X-Men: First Class

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2011)

The Marvel X-Men franchise has really grown since the first film, three original films, a prequel for Wolverine, and now this prequel seeing possibly the two most significant characters and how and why they became what they did, from director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass). Basically the film opens in 1944 with twelve year old Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher) meeting ten year old Raven (Morgan Lily) and being happy to find someone else "different", because he is a telepathic, and she has the ability of shape-shifting into other people. We also see young Erik Lehnsherr (Bill Milner) in the Nazi concentration camps forced by scientist Dr. Schmidt (Kevin Bacon) to show his ability, of course it only comes out with rage, seeing his mother shot to death for example, he can bend and lift all metals. Nearly twenty years pass, Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has graduated and published a thesis on mutation, and Raven aka Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), who keeps her true form hidden, is living with him as his adoptive sister. Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender) meanwhile has perfected his metal based power, and he wants revenge for the death of his parents, by of course killing Schmidt, real name Sebastian Shaw, who has an ability himself, to absorb energy and use it as defence. After witnessing a plot by Shaw to have a Colonel's identity stolen in order to have missiles made ready to attack, Dr. Moira MacTaggert (Insidious's Rose Byrne) needs Xavier with his theories and knowledge of mutation to convince the CIA that mutants exist, and that Shaw is a threat. While sponsored by the unnamed Man In Black Suit (Eraser's Oliver Platt), they manage to track the threatening man down, and just in time to stop Erik from killing both the terrorist inside the submarine, as well as himself. Entering the CIA secret "Division X" facility, they meet another mutant Hank McCoy (Skins' Nicholas Hoult), who has hands for feet, and has created Cerebro, the device that used by Charles can track all mutants of the world, so they can recruit them. Along the way they find and train Angel Salvadore aka Wings (Zoë Kravitz, Lenny's daughter) who sprouts angel like wings, Armando Muñoz aka Darwin (Edi Gathegi) who adapts to an environment, e.g. gaining gills to breathe underwater, Alex Summers aka Havok (Lucas Till) who can emit cosmic energy waves to attack, and Sean Cassidy aka Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones) who has powerful vocal cords causing waves of sound, that can help him fly and attack. While Charles and Erik meet Emma Frost (American Pie: The Wedding's January Jones), the rest of the mutants as the secret facility are found by Shaw, along with his gang of mutant villains, including Azazel (Jason Flemyng) who can create streams of paralysing and destructive energy and also teleport, and Janos Quested aka Riptide (Álex González), and he wants to recruit them to other side, he manages to get Angel, and Darwin is killed. After the facility has been destroyed, Charles takes the remaining mutants to be trained at his family mansion where they all perfect their powers, Hank created a formula he thought would get rid of the mutant gene, but for him it only made it increase and he turns blue to become Beast, and they all get protective uniforms. While the Cuban Missile Crisis is going on with the involvement of President John F. Kennedy, Shaw is wearing a protective helmet that stops Charles being able to connect to his mind, and he does everything he can to cause World War III. The mutant heroes fight off the villains with their perfected abilities, and against the wishes of Charles, Erik fulfils his desire to kill Shaw, and taking the telepathy blocking helmet with him, and he unintentionally gets Moira to shoot Charles in the spine. The end of the film sees Erik leaving with his new cohorts Mystique, Angel, Riptide and Azazel, Moira promises Charles, who is bound in a wheelchair, not to reveal his desire to open a school for mutants, but he erases her memory to make sure, and finally Magneto breaks out Emma Frost. Also starring Hugh Jackman as a brief Logan aka Wolverine, Rebecca Romijn as a brief older Raven aka Mystique, Total Recall's Michael Ironside as Captain and Home Alone 3's Olek Krupa as Soviet Captain. McAvoy makes a superb young Professor X, Fassbender may not be bothering with an English accent like Sir Ian McKellen but is just as terrific, Bacon is indeed a fantastic villain (I didn't even know he was starring), I will say it does start a little slow, but once half an hour or so has passed you are definitely hooked by the great performances, the action packed fight scenes and of course the amazing special effects to take you to this extraordinary alternative universe, a brilliant fantasy action adventure. Very good!