"Marvel"out reboot to the iconic comic book franchise; Vaughn delivers the goods.

Rating: 8/10 (4 June 2011)

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011) *** James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Oliver Platt, Zoe Kravitz, Jason Flemyng, January Jones, Nichols Hoult, Caleb Landry, January Jones, Edi Gathegi, Lucas Till, Glenn Morshower, Matt Craven, James Remar, Michael Ironside, Ray Wise, Jason Beghe, (cameo: Hugh Jackman) The Marvel Comics franchise gets a reboot in this better-than-anticipated prequel to the origins of Charles Xavier and fellow crusading mutant Erik Lehnsherr (both nicely played by McAvoy and Fassbender, respectively) out to stop evil mutant Sebastian Shaw (crisp Bacon having a field day as the baddie) from destroying the world with the backdrop of The Cuban Missile Crisis circa 1962. Director Matthew Vaughn (once previously slated to helm a chapter of the series) balances the fantastic visual effects set pieces (i.e. Magneto lifting a submarine out of the ocean) and allows his young cast of gifted actors (the aforementioned protagonists and Lawrence too as Mystique) to bring some depth with an undercurrent of darkness much needed for the showcase of mutants being recruited to both sides of good and evil.