First Class Indeed !!

Rating: 9/10 (2 October 2011)

This fifth installment of the X Men series is by far the best of the bunch. Building on the saga that director Bryan Singer started, this is made on a much bigger budget of $160M compared to that of $70M for the first X Men movie.
The story picks up where the first X Men saga started, in the Polish concentration camp run by the Nazis where young Magnito (Bill Milner) started to show his unusual power. A mutant version of Dr. Mengele, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) wants to pick on young Magnito's talent, and in the process murders his mother. Some years later in the early '60s, Eric/Magnito (Michael Fassbender), now a grown young man, wants his revenge on Shaw, and is on his trail. In the mean time, young Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher), finds kindred spirit with also very young Mystique (Morgan Lily). They grow up together in Xavier's home all the way up 'till Xavier graduates from Oxford with a doctorate degree. They team up with mutant genius Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) who invents Celebro to locate other mutants. Soon the first batch of X Men is formed (Not the same crew the first X Men were in the comic book series) which includes Magnito, and Banshee who will later become their enemies. By this time, CIA has been introduced to the existence of the mutants, and starts to show their interest. One of the interested party is colonel Stryker. Magnito, still out for his revenge, involves Xavier and other X Men on the battle against Shaw.
This is the most polished in terms of production out of all X Men movie series. The screen writers did an excellent job of integrating the origins of X Men saga without hiring back the original actors of the series. Although it's a prequel to the first X Men movie, the movie has freshness that makes it stand alone as an original chapter in the X Men's saga. While other producers continue to trash the Marvel franchise, this series is amazingly consistent in their quality with producer Bryan Singer, and other talented writers, and directors holding the quality together.
I loved the plot, and the character development of each of the X Men the way it was shown on this movie. It's an original story, but one that I'm sure will make Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby proud.
There were some period piece screw ups in the props like seeing Revox A77 recorder which is a product of the early '70s, and Bose 901 series III speakers which are the product of the early '80s. Fashion, and the buildings were of much more modern vintage than the early '60s when this story is supposed to be taking place. But overall, they didn't mess up the mood of the story too badly.
This was a first class production, and even if it wasn't a spectacular hit at the box office, merits a sequel done by the same team of creators.