FILM: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
Review By Duncan McLeod
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon
Synopsis: X-MEN FIRST CLASS charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to prevent nuclear Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.
Review: From the outset this is clearly a reboot. There is a swathe of new faces and most of them are a refreshing change. McAvoy as X is great and Lawrence, Bacon and Aussie Rose Byrne present credible weighted characters. Fassbender as Erik was a little bit underdeveloped and wooden. He was made more engaging during his banter with Professor X.
Lawrence, Bacon, Byrne and McAvoy are the standouts. There are an abundance of characters and the lesser-known characters such as Darwin, Havok and Banshee were very underdeveloped and largely uninteresting.
Bacon as Sebastian Shaw was great. He plays the villain well and his physicality and delivery were perfectly used to flesh out this role. His cohort Emma Frost (January Jones) was terrible. Jones was rigid and lifeless and a sheltered version of her character ‘Betty’ from MAD MEN. Her presence was purely used for the purposes of her being able to look decent in lingerie. A poor casting choice, as any woman could have put in such a pedestrian performance.
Lawrence brought her dramatic prowess to the role and was engaging and entertaining. Congratulations to Rose Byrne who did very well here and was watchable and credible.
Nicholas Holt (ABOUT A BOY) was the best of the young male mutants; hopefully we see more of him or his character in the future.
The inclusion of Jason Flemying in the cast line was a welcome addition given his long relationship with Vaughn. It was also good to see Vaughn re-team with ‘Boris The Blade’ from SNATCH.
Despite the character flaws, the script was well written and in parts quite funny. There was also a nice one-liner cameo thrown in there for the fans as well.
The set pieces and action sequences were well framed and executed. In parts the effects looked sub-par and some of the backdrops were obviously computer generated.
Vaughn has graduated with honours from KICK-ASS and shows great promise in the action blockbuster genre. Hopefully this is the start of a rebirth of the series. With Vaughn at the helms things can only improve from here.
Trailer:
Cool. here’s hoping I see the same film you saw.
Hey, just saw this and really liked it. Silly but fun! What as the cameo? I completely missed that.
Saw this last night and enjoyed it for the bit of light entertainment that it was!