Between rage and serenity

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2011)

X-Men: First Class takes us on a strange journey. It takes us back to the land of "might have been".
The source material has been doing this for years, of course. Alternate timelines, possible Earths, parallel universes are old hat for the X-Men. Heck, some of their members come from such times and places. But the cinematic X-Men have more or less avoided such toys.
Until now. Ignoring X-3 and Origins: Wolverine (no. stop. don't. police.), the film postulates and explores missed opportunities. The tragedy of roads not taken. And it does this all without Wolverine hogging the screen! (Not to say that there just might be a cameo of some sort, bub.) By taking this unconventional approach, the franchise has not just been rejuvenated, I believe that it raises the bar for live action super-hero films in general.
Magneto and Professor X. They were friends, once. But who was responsible for the creation of whom? Why are they each other's arch-foes? Let's travel back to 1962 and find out, shall we? The young, spoiled Charles Xavier we meet has lived a life of privilege and wealth. His powers are easily hidden. If anything, he's more interested in using them to chase women and score educational opportunities than change the world for the better.
Meanwhile, a mysterious man named Erik is systematically traversing the globe, hunting down the men who made his childhood a living hell.
Both end up on a collision course when they run afoul of the enigmatic Sebastian Shaw, the self-appointed "Black King" of mutantkind, who's rapidly manipulating world events to the point that the Children of the Atom just may be the only living things left.
Charles' and Erik's respective arcs consume most of the film, but much focus is also had on Hank McCoy and Raven Darkholme, perhaps better known as Beast and Mystique. Neither can go out in the world without hiding what they truly are. Both long to be normal.
But is their freakish appearance truly a curse? Do they need to be "cured"? Or do they need to be proud? The tragic results of their haphazard experiments with being normal drive the points the film wishes to make home just as powerfully as Erik magnetically drives his points home in certain intense scenes.
Don't be mistaken. This movie, despite the teen goofing, 60s spy film cool, and general bright production design gets very dark before the end.
And it's unafraid to take this darkness to its logical conclusion.
We may mourn for Beast and Mystique's relationship being starcrossed. We may sigh and shake our heads at Charles' foolishness in not understanding just the wrong things to say to a man on the brink.
But the irony is, these same failures create hope, and heroism, where before was only hedonism and hidden villainy.
The final truth: By having his youthful blinders ripped away, his legs crippled, and his friendship betrayed, Xavier finally understands what a terrible place the world actually is. And this gives him the fire he needs to be a shining light of goodness in it.
By damning himself, Erik creates the method by which the world may ultimately be saved.
This is deep, mythic story-telling here. It's the sort of fresh start Marvel's mutants needed. Here's looking to much more to follow.
(Originally appeared at http://fourthdayuniverse.com/reports)