THE PLOT
James McAvoy is the young Charles Xavier (the future Professor X) in the origins story of the X-Men. Hired by a secret government agency, Xavier is tasked with tracking down Kevin Bacon’s murderous Sebastian Shaw, a powerful mutant who feeds on energy and is bent on starting nuclear war to feed his power and leave humankind weakened and ripe for conquest.
THE REVIEW
I sat down in the cinema not expecting too much of this film, but hoping to be entertained and not disappointed. And that’s exactly what I got.
Set against the back drop of the 60’s Cuban Missile Crisis (here, instigated by Shaw) Xavier puts together a team of mutants to find Shaw and stop him. This is the beginnings of the X-Men with Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Centurion’s Michael Fassbender), Raven/Mystique, Riptide, Banshee and Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult).
The majority of the character and plot development is geared towards establishing the central characters of Xavier, Magneto and Raven (or Mystique as she was later known) and provide some essence to carry over to follow-up films. This development nicely filled in some of the background to characters the audience has already come to know through X-Men and X2.
The bad guy’s, led by Shaw are disappointingly one dimensional henchmen types, made more disappointing by the much under-used, but increasingly typecast Jason Flemyng as a NIghtcrawler-alike Azazel.
The final set piece battle is entertaining but never exhilarating and bookends this review nicely in that this movie is entertaining at its peaks and still watchable in its troughs.
THE VERDICT
X-Men: First Class is a fun, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, blockbuster that will entertain but not enthral
TC
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Writers: Ashley Miller (screenplay) (as Ashley Edward Miller), Zack Stentz (screenplay), Jane Goldman (screenplay), Matthew Vaughn (screenplay), Sheldon Turner (story) and Bryan Singer (story)
Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence, Oliver Platt, Álex González, Jason Flemyng, Zoë Kravitz and Nicholas Hoult
Running Time: 132 Mins
NOW SEE THE TRAILER...
UK Release Date: 1st June 2011
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