Directed by:
Matthew VaughnCinematography:
John MathiesonCast:
James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Lucas Till, Edi Gathegi, Jason Flemyng (more)VOD (4)
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The film is a prequel to the first three movies, set during the 1960s, with John F. Kennedy as president of the United States. X-Men: First Class parallels the history of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights Movement. The villains of the film will be the Hellfire Club. The film, set during the 1960s, focuses on the relationship between Professor X and Magneto and the origin of their groups, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. The film stars James McAvoy as Professor X and Michael Fassbender as Magneto. (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (19)
I have so much to tell you :-) But after leaving the cinema, my head is spinning and I'm unlikely to get anything coherent out of myself. Anyway, I'm impressed with the grandeur, thoughtfulness, and color. The moment Charles shed a tear when he entered Eric's head, I shed two. I was almost rolling on the floor during the few minutes when the "youngsters" learned to control their abilities. So, Vaughn has clearly scored again for me and I look forward to all his future endeavors. Yes, X-Men just knocked Inception out of my top 10.
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Phenomenal! Vaughn brings the series back to where it originally started. As a comic book movie that uses its brain where others flex their muscles, it doesn't for a moment compromise on the audience-appealing spectacle, which doesn't lack wit, exaggeration, and... action. It is mature in its acting, plot, and direction, with no dead spots or lapses in pace. I’ll have more to say (hopefully) after the second viewing. Now I am just reveling in the memories of a film that was satisfying in every way. PS: There is nothing for me to add the second time either. Except that Fassbender rules like nobody’s business. Perfect in every detail.
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Two men with a nearly brotherly bond, a fascinating teenage Mystique, and the birth of several legends. And by its very nature, what was once a small, modest spin-off about Magneto, grew in Matthew Vaughn's hands from a mutant matchmaker into the most anticipated blockbuster in recent months. When then the vengeful Erik Lensherr chases after the most sinister gang in the world against the backdrop of the Cold War, and the freshly graduated Charles Xavier teaches mutants how to handle themselves, a well-deserved chill runs down your spine, whether from the story, the effects, the action, or the perfect actors (for me, James McAvoy is the clear champion). This tragedy has its ending clearly defined from the very beginning, but by being able to stir up almost all emotions to the maximum, it reaches for the position of one of the kings of comic book adaptations.
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Don’t let my high rating mislead you. Matthew Vaughn doesn’t pick up where Bryan Singer left off; his movie is closer to Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand. What makes Vaughn better than Ratner, however, is the balance between childishness and maturity in telling the story (both are present in Vaughn’s work while Ratner was just childish), remarkably more characters and a much faster pace (at “normal” speed, the film would have lasted three hours) and much more epic, top-notch action, which never seems botched up or over-the-top. This properly colorful eye-candy action-packed blockbuster, which will impress even teen viewers (for whom Singer’s films were too psychological), is made more playful by the fact that its best scene is a few-second-long “go-fuck-yourself” cameo by Hugh Jackman lounging around in a seedy bar. By this, the creators prove that they didn’t choose this direction because they were unable to follow in Singer’s footsteps, but because they know how to perfect this pulp genre and bring more pleasure to a wider audience than anyone before. Of the actors, Michael Fassbender turns in the best performance; I can easily see him as a new Ethan Hunt or James Bond (the second-best scene of the movie, which coincidentally also takes place in a bar, is Fassbender’s in Argentina). Kevin Bacon makes a very convincing villain. James McAvoy is more or less okay, which, however, is not enough for the character of Charles Xavier. The rest of the cast are just their sidekicks, but the cameos by a number of stars (e.g. Platt and Ironside) are nice.
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Somehow I can’t bring myself to give this movie five stars, mainly because I’ve never been exactly fond of X-Men. The movies were great, but I never thought, like with Watchmen, that they were perfect and that I would devour every movie that had the word X-Men in the title. Anyway, I don’t mind X-men and that was also the reason why I gave this movie a go. However, I must say that this film is probably the best thing that could have happened to the franchise, because in addition to great actors, it features an absolutely perfect story, which, if you do not know the source material, you do not know how it will develop in the next moments. And that it will eventually develop differently than is customary in American films? That’s the icing on the cake. If I said a moment ago that actors were great, then I need to repeat that because they were truly divine. That goes for probably everyone who appears in the film, and there are a lot of characters. For example, the one-minute cameo of Hugh Jackman is totally great. The same goes for the special effects. I felt a bit sorry that X-Men weren’t closer to my heart. But if another film is made, which could easily happen, I will think about going to see it at the cinema. It seems that I’ve grown fond of X-Men after all.
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