X-Men: First Class (2011)

Rating: 2/10 (26 August 2011)

"I will count to three and you will move this coin."
This is yet another entry in an apparently never ending line of sequels-prequels-shmequels Hollywood keeps turning out, these days. The script sucks, the director is utterly incompetent, the main actors are miscast, the secondary actors are wasted. The entire movie is made of plastic (poster included).
The script is a joke. It was written by committee and not even a good one. None of the writers have any major works to their credit and to make maters worse - as if that was even possible - the story is written by none other than Bryan Singer: the guy who ruined every super hero movie he ever touched.
The entire movie is nothing more that one huge introduction. Introduce super hero (sorry, mutant) number one. Check. Introduce mutant number 2. Check. Introduce mutant number 3. Check. And so on and so forth. Should they do anything interesting? Anything at all? No, no, no. God forbid they'd do something exciting.
Dear writers, this is a prequel, we get it. You have to introduce people, we understand that. But by Golly, why did you have to make them so excruciatingly boring? Couldn't you find them something interesting to do? Anything?
The director of this movie is one incompetent bastard. There is nothing that says: "Hey, that was interesting." Nothing. This is just one big music video clip, but without the music. The sets are very similar with the ones in Superman Returns: big, expensive and unrealistic. And dead. There is nothing that says: "We live here". No. There should be a big sign on the door saying: "Vacancy. Rooms to rent. Butlers to hire. Everybody's gone fishing. Big discounts!" (and in smaller letters) "The place stinks!"
The actors are terribly miscast and/or underused. James McAvoy is completely miscast as Professor Xavier, he doesn't look anything like the comics character or like Sir Patrick Stewart, for that matter. Plus his only ability seems to be touching his head with his fingers: "I'm gonna put my fingers to my head and I'm gonna smack your arse", he seems to say. Plus he is given the stupidest lines ever: " Remember, true concentration lies between rage and serenity." No kidding! Really??
Michael Fassbender seems a little more adequate, but nothing about him says: "Look at me, I'm Magneto". And to make maters worse, he is not spared the idiotic writing either. I mean, the Nazi doctor kills his mother and the poor kid goes on a rampage killing everybody, but he doesn't kill the guy who did it? Really? What the heck! This is joke, right?
Everybody else is wasted in this movie. Oliver Platt and Michael Ironside have a few lines, and Ray Wise is on the screen for about 2 seconds.
X-Men: First Class. More like third or fourth class, if you ask me. 2/10.