X-Men: First Class (2011)

hyped garbage

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

In essence this is a great film. Good script and really swell acting - all very well cast, specifically Xavier and Eric. Plus, a few unexpected story lines and character arcs. Fight scenes that made sense - like two flying mutants (though with different abilities) fighting in the air. There was a lot of international touches that made it authentic. Honestly, for someone just getting introduced to X Men, this would make a great first film to watch. It explains mutations and how to develop them (in the school in previous films, we've only seen them learn history and language arts etc) and you really get to see the mutants improving their skills. However: I'm tired of the trope that it's wrong to kill someone who's going to hurt other people. Nazis, and their doctors who experiment on people, deserve death and worse. There's no need to spare them and pretend it's kindness. And if someone kills someone who's about to start a nuclear war, they're a hero not a monster. And Xavier should have known that "they're just following orders" is the wrong excuse, especially to a broken concentration camp survivor. Also, Beast's face was subpar. Not good. And Magneto in a cape?Lastly, the continuity with other X Men films is bad. For example, from the first trilogy, I'd never have realized how close Xavier and Mystique once were. But on the plus side, this film is really good at showing how Eric and Mystique's relationship developed, as well as Eric and Xavier's - that's one of its greatest accomplishments, although I expected them to have been friends for many years, not months. On the down side, as much as it showed how the mutants became themselves - Eric's story was better than I could have hoped - it's hard to imagine from this that Eric would one day abandon Mystique in a truck, because she lost her mutation. Another glaring lack of continuity is that previous films showed an adult Xavier walking, but here he lost use of his legs way younger. Still, if you can ignore all that, it is a well done film I enjoyed watching.

In a world where mutants lived camouflaged among humans, Charles Xavier, a mutant who can read minds, starts recruiting in preparation for an imminent battle with a malicious group who is determined to start World War 3. This movie presents the beginnings of the X-Men, how each of them began to use their powers, their struggle to accommodate with humans and the battle that separates them into two distant factions.It manages to tell its story in an entertaining and thrilling way alongside all the awesomeness generated by the mutants and their powers. It's unexpectedly captivating and the fact that it leaves almost no question unanswered regarding the origins of the mutants makes it even more interesting. I have to admit that one or two aspects of the "young ones" are a bit exaggerated and awkward but that doesn't affect the overall quality of the film. It was a pleasant surprise from this franchise and I can only hope they will maintain this level in the upcoming titles.

This movie started well for me but fell through midway and I simply did not feel eager enough to continue watching it, like OK, will see the next half some other time. The simple reason is that it was not offering me anything more than the other X-Men movies I saw, other than the fact that they were trying their best to conjure up a credible prequel. I was kind of surprised to see the high ratings it got and felt like the superhero comic strip movies get rated higher than they should be (another good example being Avengers), as if this particular genre loving audience is still in the hangover mode and liking the same old wine in new bottles. I am eager to see something refreshingly new like it was when this Iron Man first came on screen or the Ant-Man, though not well made with a weak script, but still worth an effort. For me the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy by Sam Raimi still stands out the best superhero franchise till date. Nolan's Dark Knight series I don't even consider here, that's a totally different league. For X- Men: First Class, it gets a 5/10 from me.

X-Men: First Class is arguably the best of the X-Men series which comes as a relief. Part of the reason why First Class is so successful is that it places emphasis over the characters rather than plot. At the heart of the movie is the relationship between Professor Xavier and Erik Lensherr. The movie does an excellent job of crosscutting between Erik and Professor Xavier's childhood to showcase how their unique mutant powers have shaped them. Erik grew up in a Nazi concentration camp in Poland and Charles Xavier grew up in an affluent mansion in upstate New York. Needless to say, when Erik and Charles eventually meet each other as adults, it's clearly obvious that these two have very different ideology's about how to do deal with humans, and the film plays with this idea to some degree. Charles Xavier first meets Erik Lensherr for the first time in Miami, and the rest of the film showcases them recruiting other mutants. Unfortunately, the film has X-Men in the title, so there are other supporting mutant characters integral to the film as well.Alas, most of these characters are underdeveloped, and because of this, you come to know them by their powers instead of their personalities. However, the performances by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are good enough to anchor the film. Fassbender, in particular, is a standout he plays Erik Lensherr as a charismatic James Bond type with a real chip on his shoulder.His performance as Erik Lensherr is absolutely magnetic if you forgive the pun. Xavier, however, is a little bland, but this is due to no fault on McAvoy's part. The writers obviously couldn't figure out how to make Xavier a more compelling character. Fortunately, McAvoy's performance is good enough to make up for this oversight. Jennifer Lawrence is good as Mystique/Raven she gives Mystique a certain naive sweetness. Kevin Bacon is also excellent as the megalomaniac mutant Sebastian Shaw.Unfortunately, his character is never really given any real depth, he's simply a one-dimensional villain. The film also would have benefited from exploring the creator/monster dichotomy between Sebastian Shaw and Erik Lensherr a bit further. It was one of the more intriguing ideas in the film that was left unexplored. Overall, X-Men: First Class is an entertaining action film with good performances from its two leads, and it has some pretty kinetic action sequences scattered throughout the film. The film is definitely a must see for those that were disappointed with the last two X-Men films.