The movie we should have gotten after X2

Rating: 6/10 (3 June 2011)

I grew up with the X Men cartoons- ah, the childhood memories. I remember reading the comics and wishing I was as cool as Magneto, Wolverine, Beast, etc. I remember when X Men 1 came out... and oh man it was F'ing cool. I wanted to be like Wolverine. I loved that Cyclops' name was Scott. I got it on VHS for Christmas and I was 9 years old. I think I nearly wore out the tape!!!
X2 was probably the best of the original trilogy, in my opinion. It was the perfect mix of fanservice and crowd pleasing. When X3 came out, I was excited... but was so disappointed when I went and saw it. What happened? Who were all these random mutants??? What purpose did they serve? Why was all this story crammed in? And X Men Origins ran the franchise even further into the ground. Quite frankly I was done with the X Men franchise by then.
And then, ANOTHER X Men movie gets made. Oh dear. A PREQUEL???? George Lucas made 3 tragedies that were prequels. But wait... Michael Fassbender is in it, as is James MacAvoy!!! And it's directed by Matthew Vaughn. That's when I decided, OK, I'll start taking this movie seriously now. And then I saw the trailer... I was excited... This is the X Men I want to see.
And believe me. This movie ROCKED. Me being the geek I am, I went and saw it today. And trust me, it does NOT disappoint! X2 was my favorite of the series, but it looks like I have to reconsider. I'm not kidding, this movie is what I wanted to see after X2.
This is, as I stated, a prequel. The first half may disorient you a little- it focuses mainly on Erik and Charles. We learn of Erik's childhood in Nazi-occupied Poland, and how he came to terms with his magnetic powers. Whereas Charles, the man with clearly the better childhood, comes to terms with his mind reading abilities. We follow them through thick and thin- Charles' academic ventures and relationship with Raven and Erik's vengeful outings. We do see them meet, one night when Erik unsuccessfully tries to stop Sebastian Shaw, the film's villain, and his crew.
This leads to the meetings with a few Youth with mutant powers. Raven, who can turn into another person easily is automatically in, we have a scientist with feet that can grab, a woman with firefly wings, A man with a sonar, a man who can adapt, another man who can wreak havoc with some destructive powers. This leads to Charles' creation of a school for these people, so they can prepare for their part in the Cuban Missile Crisis- a crisis fronted by Shaw.
Honestly... wow. I can't believe I actually liked a new X Men movie for once. At 132 minutes, not a single moment is wasted. The movie moves at an effective enough pace- equal amounts of action and character are to be found. There is a lot of great humour too, and the climax in Cuba is one intense nail biter. And they managed not to screw up the character arcs- except the fact that Charles loses his walking ability in the 60s yet at the beginning of X3 he can be seen standing. But that movie fracked lots of arcs up anyways, so I don't count it.
The acting is PHENOMENAL. Fassbender gives quite possibly the performance of a lifetime. His controlled rage and mannerisms are just... BRILLIANT. He manages to nail the role completely and carry the film in the palm of his hand. MacAvoy surprised me big time here as well and excelled as Charles. And Kevin Bacon was fantastic as Shaw. Honestly I can't think of a single bad performance, all were great.
In short, this film is the movie that defines "Awesome summer movie". It is the perfect mix of fanservice and crowd-pleasing. Even if you don't like X-Men you will still love this movie. By far the best movie of 2011!!!
OVERALL: 10/10
PROS: -Awesome script -Lots of action -Amazing performances -Great pacing -Not a second wasted
CONS: -...uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh...