X-Men First Class is an X-Men Film Done Right

Rating: 10/10 (3 June 2011)

After the original three movies and the Wolverine movie, I just couldn't see the point in yet another bloated, melodramatic feature film that would in almost all likelihood be nothing but following Wolverine around as flat characters milled about him doing things with superpowers to other things with superpowers. The promotional stuff for First Class did little to change my mind. Then I heard it was going to be something of a franchise reboot and my interest was piqued.
I went into the film with the expectations of seeing a mediocre movie and I came out blown away and quickly having every reason to consider X-Men First Class my favorite of all the Marvel movies so far.
The story is rich and multi-layered, covering an amazing amount of ground in the time they have and never having it negatively impact the flow. Its not a cheesy superhero movie plot, that's for sure. And there's certainly no cases of a supervillain having a master plan of turning a politician into a goo monster for kicks.
I can not praise the cast enough though. The range the actors showed was amazing. Hank McCoy being a perfect example of this. Going through a distinct personality change due to circumstances without it being "hit you over the head with a folding chair" blatant.
The writing, oh the writing, especially the dialogue was delicious. The character interaction were natural and believable and outside of a couple of iffy places, the dialogue was refreshingly free of preachy, over-dramatic speeches about morality and acceptance and clichéd monologuing.
Suffice to say, this movie is responsible for me starting to have a wee bit of faith in Hollywood again!