"Fluid Pace: Classy and Stylish Prequel"

Rating: 9/10 (18 June 2011)

Director Matthew Vaughn is back for a more conventional super hero movie after wowing audiences with last year's "Kick Ass." He has redefined the "X-Men" series with a very stylish work of cinema as attempt two at creating a prequel is successful with "X-Men: First Class." Like "Origins" there are a plethora of characters that the audience has to worry about, however, with the smart use of time and space Vaughn develops the roots of various mutants with a fluid pace. James McAvoy ("Wanted", "The Conspirator") and Michael Fassbender ("Inglourious Bastards","300") set up the best on screen matchup of the year with their respective portrayals of Charles Xavier (Professor X) and Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto). The film commences as Erik is separated from his mother and killed by a man named Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon, "Frost/Nixon"). This is followed by background of a young Charles as he befriends a very familiar character, Raven aka Mystic (Academy Award Nominee Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone"). After this brief exposition, the audience is taken on a nonstop thrill ride as the mutants influence the Cold War. Erik embarks on a path of vengeance to kill Shaw. Since their last encounter Shaw has started his own mutant army and has a very dangerous right-hand woman, Emma Frost (January Jones, "Mad Men"). Meanwhile, Charles and Raven are tracked down by a woman named Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne, "Bridesmaids") for their mutant expertise. Everything is connected in one way or another as the 1960s setting makes the film a cool cinematic rebirth to a new "X-Men Trilogy."
The Good: Director Vaughn reinvents the film series with a very well written script and a dark old school spectacle. Combining the classic feel of the 1960s and the Marvel comic book guise with McAvoy's ingenious, sexy interpretation of Professor X and Fassbender's rugged vindictive portrayal of Magneto makes this the best superhero film of the year. The casting of two big name congenial actors as antagonists (Bacon and Jones) along with giving their motive multiple purposes is smart cinema. Cinematography finishes it all off with a mixture of "Mad Men" flare in a comic strip.
The character development of Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz, "It's Kind of a Funny Story") is very irritating, failing to produce a motive for her later actions. This can be attributed to the fact that even though Vaughn does a good job juggling the plethora of characters, it is inevitable that one falls through the cracks. Also, the fast pace of the film foreshadows a climatic ending which in actuality fails to impress after the interminable build up.
Vaughn is following in Christopher Nolan's footsteps as he transforms his second superhero comic into motion picture form. He uses more of a comic book approach than Nolan casting to perfection and creating one of the best prequels to ever be made.