X-Men First Class Review

Here’s an ugly confession: I really like X-Men 3. In fact, it’s quite probably my favourite X-Film. The first was fun but pretty ropey, the second was great but had long periods of nothing happening. And Wolverine was obviously a bag of balls. In X-Men 3, you get lots of exciting stuff happening, loads of major characters getting merked, that whole Golden Gate thing, a thrilling end to the Wolverine/Jean Grey relationship and Vinnie Jones (though admittedly I may be in a minority in the Vinnie-appreciation stakes).

So the big question is, can X-Men: First Class top the dizzy heights of The Last Stand? Well, it at least equals them. The kick-ass director of Kick-Ass, Matthew Vaughn, returns with frequent script-writing collaborator Jane Goldman to blast the X-Men saga back to the past in this sixties-set caper which reveals the origins of the relationship between Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and the early lives of a host of popular mutants, as they struggle to come to terms with their powers whilst trying to stop Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw starting a nuclear war.

The frenetic pace of the film ensures the viewer is never bored, though rather is occasionally overwhelmed with information, diegetic references, action sequences, plot detail and stylistic touches. There are more scene shift captions in a single twenty minute chunk of First Class than many films manage to muster in their entire duration. An awful lot seems to be happening all the time and sometimes you wish Vaughn would slow down and let the film breathe a little bit.

There are also numerous plot discrepancies (why doesn’t Magneto simply kill the film’s antagonist the first time he encounters him and save everyone a load of grief? Won’t a nuclear war kill all the mutants as well as the humans? Why does Shaw’s helmet prevent telepaths from reading his mind? Because “the Russians made it”? Oh I see!), but frankly, the breakneck pace prevents the reader from getting too concerned with them until well into the journey home form the cinema. Apart from those cavils though, X-Men: First Class really does have an awful lot going for it. Firstly, it’s very funny, particularly Charles Xavier’s character (“That’s a very groovy mutation!” he purrs to beautiful women on more than one occasion). McAvoy’s chemistry with Fassbender is great, though Fassbender does somewhat steal the show and further cements his reputation for being one of the most captivating actors of his generation. They are flanked by a remarkable cast that includes Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones, the aforementioned Bacon, Nicholas Hoult, Jason Flemyng and a really quite lovely Rose Byrne.

The production design is cracking; perhaps leaning slightly more towards pastiche than homage of sixties style, but overall, looks great. One scene in particular evokes the most sinister Stella Artois advert you could ever imagine and the film owes much to the early Bond films in terms of its look. Henry Pryce Jackman’s stirring soundtrack may be something of a one trick pony, but goshdarnit if it isn’t a good trick. First Class also boasts by far the best cameo appearance in any superhero film you’re liable to see. The final sequence in Cuban waters as two superpowers prepare for war, is also really well done.

So in spite of my not inconsiderable reservations regarding pace and plot, X-Men: First Classsimply has too many good bits to be anything less than a great film. For a series that has always been somewhat preoccupied with its own history (the frequent flashbacks in X2, the oft referred to history between Xavier and Magneto, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), First Class manages not only to feel fresh and exciting but also betters much of what has gone before it. Still, no Vinnie Jones though.