Not bad but the reviews have been kind

Rating: 5/10 (11 June 2011)

I'm a fan of Mattthew Vaughans work. I can take or leave layer cake but Kick Ass was entertaining and I love Stardust. Initially I believed him to be a great choice to direct a new x-men film. My enthusiasm was dampened somewhat as details about the film began to emerge but the relentless tide of positive reviews led me to believe that this indeed was getting the X-men franchise (depending on your opinion) on or back on track. Well they're half right.
What this film does get right is the dynamic and the essence of Magneto and Xaviers relationship and McAvoy and Fassbender deliver the goods. The casting of these two roles is, for my money, the films greatest success.
However Magneto's turn to the dark side is presented as a reaction to a certain character and the Nazi regime. He is so consumed by his quest for vengeance in light of what they did. However his response to the atrocities committed against him and the emotional trauma caused, in light of his intelligence and the genuine emotional affection he displays for his friends doesn't, for me, chime with his decision to pretty much adopt a Nazi philosophy of destroying a race he deems primitive next to his own by the end of the film. I know that we have to get to the point where Magneto does hate humans, but, if he's adopting the philosophies of those he's spent his life hating, I feel we need to see him pushed further than he is in this film.
In fact the last 40 minutes of the film is busy rushing through events to get them in line with our idea of who these characters are and not giving characters enough space to breathe. As a result almost every other character disappears into the background and makes little to no impact. The exceptions being Mystique, an okay performance and the only other character with any depth, and to a lesser degree Hank McCoy. Unfortunately, Mystique's 'mutant and proud' rhetoric and while her point of view is understandable, the constant repetition of 'mutant and proud' gets clunky and seems a little heavy handed and she turns her back on her best friend without really feeling any guilt, even though he's bleeding out and has just lost the use of his legs. Beast gets more screen time than the other X-lings, however the script allows the absolute minimum character development possible. The dialogue literally spells out the motivation for his actions but it happens over the course of a few brief scenes and it feels motivated more by a film makers need to get him blue and hairy than because we feel the characters discomfort with being different is that extreme or emotionally affecting.
Beyond that those points, there's little to talk about. There aren't any bad performances in the film but no other characters get enough depth or time on screen to make an impact or make us care. The villains in particular are very shallow. Kevin Bacon brings nothing special to a forgettable role, I can't claim to remember Sebastian Shaws reasons for anything he does, but he's serviceable. Emma Frost disappears half way through the film and seems completely wasted in this (at one point she is put in a position that she is shown to be capable of getting out of but for some unexplained reason doesn't). I can't understand the choices behind the other underwhelming villains. Azazel does the scrapping we see in the trailer but fails to excite in action the way Nightcrawler did in X2. Riptide has a power that is visually uninteresting and I don't think speaks while Angel Salvadore is a bewildering choice as her powers seem visually and practically pathetic. If you're going to cast villains who, ultimately, do nothing but fight, I don't understand why you wouldn't pick the more visually interesting or those who's powers would make for more exciting action scenes. Had to cut your fight in the mind sequence because it's similar to Inception? Why not replace Riptide and Angel with characters that would allow you to show us something we haven't seen before? The action in the film is perfectly serviceable but it lacks any tension and is pretty uninvolving. I don't remember being wowed at any moment in this film.
All in all it's not a bad film, but the reviews have been kind. I'll still look forward to Matthew Vaughans work, but X-men first class represents the closest he's come to a miss step for me. This would've worked better if it had focused more on Charles and Xavier and not bogged itself down with trying to show us the formation of the X-men and including a lot of events and characters they didn't have time to cover properly.