Just seen X-Men: First Class at the pics and I quite enjoyed it, and I always quite like these explanations of the X-Men's origins movies. So this film explains how Charles Xavier (played by James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr aka Magneto (played by Michael Fassbender) met and how they formed the X-Men, as well as how they ultimately split and went their own ways.
So as usual the film introduces some new unseen characters and some familiar ones, one of the main ones being Raven (aka Mystique, played by the foxy Jennifer Lawrence) who is Charles Xavier's childhood friend who grew up together, but Raven likes to hide her true appearace, as the blue skinned red eyed mutant (with some nicely covered up naps) through shape shifting and taking the form of anyone. We also get the real badass villain of the piece, Sebastian Shaw (played by Kevin Bacon) who is set on taking over the world and the unique ability of being able to absorb any energy such as gunfire, fire, explosions and fire them back at anyone. Shaw of course is also responsible for killing Erik's mother as a young boy back during World War II and Erik spends most of the film looking for revenge. But Xavier tries to be Erik's saviour and rescue him from his own anger and desire for vengeance, however it all goes pear shaped and the rest is history.
I really liked how the story unwrapped and how these characters met up. James McAvoy is surprisingly good in the role of Charles Xavier as he shows his compassion and understanding, and in a way he shows more personality than Patrick Stewart's Xavier did. Michael Fassbender is also very good as Magneto (or Erik) and shows him very much to be a wounded man who is out for revenge and while there is some good in him, he chooses to go down that dark path. Jennifer Lawrence is also good as Mystique, although she doesn't quite wear that sexy blue make-up quite as well as Rebecca Romjin did in the earlier X-Men films. Also another thing that doesn't quite gel or make sense is that Mystique is clearly dedicated to being part of the X-Men but then she decides to go over to Magneto and the baddies, as she is also clearly for the most part a goodie so it appears to be an uneven shift. Also when FBI agent Moira McTaggart (Rose Byrne) near the end gets in the way of a crazed Magneto who is about to destroy some submarines who were ordered to attack the island with missiles and hurls missiles back at them, she accidentally shoots Xavier in the back. This ultimately leads to him being paralysed from the waist down and wheelchair bound for the rest of his life, but he wasn't too pissed off about it afterwards with Moira, it shows he is quite understanding!!! You shot me in the back, I can't walk, but I forgive you, although to be fair it was accidental and Magneto started it.
Matthew Vaughan does a fine job directing First Class and keeping it in check with the same tone as the other films. Its also good to see Vaughan direct another comic book film, unlike Kick Ass, which had a very uncomfortable mix of humour and brutal violence. He also provides some moments of humour, the best one being a cameo of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine who is approached by Xavier and Erik as they try to recruit mutants, but he simply tells them to go fuck themselves!
Anyways X-Men First Class continues to keep the franchise on track and in a good direction, so it will be good to see what comes next.
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