I will be straight up with this review. I love X-Men. Its a franchise i enjoy a lot in all its forms, comic, cartoon and film. I have however suffered with fellow fans at the decline in the entertainment factor as the franchise has progressed.
So with eager anticipation I have raced off to see the first of three prequels…. SKRREECHH wait a minute PREQUAL? Yeah with all of the nerves of a film goer who suffered through the Star Wars prequels… I perhaps nervously raced off to the cinemas.
So set in the 1960′s X-Men : First Class follows a very young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto (Michael Fassbender) as they begin their journey as X-Men. The story starts with a flash back to Erik’s memory at the Nazi’s Camps loosing his parents (yes this is the same scene from another X-Men Film). It does stretch out Erik’s story to show the treatment he suffered and the source of his future anger towards humanity.
Now… Here comes the surprise. These scenes not only start the movie off on its prequel footing, but introduces original bad guy Sebastian Shaw played by Kevin Bacon. Standing ovation is required here as Bacon knocks this one out of the park. Quite frankly he is the character which seems the most believable.
While McAvoy and Fassbender do an alright job playing Xavier and Magneto, Bacon clearly relishes a role which has no previous history in the franchise. He takes it and makes it his own.
The rest of the cast do ok. The dialogue is a little odd in places but the general storyline keeps you going, working alongside the historical Cuban Missile crisis. Technically speaking this is not an amazing movie, with the budgets clearly being held for this one. Camera shots at times seemed oddly mismatched (was one camera a spare handycam?) and the special effects were not all that special.
This is in no way an awful addition to the X-Men franchise. It is perhaps more enjoyable than Wolverine, and if your an X-Men fan you may enjoy this entry, you may also hate it depending if your in an analytical mood. I enjoyed it. Its a good rainy day movie, perhaps more of a DVD collectible, but I think FILMGUIDE rating: Reviewed by: Skip Parker
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