X-Men: In The Beginning

Rating: 8/10 (13 June 2011)

We seem to be in the midst of the summer of franchise building and rebuilding this year. As such then, it perhaps shouldn't come as any surprise that a new movie that restarts the series based on the Marvel Comics X-Men character's has been released. Yet to dismiss X-Men: First Class as simply being little more then just yet another movie that is starting (or in this case restarting) a franchise would be wrong. It is that, but it's also something more then just that.
Considering the mark left by the previous X-Men cast, the casting of this movie is all important and the results are fantastic. James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr (aka Magneto) both take roles upon which huge marks were left by two very well known actors (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen respectively) and very much make them there own, especially in McAvoy's case. Indeed the entire cast of young actors and actresses does well including Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Rose Byrne as CIA agent Moira MacTaggert, Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy aka Beast and January Jones as Emma Frost. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the movie is the villainous mutant Sebastian Shaw played by Kevin Bacon, who clearly enjoys the chance to play a bad guy and is a fine villain at that. Backing them is a supporting cast made up of fine character actors including Oliver Platt as the "man in black suit" (seriously that's how he's credited), Matt Craven as CIA Director John McCone and Don Creech as William Stryker plus a couple of nice cameos from two previous X-Men stars. The result overall is a nicely acted movie all round.
The production values work well in bringing the 1962 setting of the movie to life. Indeed the production design of Chris Seagers is highly evocative of the Ken Adam designed sets of the 1960s James Bond movies (indeed the movie seems to replicate Ken Adams Pentagon war room set from Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr Strangelove) especially with their now retro-futuristic feel. The costume design does much the same job of evoking the era, especially with the costumes for the X-Men and the female character's. The use of archival footage to set-up the Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of nuclear war also highly evokes the era as well in a way that neither sets nor costumes can. Mention should also be made of the score by Henry Jackman which, though not necessarily evocative of the era, is nevertheless a good score that adds much to the movie as any good score should.
After three X-Men movies and a prequel movie for Wolverine, First Class restarts the franchise by taking us to the earliest years of the X-Men. The year is 1962, the year that the world found itself on the brink of nuclear war with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Suppose, just suppose for a moment, that a plot by power hungry mutant Sebastian Shaw to destroy humanity and cause the rise of the mutants was behind the entire crisis? That in a nutshell is the plot of the movie. True, it has more historical errors then I can list at the moment but, for once, I'm excusing it. Especially as without them there would be no climatic battle and what would a superhero action movie be without that?
Thankfully though, the movie does more then just action. Perhaps taking a cue from the 2009 Star Trek film, the story is as much about bringing the character's that have become so well known and giving them a new beginning. Indeed the movie plays up the friendships, rivalries and relationships between the various members of the "first class". In particular this restarting of the X-Men series brings the at times testy friendship between Xavier and Erik and the relationship between Mystique and Hank are brought into focus which is made all the more intriguing because we all ready know where both of those are going, even if the latter does evoke some clichés in the meantime. The result is a refreshing new beginning.
Indeed X-Men: First Class is just that: a refreshing new beginning. From good acting from a new group of X-Men to production values that evoke the 1962 setting, the movie shows a new side to the world of the X-Men. Indeed the script lays much of that groundwork as well with a story that's full of action yet brings the character's into focus as well. As a result, it'll be interesting to see where this "first class" goes from here after what might well the best X-Men movie to date.