Review: "X-MEN: FIRST CLASS"

Like many a nerd-child back in the day, I was understandably excited for the first of George Lucas' prequels to his legendary Star Wars trilogy to arrive in theaters in May of 1999. After all, the aforementioned saga was without a doubt the biggest and most successful film franchise of all time, and fans of all ages were chomping at the bit to see just exactly how young Anakin Skywalker became the fearsome Darth Vader, not to mention witness the earlier days of other beloved characters in the previous films.

But as time (and the subsequent prequels) went by, many fans' anticipation (including yours truly's) evolved into that of confusion, annoyance, and even boredom. Of course, any prequel is difficult to successfully pull off considering that we knew what was ultimately going to to happen to the characters. But any joy, warmth, and emotional authenticity that defined the original trilogy was nonexistent in the noisy, poorly acted, and poorly written CGI-obsessed mess that were the Star Wars prequels.

My faith shattered and heart broken into a million pieces (each one representing the times I've cried inside because of Lucas' fat ass swindling me of my and others' innocence), my opinion towards prequels of any kind descended into that of cynical pessimism, especially in regards to franchises whose original films I enjoyed and even cherished.

Take the X-Men series, for example. Debuting in 2000, director Bryan Singer did a splendid job adapting Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's misfit mutants from Marvel Comics to the big screen, creating a strange, visually trippy, and even endearing story about genetically advanced people striving to co-exist with humans who hated and feared them. Singer followed up three years later with an even better sequel, expanding upon the political and sociological subtexts to add an extra layer of warmth and emotional pull on top of all the whiz-bang action.

But when Singer left the series and 20th Century Fox tapped hack extraordinaire Brett Ratner to helm the hollow and forgettable threequel The Last Stand-- followed in 2009 by an atrocious Gavin Hood-helmed Wolverine prequel-- the prestige of the series faded into cinematic life-support mode.

So when I heard that there was going to be yet another "origins" tale in the works, this time about a young Professor Xavier and Magneto when they were best of pals and not archenemies, I was expecting nothing but a massive disaster. Thankfully, I got my foot planted squarely in my mouth when I watched X-Men: First Class, a fresh, intelligent, and action-packed comic book flick that breathes new superpowered life into a series that was on the brink of certain death.

It's 1962, and mutants-- evolved humans who possess amazing superhuman abilities and/or bizarre appearances-- are slowly but surely becoming prominent in a world that's threatened by possible nuclear war between the United States and Russia. One such mutant is telepath Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), a brilliant young professor of genetics born into a life of wealth and privilege. Having grown up with his foster sister Raven Darkholme (Jennifer Lawrence)-- a blue-skinned shapeshifter who constantly maintains a human disguise out of fear and shame-- Charles has been searching for others like him, hoping to not only protect his own kind, but maintain a peace between mutants and their human counterparts.

Another such mutant is Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), a powerful manipulator of magnetism and Jewish Holocaust survivor who for years has been hunting Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), the former Nazi who killed Erik's mother and tortured the boy in Auschwitz to learn more about Erik's abilities. A mutant with the power to absorb and redirect great deals of energy, Shaw and his Hellfire Club-- seductive telepath Emma Frost (January Jones), demonic teleporter Azazel (Jason Flemyng), and wind-controller Riptide (Alex Gonzalez)-- have been secretly manipulating tensions between the U.S. and USSR, hoping to facilitate World War III and let the mutant race reign in the aftermath.

As such, the CIA and field agent Moira MacTaggart (Rose Byrne) recruit Xavier to form a secret mutant division to find and neutralize Shaw. Realizing that they have a common enemy in Shaw, Charles meets and teams up with Erik, and search for various young mutants to join their team: Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), a brilliant young scientist with amazing agility and dexerity; Armando Munoz/Darwin (Edi Gathegi), a cab driver who can biologically adapt to any dangerous situation; Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz), an exotic dancer with insectoid wings; Alex Summers/Havok (Lucas Till), a former convict who can expel powerful and destructive beams of energy from his body; and Sean Cassidy/Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones), who possesses the ability to scream at supersonic levels.

As a military standoff and a possible nuclear holocaust looms, Charles and Erik must not only contend with training their young charges to thwart Shaw's megalomaniacal plans, but also with their differing viewpoints on whether mutants should peacefully live alongside humans... or take their place as the next step in evolution.

