Solid effects-driven blockbuster, but that's about it

Rating: Null/10 (30 September 2012)

Having paid more than my fair share of inflated cinema tickets to see hyped blockbuster movies based on special effects, I'm more and more happy to wait rather than go sit in a crowded noisy room to see the latest one, which is why I decided to watch the recent X-Men reboot/prequel on DVD rather than in the cinema. I had heard reasonable things though, so I was quite looking forward to it and hoping that the franchise reboot would do more than simply move earlier in the story. I may have hoped this but of course this is not really what it does â€“ the step back in time simply presses the reset button on the characters so the writers no longer need to worry about the back-story of the previous films. This may sound cynical but this is what the film is doing â€“ not adding anything by the shift in time, just getting rid of expensive actors, messy plots and also getting viewers back into the cinema after the third film started to put them off.
How much of a problem is this lack of innovation? Well, to be honest, not much if you are coming to the film knowing what you're getting into. What this means is that this is not a film that is exploring characters because it wants to â€“ it is building characters because it wants to sell tickets and that is clear from the start since everything is pretty basic on the character side â€“ indeed it never feels more relaxed than when it is able to go into a montage and develop characters that way. The good side of this is that it does want to spend lots of money on special effects and mostly these are up on the screen in rather silly and overblown effects shots. The various powers of the characters are where these effects come into play and they are as variable as the powers; so in some cases the effects are impressive and add to the action of the scene â€“ in other cases no amount of effects can make the powers be good (a stripper with wings isn't a "power", it simply means she might get more tips). The plot does allow for plenty of good action even though the plot is pretty much the same one all the films have at their core â€“ it really doesn't do much more than provide a frame.
The new cast never quite get to the level of the adult equivalents, even though there is some real talent here. McAvoy and Fassbender both do solid work in their roles but they fall awkwardly between being younger as characters while also trying to have the gravitas of their previous versions. Bacon is OK but never as much of a threat as he needed to be while January Jones just strides round in her pants, presumably wondering how many years of really good turns she has to give in Mad Men before someone else will give her a good role. Lawrence, Bryne, Hoult and others are all OK in their roles but the downside of all these younger actors is that this doesn't feel like a big franchise sequel/prequel so much as it feels like a cheaper version of the proper films.
That said it still delivers what it needs to do â€“ which is special effects that provide value for money. The plot and characters don't offer much more than a frame for these, but they are not awful, just obvious. A solid big-budget superhero movie then, but not one that does much more than the minimum in regards plot, characters and tone.