Starting from the Top

Rating: Null/10 (17 September 2011)

Having not followed the various forms of the Marvel Comics X MEN series except for a glance at Wolverine can be beneficial in watching this Prequel. The fantasy is explained rather coherently - mutants have developed and must be undercover for their own safety until leaders emerge, young lads from the year 1944 struggling with their peculiar identity until something pushes them to the point of taking advantage of their supernatural powers and they become committed to gathering all the other mutants together as a positive force by the time they reach adulthood. Or as the PR piece states it 'Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-MEN.'
James McAvoy is Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender is Erik Lensherr and the mutants the gather around them include Jennifer Lawrence, Lucas Till, Nicholas Hoult, Caleb Landry Jones, Edi Gathegi, Álex González, and even a quick peek at Hugh Jackman. The year switches to 1962 when Russia and the USA were coming close to nuclear war so of course the mutants fight for the end of the attempt while another set of bad mutants under the leadership of Kevin Bacon and January Jones and Jason Flemyng et al face off battling powers of telecommunication and various forms of super human acts an by the end of the film the 'together boys' - Charles and Erik have become Professor X and Magneto. Doting the over two hour long landscape are appearances by Rose Byrne playing the love interest and Oliver Platt simply called the Man in Black. it is a game of subterfuge as well as a gradually coming to terms with being a mutant that keeps the ball rolling to a rather spectacularly staged battle scene as the Russian missiles are making their way toward Cuba and the United States.
Matthew Vaughn directs the screenplay written by no fewer than 6 writers ad there are some impressive special effects demonstrated as the characteristics of each of the mutants. Entertaining, yes, and it stands alone well enough so that those of us who have not seen the other installments in the series can enjoy it as a 'beginning'.
Grady Harp