Review of X-Men: First Class (2011) by The D — 04 Oct 2013

(9.5/10).

X-Men: First Class is the newest installment of the X-Men franchise and it serves as the origin story for the entire franchise. This is EASILY the best X-Men movie by a significant margin and one of the best super-hero movies ever made. Call me crazy, but I actually like this film more than The Avengers. I can watch this film over and over again and it doesn't diminish in the slightest with every viewing. There's only one relevant problem with the film, and I'll touch on that later.

The movie opens in a Nazi concentration camp with a young Erik Lehnsherr being separated from his mother. This is also where we get introduced to the main villain of the film: Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), who executes Erik's mother right in front of him. This serves as the motivation for Erik to become Magneto later on in the film. After that opening, the next scene we see is a young Charles Xavier who gets up in the middle of the night to see a young Mystique raiding his fridge. At that moment, Charles Xavier realizes that he's not the only one with special powers and him and Mystique become best of friends. These opening scenes lay the groundwork for things to come, plot-wise and morally.

The film continues from this point when Charles Xavier and Erik are adults and explores how they meet and the relationship they have with one another as well as all the supporting mutants that Charles and Erik are training. Things get real when Sebastion Shaw re-enters the picture with his group of minions as they threaten WW3. Erik, Charles and various other supporting mutants, including Mystique and Beast, all agree they must stop Shaw, but it is soon revealed to Charles that Erik may have the same goal, but he has very different motivation for stopping Shaw and it may lead him down a darker path.

This movie mixes all of its elements so well and the film is anchored by 2 phenomenal performances by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Charles Xavier and Magneto respectively. They have terrific chemistry together and they're both so fleshed out that you can clearly see and understand both of their motives and asks you to make a judgement for yourself: Do you agree with Charles or Magneto? There's no wrong answer here and in fact the movie gives you plenty of reasons to root for both mutants. Jennifer Lawrence is also terrific as Mystique and Nathan Hoult turns in a good performance as Beast.

The only issue I have with the movie is that a few supporting players aren't that well developed as characters, namely Banshee and Lucas Till's character. They help out, but they aren't given any motivation of their own. This is a very minor problem in an otherwise spectacular super-hero film. This film also has a really powerful emotional punch thanks to the incredible performances from McAvoy, Fassbender and Lawrence. There's never a dull moment in X-Men: First Class and this film should serve as the perfect example on how to reboot and re-energize a franchise, especially after the supremely underwhelming X-Men 3 and the flat-out horrendous spin-off called X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

This injects new life into the franchise and is one of the best super-hero movies ever made. Everything you want in a super-hero movie is in this film: exhilarating action, genuine emotion, a terrific script, sure-handed direction, an entertaining villain, and most of all, heart.

On my list of best movies of 2011, X-Men: First Class currently sits in 5th position.