Not a good prequel - an excellent movie

Rating: 8/10 (12 January 2012)

Why is 'prequel' such a dirty word? Is it all because of George Lucas? Could a good, actual prequel ever be made? The difficulties of making a good prequel are obvious - it's difficult to make the film exciting when the eventual outcome is pretty much known in advance, and the viewer is perfectly aware of which characters are death-proof and which aren't; in addition, being forced to adhere to franchise continuity can come at the expense of good storytelling. Of course, the more fervent the franchise's fanbase is, the most difficult it is. Most franchises avoid the challenge altogether. Batman Begins and Casino Royale were referred to as prequels during production, but both were complete reboots; Star Trek, on the other hand, seemed like a proper prequel at first but then took a completely different route. X-Men: First Class, in contrast, takes a middle route, and it's almost impossible to figure out whether it's a prequel or a reboot. There are too many cross-references to the other X-Men movies thrown around to really call this a reboot; but it also contradicts the timeline and continuity of those movies in every possible way. Are those references only intended as in-jokes? But the approach of the movie is also not different enough to warrant a completely new continuity. That reeks of indecision.
The amazing thing, though, that once I got past that, that's more or less the only real flaw I could find in First Class. In fact, it may be the best film in the series, other than not having the benefit of the excellent performances of Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. The problems in continuity may make it difficult to enjoy for rabid fans of the previous movies, but as a standalone, First Class stands perfectly well as a sci-fi film with drama, pathos, solid acting, excellent action scenes, and, yes, a sense of humor too - even though it's decisively darker, more pessimistic and more morally ambiguous than all previous X-Men films - that is mainly thanks to Michael Fassbender's incredible performance as Magneto, who manages to equal Ian McKellen's wonderful portrayal of the same character in X-Men 1-3.
X-Men: First Class suffers from the inherent problems of all prequels - anyone who saw the first three X-Men movies or knows anything about the comics knows a lot about the conclusion pretty much from the beginning of the movie. But it manages to go around that problem by not focusing too much on the plot - instead, First Class is a character study, an exploration of morality, and a coming-of-age story - as well as a large-scale action extravaganza, of course, though not excessively so; it's a human drama centered on the relationship between two complex characters, but it also enjoys a wonderful ensemble cast. An excellent movie by any standard, that doesn't adhere strictly to the constrained of a defined continuity, but stands proudly on its own as one of the finest superhero movie ever made.