Before They Were X-Men...a Welcome Focus on Character and an Arresting Turn by Fassbender

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2011)

For someone who is not an avid fan of the comic book movie genre, I think this prequel to the "X-Men" series is well done and doesn't require as much of a crash course as I was expecting to understand the set-up. That's because director Matthew Vaughn has chosen to focus heavily on character development rather than just elaborate special effects to make this historical 2011 fantasy adventure truly arresting. He and producer Bryan Singer were also smart to gather a first-rate cast of young actors who lend atypical gravity to the proceedings and cumulatively, they provide the narrative throughput necessary to show how the characters evolve into their more familiar older personas. Having only seen the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" entry, I am no "X-Men" follower, so it was helpful to get the back stories for Magneto and Xavier in dramatically economic order.
The story begins chronologically in 1944 when a young German boy named Erik Lensherr watches his parents being hauled off to Auschwitz. In a fit of fear and rage, he bends the metal gate separating him from his family, commanding the attention of scientist Dr. Klaus Schmidt, who is eager to harness young Erik's telekinetic powers. Meanwhile, at a mansion in Westchester County, New York, young telepath Charles Xavier meets homeless young shape-shifter Raven. They bond over their unique powers. Flash forward to 1962, and the grown Erik contemplates his revenge against the man who went on to ruin his life. Schmidt has since changed his name to Sebastian Shaw and heads up a secret society out to take over the world. Xavier and Raven are still together as foster siblings as he earns his doctorate in genetic research at Oxford. Ultimately, Xavier's and Lensherr's destinies become intertwined with the Cuban Missile Crisis, a pivotal opportunity for Shaw to use the full scope of his energy-absorbing mutant powers. Xavier is recruited by CIA agent Moira MacTaggert to help her agency stop Shaw. Xavier brings Lensherr to the CIA's secret "Division X" facility where they find and recruit mutants for training to stop Shaw.
The young mutants end up dividing their loyalties, and the nonstop action ultimately culminates into Shaw's Machiavellian attempts to trigger World War III in the midst of the Soviet movement to arm Cuba with nuclear missiles. The military showdown provides the context for the separate fates of Xavier and Lensherr, which obviously leads to the formation of the X-Men as they are known in the original series. While James McAvoy ("Atonement") is effective as Xavier, even evoking some of Patrick Stewart's erudite manner at times, the film is dominated by Michael Fassbender's ("Inglourious Basterds") laser-sharp intensity as Xavier. A cast-against-type Kevin Bacon has a field day as Schmidt/Shaw to the point where he approaches self-parody. In a nice twist from her role as the spoiled socialite wife in "Bridesmaids", Rose Byrne brings a nice, no-nonsense proto-feminist sense to MacTaggert. The others, including Jennifer Lawrence ("Winter's Bone") as Raven, acquit themselves nicely in their roles. Even if you are not a fan of the series, the movie works as matinée-level entertainment for the rest of us. The 2011 Blu-Ray contains a hefty number of extras although surprisingly no commentary track. There are twenty minutes of behind-the-scenes clips, fifteen minutes of extended and deleted scenes, an hour-plus making-of documentary, and various interactive features.