw, who is the villain of the piece and has the power to control energy. Meanwhile we see a 12 year old oxford bound Charles Xavier who meets Mystique/Raven for the first time. The two quickly become close friends and the story slingshots forward 20 years, Charles is being educated in Oxford, Erik is on a revenge trip, looking for Shaw to avenge his mothers death. The two meet together as they plan to get Shaw and thus begins the forming of X-Men.

From L to R: Magneto, Moira Mactaggart, Emma Frost, Azaezal, Beast, Havok, Angel, Mystique and Professor X

This movie was a brilliant prequel with an all star cast with James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Magneto. The only problem I had with the cast was Kelsey Grammer was no longer playing Beast :'( (I'm a huge Fraiser and Cheers fan). The characters melded together perfectly and combined with the script, it made for a brilliant movie. The script delivered a high paced action adventure with various jokes thrown in making it very enjoyable. There was even a cameo appearance by someone who has been in ALL the movies, no not Stan Lee who for once I didn't think was in this film at all sadly, was Hugh Jackman as Wolverine who appears as Professor X and Magneto are recruiting various mutants.

Michael Fassbender as Magneto

I'm a big fan of X-Men. I've loved all the movies and thought they were all great instead of say Spiderman which I only thought that the first from that series was good. This film is easily the best of the X-Men. It has sort of left me hoping for some form of reboot, as there's no decent characters left to do it on that you could get an hour and a half plus story from. If we were to go back to present day I don't see how they could continue it there either,

A) Professor Xavier is Dead/ in the body of a brain-dead black man

B) Cyclops,Pyro and Jean/Pheonix are gone

C) Magneto, Rogue and Mystique have lost their powers, Although we do see Magneto move a chest piece slightly in the credits.

It's sort of sad seeing as this is my favourite series and I see no way for them to continue it now.

Raven (Mystique) and Beast

I loved all the new mutants who i've never seen in the few comics I've read such as Havok, Riptide, Banshee, Angel and so on. I liked seeing all the struggles of each of the mutants who were hiding inside "the mutant closet" such as Mystique and Beast. The setting was great as well and the production company made great use of the fact that it was set in the 1960's Cuban missiles crisis by including real footage of JFK speaking about the events.

From L to R : Banshee, Magneto, Raven, Moira, Beast, Prof. X and Havok

So in conclusion, what did I think.

I thought this was an amazing flick packed with the perfect amount of action and comedy that is needed by a superhero film. The actors were amazing by playing their parts perfectly, getting the mood right, showing just the right amount of emotion and not overacting. If this film doesn't get or at least nominated for any rewards, i'd be VERY surprised. People have different opinions as to who is the best super hero series, for me it goes from Thor being my third favourite to Iron Man and X-Men at the top so my view may be a bit biased but this film is probably my favourite super hero movie yet.

Shaw and Emma Frost

I'd give this a 9.5/10

One of the reasons is the plotholes that I noticed, a very large plot hole was but it may not be Canon but you may recall the end of X men: Wolverine where a large amount of mutants were freed then taken into Xaviers care and he was standing and bald. However in the final battle none of them are to be found.