These X-Men live up to their title. It's first class all the way!

Rating: 10/10 (9 June 2011)

Like many audience members of Hollywood cinema, I am a big fan of the X- Men franchise, despite having never read the comics. The first two films in 2000 and 2003 were massive hits and I loved them. But then tragically X-Men 3: The Last Stand made an unwelcome appearance on our screens in 2006. For me it was one of the worst superhero movies I had encountered and this is where like many franchises that do sequels, by the third most have been wrung out and I thought X-Men has run it's course. But then thankfully in 2009, director Gavin Hood decided to do a prequel of mutant Wolverine, which I really enjoyed and restored my faith in the franchise in what I thought was broken.
When initially I heard there was going to be a fifth X-Men with the origins of Magneto and Charles Xaiver I was excited and even more so when I heard it was a prequel/reboot, where after First Class, there is a commission for two more. I looked at the reviews on here and was taken aback at how hyped up this movie was. I will be honest I was a bit sceptical after recent films that I have seen at the pictures I have seen that have been hyped up and been for me highly over-rated, one being the terrible superhero movie Thor.
However I am more than pleased to say X-Men First Class lives up to it's reputation by the audience and fulfilled it's title by being first class all the way. I would say it is the best superhero movie of this year and arguably the best I have seen since Batman Begins (2005 and yes even better than The Dark Knight!). One thing I was very pleased about with this X-Men film is the choice of director Matthew Vaughn who from Kick-Ass appreciates that character substance and plot development is as important as the action sequences and special effects and X-Men First Class is the same.
Coming in at 132 minutes, Matthew Vaughn impressively has packed a lot in with the story that is balanced well consisting of different mutants coming together like Eric/Magneto (Michael Fassbender), Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Sean Cassidy/Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones) and Alex Summers/Havok (Lucas Till) headed by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) who is supported by human CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne). They are against the other mutants, who include Emma Frost (January Jones), Janos Quested/Riptide (Alex Gonzalez), Azazel (Jason Flemyng) and Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz, who changes sides from Xavier's to Shaw's) who are headed by Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon). They have to stop him from using the Russians to start a war against humans by disguising it through the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Meanwhile another plot that is prevalent throughout is Eric's desire for revenge against Shaw who was his creator of his powers and who killed his mother with a sub plot of a potential romance between Raven and Beast.
The things that were great about this film that I expected was the superb special effects (I was also pleased that Vaughn decided not to do this in 3D), the action sequences were beautifully choreographed and were enormously destructive and exciting (though just as a little small gripe, I wish there had been a bit more action) and the script though basic did have flashes of wit with some nice comedy (with a small, but fantastic cameo appearance by Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, who gets a great one liner).
The biggest strength though is the character substance and plot development and the acting. The characters of all the different mutants are set up nicely as we learn about their different abilities and they all get their moments to shine. There are great performances across the board particularly by Bacon as Shaw who had a subtle but sharp malevolence, January Jones as Emma Frost and Jennifer Lawrence as Raven, but the driving force behind the plot development is Fassbender and McAvoy. They both give excellent performances as Xavier and Eric with some great chemistry on screen. You can clearly see the pain in Eric's eyes as he is consumed with his desire for revenge as all he has known all his life is pain and anger (which helps use his powers) in contrast to Xavier's (a comfortable and painless lifestyle who is smart and quick witted but with a gentle nature).
Throughout Vaughn cleverly distinguishes through the dialogue and actions of the two, the differing ideologies and objectives that they both contain as alliances are formed and broken and mutants switch sides. Throughout this divide is apparent as Eric tells Xavier that they as mutants will never be accepted by humans and that they should form their own society and rise to rid the world of humanity (mirroring Shaw's desires), whereas Charles wants to protect them and hopes one day they can co-exist side by side peacefully. The only reason Eric stays alongside Charles is to kill Shaw as they need to stop him. This divide in mutant/human existence ideology is cleverly mirrored in the sub-plot romance between Raven and Beast when Raven wants to be seen for who she is, but Beast wants to look normal like humans.
In the end Vaughn has created a film that will appeal to all who are new to the franchise and are loyal fans of the older films. He understands specifically what the audience expected and he delivered. And the fact he can intuitively guess what audiences wants is what I think partly makes this such a success. As I said they are going to make this prequel/reboot a new franchise and to that I say yes please as X-Men First Class is really that brilliant.