A great production with some rough corners.

Rating: 8/10 (3 June 2011)

Before I went into cinema for X-Men:First Class, a few media reviews really had cranked up my expectations. So, let's be honest, and say that this movie was so close to meet my expectations.
The filmmakers did a fantastic job knitting up everything in the first act, made it very character-driven. Nothing in the first 40 minutes makes you feel half-cooked because neither Charles' nerd personality nor Eric's washed-up revenger aura ever feels old. The whole movie basically feeds you with a great sense of retrospective spy movie. The same approach was at its peak in another superhero marvel--The Incredibles. It works fantastic if you factor in the fact that X-men:First Class is not a cartoon. There are action sequences set throughout the movie deliberately minimizing the use of CGI, which added significant believability to the film.
The 2nd act, which to my surprise, didn't really slow down for character-building. The movie is fantastic in bringing actions and characters to a balance, which worked just like the first two X-men films.
I was ready to be bombarded by the massive amount of CGI in the climax of the film, which if not for the restraining, smart usage of special effects during the first half, would not be so obviously artificial. That issue, along with my hectic expectations for the drama between Charles and Eric did make the climax of the film a bit, uh, unsatisfying. I was really thinking about if they can wrap up everything until Charles said half-mockingly, "I'd soon be bald."
The new Mystique, played by beautiful Jennifer Lawrence, was at the heart of the whole drama side of this action film. Mystique's character building was maybe the best compared to the main guys, Charles and Eric. Mystique's struggles of identity crisis, despite its cartooned roots in X-Men universe, is heartfelt. It's especially true to those living in a multi-ethnic environment. Mystique was so outstanding that both Charles and Eric had left something to be desired, in my opinion. Charles and Eric on the other hand, felt like they were already in their full-blown form. It's kind of hard not to factor in my own interpretations and assumptions when I tried to appreciate their development.
At last, the movie is complemented with a great score. 8/10. Way to go, X-Men. If you like to hear about my interpretation about Charles, please feel free to read on.
So, here's my interpretation about Charles's development in First Class. Charles was born in the upper class of his world, which formed his view of the world and mindset in a mainstream way. His mind-reading abilities allowed him to walk in the rains of social life without getting wet, which formed his illusion of being the mighty leader/father figure of mutants. If not for Magneto, he'd probably never feel the pain of belittled, incompetent, and incomplete. His disability to walk, along with the loss of his sister, aka Mystique, humbled him and sent him on the way to be closer to the a father figure/authentic peacemaker. Alas for Charles, no matter how many times he had read Mystique's mind, there were actually more delicate matters than he could fathom that was going on in her. Don't we, the self-respected intellectuals often do the same with our families? We sometimes feel like what's truly important is only arm's length away, yet in our frustration we turn to pervert or twist it. If that's the case for you, then may God help us as he helped Professor X.