They're doing it right again!

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2011)

Needless to say that it was quite a relief, after so many disappointments with superheros, that the X-Men are back to their full glory.
The original X-Men was great, the sequel was just as good, and The Last Stand wasn't as bad as everybody keeps saying, alas, it didn't live up to its predecessors. Wolverine, on the other hand, threw out all of the artistic merit behind the films and went for the "look at me, I'm awesome" style, which almost killed the X-Men series' credibility.
First Class returns to the socio-political aspects of the original X-Men comics, but in the form of a prequel. Therefore, you get to know the Charles Xavier and Erik Lensher when they were young and how they became the Professor and Magneto, and their respective followings.
As a prequel, it's very loose in its connection to the previous movies. While the basics are still the same, if you nitpick, you'll notice some inaccuracies with the facts, but if you hated The Last Stand and Wolverine, then it won't be a real problem.
As some have said, the mutants starring in this movie aren't the coolest ones, but that actually helps the movie be more serious and not just wowing the audience with special effects, although they do accomplish that very well.
McAvoy and Fassbender as Xavier and Magneto, respectively, are terrific. Most particularly Magneto, in a performance that would make Sir Ian McKellen proud. McAvoy's Professor X isn't as striking as Patrick Stewart's, then again, Stewart didn't really make me believe he was Professor X, but simply Patrick Stewart being Patrick Stewart.
It is interesting how the characters are written. Xavier is a player, hitting on chicks and getting drunk, while he slowly (though not too subtly) changes into a wise mentor as the situation grows worse. Magneto still is antisocial and resentful, but he has lighter moments, showing a sense of humor and also genuine loyalty to his friends.
It was an interesting surprise to see Kevin Bacon here, but his villain is good, his powers are awesome and his performance excels. The rest of the characters, in all honesty, are rather generic, with the exception, naturally, of Raven and Hank (Mystique and Beast), who have an interesting subplot but, as we all know, doesn't really matter.
The story as a whole is fun and very entertaining. While they do take liberties with what happened on the Cuban missile crisis, going on the Watchmen route, the tension and the suspense is handled well, even though you wouldn't have a clue of what's going around the world.
The costumes are excellently designed. I'll have to say that, even though McKellen's Magneto was OK, I never really saw him the way I remembered Magneto in the TV show and comics. At the end, when you see Fassbender in costume and his emblematic helmet, you finally say "Yes! That's Magneto!"
I don't know if Bryan Singer's involvement as one of the producers helped the movie, but something was different here, and it was done great. Matthew Vaughn's effort paid off.
At first, I thought the movie would be as pretentious as Wolverine, but when I saw it, I felt it was genuine and done seriously, just like the first movies. If you yearned for the past glory of the X-Men or if you ever wanted to explore the history behind them, this is definitely a must. Continuity is faint, but you really won't care for it.