Thanks to Fox Australia, we watched X-Men: First Class before its official release in cinemas. This is our own review, but remember, we still recommend you to go and watch the film, because there is no better critic than yourself!
X-Men: First Class, tells the origin of the mutants in our world, with young Charles Xavier (played by James McAvoy) and Erik Lensher (Michael Fassbender), better known as Magneto, as the main characters of the film. Each of them has a different story to tell.
Charles has money and good life. When he was young he met Raven Darkholme better known as Mystique. Because Mystique is also a mutant, they become best friends. They even lived together as brother and sister during their younger years. When Charles became aware that he has the ability to read minds, he decided to study genetics and become a professor.
On the other hand, Erik was a prisoner of The Nazis. During this time, the evil Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) learned about his magnetic powers. Shaw wants to manipulate that power for his own benefit. Erik refused, as he couldn’t control his powers and he was tortured for years. Shaw even killed his mother ensuring that Erik witness her painful death.
The other mutants on the other hand, are working together to cause chaos. Shaw, with the help of his members, Emma Frost (January Jones), Azazel (Jason Flemyng) and Riptide (Álex González), started to manipulate the high commands of Russia and USA, with the ultimate objective of pushing both countries into a nuclear war. If this happens, they believe that Mutants will be the only survivors of the nuclear holocaust.
In the middle of these, Xavier meets his friend Erik who will be known as “Magneto”. Magneto is looking for vengeance against Shaw because of what he did to him during his capture. The two of them started searching for mutants around the world to create a team with the help of the CIA. The CIA helped them by starting a special program for “people with special abilities” in order to find and defeat Shaw and his team.
One of the things that make this film works is the excellent selection of cast, with Michael Fassbender as Erik and James McAvoy as Charles. Both of the actors were totally immerse in their roles and delivered outstanding performances that will surely satisfy the fans by giving them what they wanted to see; that is, the development of the friendship of these 2 characters, with their different pasts and opposing ideologies and how they become rivals.
The good thing about this film is it does not solely focus on Professor X and Magneto. The origin of Beast or why Mystique joins the side of Magneto is also intriguing to see. The humor is not absent on the film, with few funny scenes, especially where you can see Charles Xavier as a normal student partying in London and using his knowledge of genetic mutations to pick up some girls. The film also has a lot of small details directly from the X-men universe, especially done for the fans of the saga and the comic books, even including some amazing cameos that will surprise you more than once.
Matthew Vaughn’s prequel, reminds us the feelings we experienced after watching J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (websites like Collider and Slashfilm shared the same feelings too!), with a fresh air, amazing cast, excellent script and filmography. Moreover, you can feel the unique touch of the producer of the film, Bryan Singer (who directed the first 2 X-Men films) in this new X-men movie. Furthermore, this film is truly a prequel to Singer’s X-movies, there is no question about it.
X-Men: First Class is solid movie, a non-stop story, with great performances, outstanding special effects and a great script. These gives the film the feeling of a comic book story coming to life, including lots of Marvel and X-men trivia that will thrill all comic book lovers. Moreover, is a good example that 3D is not always necessary to create a great movie…This is for sure a must watch film!
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS will hit Australian cinemas on June 2, 2011
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