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X-Men: First Class
| Released |
1 June 2011 |
| Director |
Matthew Vaughn |
Starring
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James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Oliver Platt, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Jason Flemyng, Lucas Till, Caleb Landry Jones, Alex Gonzalez, Edi Gathegi |
Writer(s)
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Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn |
Producer(s)
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Gregory Goodman, Simon Kinberg, Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
132 minutes |
| Genre |
Action, adventure, drama |
| Rating |
12A |
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X Marks the Spot.
Amidst the superpowers and the soap opera the X-Men have always been a civil rights metaphor draped in comic book format whose central contention is an ideological argument between two opposing factions. One, led by Charles Xavier, who believes in the open palm and the other, led by Magneto, who believes in the closed fist (a kind of protectoral if not exactly pacifistic ideal versus an any means necessary approach to mutant rights).
And since the X-Men's inception in 1960, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's creation have played out this contention in a variety of ways across a number of formats. In recent times the comic book has seen disaffected teenagers displaying Che Guevara style print t-shirts with the slogan 'Magneto was Right', the rise and decimation of mutant principality of Genosha, AIDS analogy the Legacy Virus and quasi-religious hate-groups like the Friends of Humanity Westboro Baptist-ing it up in action against the mere existence of Stan Lee's merry mutants. And along the way Xavier's Westchester School For the Gifted has welcomed increasingly diverse members to its student body and teaching staff with representatives from almost every race, class, sexuality and religion included. Safe to say that more than one comic strip soliloquy has been devoted to a message of tolerance. Meanwhile cartoon versions often explored the X-Men's campier side with Wolverine spouting lines like “I don't care which spirit ladies do what to which Cajuns I'm here to stop a wedding” and Jean Grey (purportedly the most powerful psychic on the planet) passing out from over extending her psychic self at least once an episode. There followed X-Men: Evolution and Wolverine and X-Men as well as a host of video games and posable action figures.
My abundant absolute geekery admitted and aside, it's all proof positive of the Marvel comic as a rich source material with a varied history ripe for the reinterpretation time and time again. X-Men: First Class does exactly that; a reboot of the original movie franchise by way of a prequel (with Bryan Singer back on the team producing and Matthew Vaughan in the director's chair). This time in a retelling of how the first X-Men team was formed, the children of the atom return to where it all began, the 1960s, with the Cuban Missile Crisis providing some extra dramatic oomph.
For an X-movie there's chills and spills unexpected with Kevin Bacon providing real menace as a dastardly comic book villain come mutant Josef Mengel and Fassbender/McAvoy acquitting themselves well as old friends and foes Magneto and Professor X. The relative newcomers are interesting too with Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult and Zoe Kravitz (amongst others) showing good dramatic turns as teenagers set apart from humanity by their extraordinary gifts.
With a few never before committed to film X-characters and a plot that for the first time seems truly original, frankly, Marvel studio execs must be rubbing their hands with glee at the results of First Class. It definitely all works, a perfect intersection where marketability meeting enjoyment, circles around fan expectation and hits plot right between the eyes. Really one of the best superhero movies to date.
- Cormac O’Brien |
