Nivenus at the Desk: X-Men: First Class
I've never been a big comic book reader. So like many people, my introduction to the superhero genre largely came from two sources: animation and movies. From the former we got any number of attempts, many excellent like Paul Dini's Batman series, others not so good, but in the medium of film our pickings were fairly slim until the last decade. Sure, we had Tim Burton's good if poorly aged Batman movies and Richard Donner's Superman movies, but beyond that, pretty much everything else was crap.
It might be difficult to imagine but there was a time when the announcement of a superhero movie was treated with the same amount of repulsion and skepticism as video game movies are today. Outside of Burton and Donner, no one had figured out how to do the genre well. Two films broke that stereotype at the dawn of the new millennium, ushering in a decade filled to the brim with superhero movies - many of them (though not all) good, simultaneously converting many who'd never touched a comic book in their life into fans. One was Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. The other was Bryan Singer's X-Men.
Unfortunately, while 2000's X-Men arguably launched the decade's superhero craze, particularly that surrounding Marvel, the franchise it spawned has not fared so well. Although the first film and its highly anticipated sequel, X2 were both box office wonders and critically acclaimed, the third entry in the series, X-Men: The Last Stand, was met with near-universal disappointment, both by critics and audiences. While the most commercially successful of the films, the backlash from The Last Stand hurt the next film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was itself something of a dud.
As such, Fox has a lot riding on X-Men: First Class, the latest entry in the franchise. If the film does poorly, Fox may be tempted to kill the other X-Men films it has in the works, such as The Wolverine and Deadpool. On the other hand, if it's successful, we may see a franchise resurgence the likes of the Nolan Batman films.
So how does First Class fare? Pretty well, actually, which may come as a surprise given the overall hit-and-miss advertising campaign by Fox. But then, of course, this is a film written by the same auteurs, Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, who brought us 2010's proudly irreverent and surprisingly good Kick-Ass. Plus, Bryan Singer, who left the X-Men franchise to direct Superman Returns is back again as a producer, though he leaves directing duties to the aforementioned Vaughn. So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised.
Although Fox's overall advertising campaign has been received somewhat poorly, I was actually pretty impressed by the theatrical trailers for First Class, which lifted the film up from sitting on the edge of my radar to the top of the list for my “must see” films this year. However, it's hard to deny that even these trailers made a huge mistake, which was putting the emphasis on the old X-Men films, rather than letting this one stand on its own two legs. “Mutant and proud” may be one of the film's most repeated phrases, but arguably, Fox's advertising department didn't take those words to heart by cautiously nailing First Class to the coattails of its predecessors.
I bring this up because, despite the constant message from Fox that this film is a prequel to Bryan Singer's X-Men and that to understand and appreciate this film you need to have seen that one, First Class really isn't one. At its heart, First Class is, first and foremost, it's own film and as much a relaunch of its franchise as Batman Begins or Casino Royale, a fact that Vaughn more or less coped to in a recent interview.
You really needn't have seen this one, cool as it was.
Actually, that comparison is really apt. Because like Batman Begins and Casino Royale, First Class exemplifies what made its characters fun in the first place, while cutting loose the detritus that had glued itself to the franchise over time, giving the franchise a fresh, new taste and feel. The similarities even go a bit beyond that since First Class is, like both of the aforementioned films, a bit darker than its predecessors, and, like Casino Royale, is kind of a spy film.
That's not to say there aren't allusions to the previous films. One of the most obvious is how the film opens, in a shot-for-shot recreation of the first scene from X-Men, where a young Erik Lensherr, is torn from his mother by Nazis during the Holocaust. There's other subtle references to the previous films, like a few jokes about Xavier's hair or two surprise cameos, but these are no more obtuse or barriers to entry than the Lucius Fox's joke about how Batman's new suit “should do fine against cats” or Bond telling a bartender that he doesn't give a damn if his martini is shaken or stirred.
The plot does focus on the origins of Professor X and Magneto, as well as their respective organizations the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, but the story, from beginning to end, follows a clear arc with its own beginning, middle, and end, and there's a clear antagonist in Kevin Bacon's Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club, grounding the film entirely in its own setting. There's really no reason you couldn't watch this film completely blind to the previous movies (as did one of my friends who watched it with me).