As X-Men: First Class' production progressed, there were plenty of red flags raised for me: the production schedule was seriously rushed (principal photography started only nine months before the film's release), there were glaring discrepancies and contradictions in regards to the established continuity of the X-Men movie-verse, and, quite simply, there was still the bad taste of The Last Stand and Wolverine still in our mouths. However, when I heard that British director Matthew Vaughn was taking the reins, a flicker of hope sparked within.

After all, this was the same Matthew Vaughn who directed last year's spectacularly gory/hysterical/profane superhero farce Kick-Ass. Considering how much I adored that movie and everything about it, I decided to give First Class a chance. And boy, was I right to do so. Taking the raw source material from the comics, placing the proceedings in the swingin' 60's, and throwing in elements of Connery-era "James Bond" for good measure, Vaughn has reclaimed the heart and soul that Singer (who returns here as a producer) infused into the first two X-films and supercharges this prequel to with them to great effect.

There's the requisite themes of freakish mutants trying to fit into a world that fears them for their powers or appearances, proficiently personified by recent Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult as the blue-hued Mystique and Beast, respectively. There's the obvious analogy of the mutants' plight mirroring that of the Civil Rights movement, and added for good measure is the presence of Bond-style political intrigue, femme fatales, and stylish costumes and set pieces.

But the true nuclei of the film are that of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in two powerhouse performances. Ably taking the reins once held by British thespians Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, the two performers do a terrific job crafting the complex friendship-cum-rivalry between the pacifistic Xavier and vengeful/by-any-means-necessary Magneto. McAvoy puts a refreshing twist on the young Professor, making him a sly ladies' man who's in direct contrast to his future, stuffy, wheelchair-bound self.

As the Holocaust victim hellbent on revenge, Fassbender is a revelation. Having proved his worth to mass audiences with his brief yet crucial performance in 2009's Inglourious Basterds, this film will undoubtedly put Fassbender on the fast track to superstardom. Rather than try to emulate the dandyish camp that McKellan did so well in earlier installments, Fassbender makes his Erik a ruthless, emotionally-scarred antihero, and though we know what happens down the line with his relationship to Xavier, the journey of how they get there is absolutely tragic.

The rest of the cast varies in their impact. Kevin Bacon (who can now add about ten thousand new degrees of separation for himself with the film's ensemble cast) is a convincing baddie who is clearly this film's Ernst Blofeld, and has fun with his material without delving into full-on camp. The budding X-Men get time to show off their unique abilities in a fun second-act training montage, but with the exception of Lawrence and Hoult, they don't get much in the way of characterization (though Caleb Landry Jones' scenes as Banshee are a blast to watch every time he shows up). January Jones (of television's Mad Men) is stunning in her skintight 1960's ice-queen getup, but is completely bland in her personification. But there's also a very brief cameo halfway through from a familiar face that is both profane and delivers the biggest laugh in the whole picture.

Some of the editing and special effects, though impressive overall, do show signs of the rushed production schedule (for some reason, the make-up department was complacent with making Beast look like a navy blue Wolfman knock-off), and even though Vaughn manages to effectively squeeze in a lot within the 2 hour running time, the pacing sometimes screeches to a halt (mostly whenever we see the American and Russian military head honchos commiserating about Cold War hostilities in their respective war rooms).

In fact, the biggest flaw is the fact that the filmmakers could have stretched out Xavier and Magneto's story arc beyond this film and into the inevitable sequels, building up their friendship and the philosophical tension that went along with it, making their schism that much more thematically powerful. Instead, Vaughn seems like he wants to rush to bring us to the status quo presented in Singer's films.

But luckily, those flaws are overshadowed by a dual sense of intelligence and escapist fun, not to mention the fact that Vaughn intentional adds an era-appropriate layer of camp to remind us of the X-Men's colorful comic book roots. While cheesy codenames and brightly-colored costumes can be difficult to swallow in superhero flicks set in the modern day, here it works perfectly. First Class follows in 2009's superior Star Trek prequel/reboot steps by giving us an origins story that pays respect to the source material while stilling staying fresh and interesting.

Though it suffers from on-the-nose dialogue and exposition as well as an overlong and sometimes laborious sense of pacing, X-Men: First Class nonetheless shows us how you REALLY refresh a lagging franchise, and hopefully the inevitable next semester will be even more invigorating and truly X-cellent. George Lucas, you have been served.


Letter Grade: "B+"