X-men: First Class reviewed! Fennecritic Film Review
Fennecritic Film Review Presents...
X-Men: First Class
Another comic book movie! But what’s this? Its different? And in a good way? I have to say, I don’t have a lot of faith in comic book movies. Most of them are completely dreadful, with the exception of Batman (which has provided surprisingly good content for the big-screen over the years....) and Iron Man. I find it telling that the two “superheros” that make the best movie characters happen to be two that are just regular people who happen to be rich industrialists who use their wealth and intelligence to create gadgets for their extra “edge” against fighting crime... but they are both also good because of the unique circumstances of the characters (especially the extremely conflicted and dark Bruce Wayne).
I was hoping that X-men: First Class would be similar in that, to a degree, the setting would carry the story a little further than previous incarnations of the X-men in film-form. I have to admit that I haven’t liked any of the previous X-men movies (including Wolverine). They were all garbage. In fact, without Ironman, I’d say that the whole Marvel Universe is pretty weak (Punisher is good too I suppose, but the movies were just awful). Marvel heroes simply have stupid powers. Often times their powers just don’t make sense. For example a girl with dragonfly wings that can spit fire.... why exactly does that happen? It doesn’t seem like those traits would be linked, except by the term “dragonfly” which is just an arbitrary term. For that matter, the whole “evolution” explanation is pretty weak. While it is true that evolution makes “leaps”, gradual changes are far more likely, and both are typically in reaction to some kind of culling phenomenon to reinforce the benefits of the trait. Since X-men powers don’t seem to be generational, nor is there a persistent culling of non-mutated humans, nor does there seem to be any sort of order behind X-men mutations, X-men mutations are just very.... unbelievable. It doesn’t seem to follow the science that it uses to justify its origins at all.
So aside from the basis of X-men (and most other Marvel content... I’m much more of a DC fan myself...) being just plain *terrible* how was the movie? Well as I was saying before, there is a great benefit to their use of the Cold War as the setting for the film. Its not often the focus of many stories, but honestly the 50’s / 60’s are probably among the most interesting years in all of human history, so its a little surprising to me that so few stories take place in this era. Why, might you ask, are these times interesting? Well... for one, it was the first time in which humankind had the power to create an extinction-level event and destroy all life on earth with the invention of the hydrogen bomb. Second, there was an extreme immaturity that went along with this new power... McCarthyism, ballistic missiles in Turkey, SAC, depressed trajectory sea-launch missiles... it was amazing we survived. Third - it was an interesting time of transition in the United States from a very conformist family-centered morality-based ultra-conservative culture to a more independent counterculture.
Anyway... I think that making this the basis of the X-men origin story was a brilliant move on the part of the writers, complete with cheesy 50’s / 60’s dancing, funny hairdoos and clothing, and very retro X-men uniforms. I think it was equally brilliant to make the “bad guys” part of the original “good guys” team. These are the aspects of the film that drew my attention more than anything else (that, and the cast.. Professor X is played by James McAvoy - Leto II in the Sci Fi Children of Dune movie... one of my faves!) from the trailer.
Some of my friends were more enthusiastic to see this picture than I was, but I wanted “in” as well, and so we went to the theater to see it sneak-preview (although not in IMAX (awww)).
So I enjoyed the film immensely, aside from a few frustrations. The writing is really good. The special effects - for the most part - are good. A few of the powers are a little bit weak in terms of being convincing, but they did a great job on Magneto, and since he’s a very important part of the X-men culture going forward, I’m glad that they put such an emphasis on making his powers convincing. The story is good, the acting is good, the pacing and direction are also good. The movie is all more-or-less “good” with a few minor exceptions, and they really have to do with the powers. I’m not sure if they were going for “cheesy powers” because it’s the 50’s / 60’s and movies were cheesy back then... (if that is the case, I applaud them....) but I don’t think that was their motivation for having such dumb powers. A boy that can make beams like a hula-hoop, a flying girl that spits fire, a boy with hands on his feet... these are just dumb powers. Furthermore, some of the powers are improperly executed. For example, “Banshee” has the ability to make certain pitches of sound, and at one point does a sonar pulse to try and find a submarine. I hate to be the one to point out such an obvious flaw, but the sonar pulse itself can’t detect submarines... its the *reflected* noise that allows sonar operators to detect the submarine. That would require super-accurate hearing, not super-sound-making. Another thing that bugged me was the start of the film, where the villain murders Magneto’s mother, he has a perfect opportunity to get vengeance *at that moment*, but simply smashes up a room grief and rage, and then spends the rest of the film trying to find the murderer and kill him. Banshee’s flying power was just dumb too... and I’m pretty sure it would have snapped his neck... and speaking of necks; I don’t think White Queen could have been hurt in diamond form by a metal bed frame... the SR-71 didn’t have a hover mode (as far as I know)... and last (at least out of what I can think of right now...) Mystique was not sexy. The new Mystique was gross compared to the old one (who was *hot*).
The end-result of this was a slightly Roger-Moore-ish James Bond film with a teen superhero team in place of 007. While that might sound horrible to most of you, its not as bad as all that. The film is clearly made for adults. Its very well executed, and is (mostly) compelling. In the end, I give it two-ears-perked, with the recommendation to see it in theaters if at all possible. Some of the action sequences (especially towards the end) are pretty large in scale, and I appreciated having the big-screen for them. However I didn't like it quite enough to put it in the running for Fennec's Choice Awards. Maybe the sequel will bridge that gap.
Anyway - thanks for reading my review.
Until next time,
-jaspy