Review of X-Men: First Class (2011) by Fullmetalwesker — 04 Dec 2012

This movie had a lot of potential, but unfortunately, it didn't quite realise it completely. While there are a few pros; McAvoy and Fassbender are great as Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, and likewise their scenes are the highlight of the movie for me. Some of the other characters were also somewhat interesting, such as Beastman, and Mystique, and the special effects during the fight scenes are at the usual standard for X-men films. However, swirled in with all that are: a wafer-thin plot that serves as nothing more than a backdrop for the characters to move around in, a (possibly intended) campy feel throughout large parts of the film, and a few major characters who have nothing to them apart from unique powers (see: Majority of the villains). It's disappointing that so few of the characters were really even touched on, let alone fleshed out, as this seems more than anything a character-focused piece, and I hope that the planned sequel, Days of Future Past, focuses more on fleshing these super-powered characters out, and exploring the different sides to them, rather than leaving them as one-dimensional walking super powers. Another flaw I noticed was the scale. Using an event like the Cuban Missile Crisis might've sounded good on paper, but it caused the film to move through a bit too much too quickly, which may be the cause for the lack of character interaction and depth. It might've been better to use another event that's easier to work with, such as the Cold War in general, and the unease and paranoia that was prevalent throughout. Again hopefully the sequel does this, and allows more breathing space for the characters who aren't named Charles Xavier or Magneto (though even they didn't quite get as much as they could).

Overall though, it's a fairly decent action blockbuster, filled with a few nice action scenes and sprinkled with good character moments throughout and although it isn't quite as interesting as it could have been, it's still worthy of at least a rental to the general movie-goer.