Aside from a few flashbacks to the 1940s, the vast majority of the film takes place in 1962, centered around the events, both real and fictional, leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Erik Lensherr, having survived the Holocaust that robbed him of his family, spends his days hunting down Nazi war criminals across the globe like a superpowered hybrid of James Bond and the titular characters from Inglorious Basterds. Back in Oxford, the British-sounding American Charles Xavier juggles finishing his thesis on mutation and using it as a come-on in bars while his foster sister, Raven Darkholme, rolls her eyes from the sidelines.
He's like James Bond. But way cooler. And with superpowers. Yeah.
All three characters are, unbeknownst to any but themselves, mutants, individuals with extraordinary abilities gifted to them by accelerated evolution and approach them with varying levels of angst. Xavier sees his telepathy as a “groovy” mutation and feels no shame using it as he likes, though he does have a few moral compunctions (he won't read Raven's mind, for instance). Erik, who has the power to manipulate magnetic fields, feels he's “Frankenstein's monster” and has an entire psychosis of rage and regret tied into its use. Raven uses her ability to shapeshift into any other person regularly but only so that she can hide her true form, which she feels others would find repulsive and she longs for the kind of acceptance that her foster brother Xavier takes for granted.
All three are unaware that they are far from the only examples of their kind, a fact that Moira MacTaggert, CIA agent, stumbles onto while investigating the shady connections of one Colonel Hendry in Las Vegas, where MacTaggert discovers Hendry in concert with a group of mutants known as the Hellfire Club, led by the mysterious Sebastian Shaw. Stunned by the revelation, MacTaggert informs her superiors, who are convinced she's being hysterical and wasting their time.
Meet the Hellfire Club. They're not your everyday terrorists. Or even your terrorists who moved away and who you see every so often, usually on holidays.
In order to convince her superiors, MacTaggert reaches out to Xavier, already well-known as a proponent of extraordinary mutations in the academic world, to prove her story. Xavier is more than willing to help, both in validating her and thwarting Shaw's plans, and in the process meets Erik, who is pursuing Shaw for an entirely different reason. The two form an immediate bond when Xavier saves Erik's life and together, the two assemble a government-sponsored team of mutants to fight Shaw, whose international machinations are moving the world closer to thermonuclear war. In the meantime, Charles' and Erik's differing backgrounds and attitudes cause a philosophical divide to emerge between the two, even as their friendship grows.
The story is original, well-told, and, aside from a slightly sluggish beginning, well-paced. The script, written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn and based on a concept by Bryan Singer and Sheldon Turner, is filled with zingy energy and snappy dialogue, as well as a story that will at times, surprise you. Perhaps more interesting is the level to which the film's story plays on multiple fronts, not only as a superhero origin story, but as a spy film, deliberately invoking some of the style and flair of the James Bond franchise for its own purposes (look out for a mobile supervillain lair SPECTRE would certainly want to get their hands on).
The well-written characters and dialogue are thankfully matched with superb actors. James McAvoy, probably best known hitherto now for his role as the selfish and naïve doctor-adventurer Nicholas Garrigan in The Last King of Scotland, does a fine job as Charles Xavier, portraying a complex man of intellectual sophistication, generosity, and optimistic idealism who, at the same time can be kind of an insensitive dick. Best yet, McAvoy has great chemistry with the rest of the cast, particularly Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence, which is fortunate given the number of scenes he has with both.
The real breakout star, though, is the aforementioned Fassbender, who plays Erik Lensherr with such subtle passion, powerful grace, and emotional sincerity that you even don't mind when he slips into his Irish brogue for a few lines near the end during a passionate speech. The man really has to be seen to be believed but if First Class doesn't launch him to starhood then something is seriously wrong with Hollywood. It's a bit more difficult to eject Patrick Stewart from my head as Xavier, even with McAvoy's great performance, but even the great Ian McKellan is no comparison with Michael Fassbender. I would come back for a sequel just to see him in this role again. No joke.
