No class

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 2011)

Say, you wanted to see a bunch of sketches that explain the X-Men as we've come to know them; how Magneto came by the helmet, what threw Xavier on the wheelchair, a bunch of ironic reversals about who sides with who as eventually the deck is stacked. You will probably have a good time.
Everything else is mostly dismal. When the arch-nemesis warns a bunch of fresh-cut mutants they are going to be 'enslaved' by the human majority, the filmmaker cuts to a close-up of the one among them who is black. It's this much without class, without some finesse. For the entire movie we fly back and forth; from Vegas, where the ideal place for the lavish, secret hideout - accessed no less by a revolving couch - is adjucent to a strip joint, to the 'concealed CIA base' that is a dozen acres covered with buildings that look like CIA. Or freely, magically transported outside the home of a Soviet general only there to be reminded that our presence could light the fuse of another world war.
It is James Bond stuff at best. Like with James Bond, the filmmakers attempt to infuse some credulity to the comic-book shenanigans by situating them inside swathes of history that hold some familiarity and allure. So, everything is hastily crammed inside the box that reads Cold War history. There are ex-Nazis hiding out in Latin America - with a veiled reference to Colonia Dignidad. The climax is a liberal enactment of the Cuban missile crisis.
Oh, we're served again with 'us and them' trite dilemmas, as in all the previous X-Men films. There are people who are understanding, awe-struck before the mysterious powers, but a handful of them; most are ignorant dumbasses or the scheming scum we have come to understand populate the upper echelons of the military - secret government aristocracy.
What is basically left, is the noisy, effect-laden attractions; watch this because you can't think of a better movie where a submarine is lifted out of the water.