Come for the Charles and Erik Story, Stay for not Much Else.

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2011)

I have some mixed feelings about X-Men: First Class. Going into it I had heard a lot of great things, comments ranging from it being by far the best X-Men film to being on par with The Dark Knight. In the end, though, I found it to be kind of a mixed bag. As a character study between Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr it's brilliant. While they never quite match the iconic performances of Sir Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender do a wonderful job portraying these characters and really sell the friendship between them. This movie, on its own, establishes a stronger friendship and more poignant separation of two friends than all three Star Wars prequels did. The scenes between Charles and Erik are where this movie truly shines.
Unfortunately, the rest of the film is a bit weak and forgettable. None of the other characters were particularly strong or memorable (with perhaps the exception of Mystique) and the whole plot tied into the Cuban Missile Crisis felt contrived. I also never once bought Kevin Bacon as the villain. I was also somewhat annoyed by the ham-fistedness of the Mutants=Gay subtext. Yes, I understand that that has always been an element of the series, but it has always been inferred using broad strokes and could be applied to any number of minority issues from racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. Using buzzword phrases like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and "Mutant Pride" felt very forced, and the signposting lacked the class of the original Brian Singer films.
So was this film the best of the X-Men series? No, that honor belongs to X2: X-Men United. Is it the best Marvel Comics film? Nope, that'd be Spider-Man 2. How about a film on the caliber of The Dark Knight? Not even close. However, it was a good movie, and the excellent character study between Charles and Erik is worth the price of admission alone.
B