First Class - fun, fast-paced, and smart flick

Rating: 9/10 (17 September 2011)

Solid script, great direction, a strong cast, and a memorable soundtrack, X-Men: First Class joins the series as, for me, the best one.
The film starts out interestingly enough with Erik involved with the Nazis (as you saw from the past X-Men films), and from beginning to end, it's fast-paced and very enjoyable. Slowly as the movie progresses, and you meet more and more of the mutants and characters. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were excellent in their roles as Charles and Erik, and I think they had a great connection, being complete bosses but at the same time so vulnerable. The rest of the cast followed along with all above-average acting, especially for a summer blockbuster type. You could see in many of the characters how they were, their motives, their feelings, how they were conflicting inside, which really added to the emotion.
Directing was great, with some pretty interesting shots and scenes, though I do agree again that at some points the CGI was a bit overblown (but it was awesome nevertheless). What I like about this X-Men also is that it was smart. Smarter than the others at least. Real-world and comic history aside, the action wasn't all mindless and fit in with an intense plot and scripting (as the Cold War in itself is already intense). The scores on this movie were also well done, and contributed greatly to the scenes.
All of that together made an emotional, fun, and entertaining film. Of course, all of this isn't new to us, the themes of good and evil, the character types, etc. have been seen in so many superhero and other films, but X-Men does it in its own way. So it's not perfect, but whether you're a fan of X-men or not, X-Men: First Class is a very entertaining film that I recommend.