Sorry, Ian. Nobody cares about you anymore.
The cast isn't limited to just a handful of brilliant thespians though. I had my doubts going in as to whether I could be sold on the new Raven Darkholme, who, judging by advertisements, seemed a bit meek compared with the version I'd become familiar with. But Jennifer Lawrence pulls it off brilliantly, wiping Rebecca Romijin from memory, playing a woman who is both proud and insecure, seductive and shy, and who ultimately, just wants people to accept her for who she is, rather than who they'd like her to be. Nicholas Hoult and Lucas Till also work well as Hank McCoy and Alex Summers, though they are easily overshadowed.
On the villainous side, Kevin Bacon is captivatingly sinister in a film that asks him to, more or less, be an old school Bond villain: sophisticated, dangerous, affable, cold-hearted. It's a shame really that advertisements did not feature Kevin Bacon or his role as Sebastian Shaw at all. While this villain isn't that complex, he's a joy to watch on screen, getting under the skins of the protagonists in a delightfully sadistic way and coming surprisingly close to executing his final plan without a hitch.
The production values of this film are also pretty top notch. The effects, including a scene shown in many trailers where Erik lifts a submarine straight out of the Caribbean, are simultaneously awe-inspiring and somehow seamless (compared with say the technicolor madness in the upcoming Green Lantern). The makeup for the film is also fantastic, particularly on Raven in her true form or the villainous Azazel. And the soundtrack, composed by Henry Jackman, jumps from thrilling to serene to inspiring whenever the script requires it to, while simultaneously blending 2010s vibes with 1960s grooves. Erik's theme, “Magneto,” all by itself, epitomizes everything great about the film musically.
And hey, if you're into that sort of thing, there's fan service for both sexes aplenty.
Hey, I'd hit that. Wait, was that too perverse? Too crude? My bad. Great makeup.
That's not to say that the film is not without its flaws. The script, while overall strong, suffers from a few problems, perhaps foremost of which is the somewhat sloppy way in which the movie's plot intersects with reality. Without giving away too much, I'll just say that the secret history of the Cuban Missile Crisis more or less comes down to Sebastian Shaw telling a few low-ranking officers in the American and Soviet militaries “do what I want or I'll beat you up” (and when I say low-ranking officers I mean one colonel and a nameless Soviet officer). Though the rest of the film's blend of espionage and superheroics works pretty damn well, this particular sore spot was a point at which I mentally groaned and rolled my eyes.
Not all of the characters get the same love as Xavier, Erik, Darkholme, and Shaw, either. While Hank McCoy, Havok, and Moira MacTaggert are serviced pretty well, other characters, like Emma Frost or the American and Soviet officers suffer from a lack of imagination, summed up as cardboard archetypes. Others, like the Hellfire Club's Azazel and Riptide or the protagonist Banshee are just more or less forgotten. Perhaps worst of all, the minority characters of the film (unless you count the Jewish Erik Lensherr) are utterly wasted, which is ironic given the constant comparison of mutants' plight to that of minorities.
Sorry, black dude and Latina lady. You just don't really fit in with all the blue-skinned babes and people who fly by screaming.
Not all of the performances are top notch either. I'm not sure if they simply didn't understand their parts or if they're bad actresses, but neither January Jones nor Rose Byrne really nailed their parts as lady spies Emma Frost and Moira MacTaggert. Jones, for her part, might be able to blame poor writing but Byrne was handed a pretty capable role and still manages to make it feel flat, aside from a few good moments sprinkled here and there.
All in all, First Class may not be quite up to the snuff of say, The Dark Knight, which still probably stands as the best superhero film yet produced, but it doesn't need to be and it easily stands with the best of the Spider-Man films or Iron Man, not to mention the majority of all other superhero films, including the enjoyable but somewhat forgettable Thor (and I mean that in the best possible way). It's also probably the best of the X-Men films, though X2 makes stiff competition.
If you're looking for a well-acted heroic adventure that is both fun and smart, then you really can't go wrong with First Class, a movie that assuredly deserves its title.
First-Class, looking classy.
Score: 9/10