Review of X-Men: First Class (2011) by Gwathdring A — 24 Nov 2014

Watchable, but utterly forgettable. Very few people manage to make the X-Men work; it's a hot mess of a comic tradition and it's on-screen adapdations inherit that legacy. The characters here perform their rote functions, and the actors are likeable, but the script didn't take me anywhere interesting, the pacing and storytelling felt overly cartoonish giving the attempts at a more sincere and self-serious tone in the performances of the main cast.

The action was nothing remarkable, either, and the ... tidyness of it all was very disappointing in a piece with such a large cast. I would have preferred a messier story with more loose ends and a smaller scope than global warfare to fit the lively, messy relationships that are frequently hinted at among the cast but never used in any interesting ways.