X-Men: First Class (2011)

Rating: 10/10 (13 December 2011)

Next to The Dark Knight, this may be one of the most perfect superhero movies. Maybe even more so, as The Dark Knight became more of a crime thriller. X-Men: First Class is all kinds of awesome for so many damn reasons you really have to see this movie.
The first great call was bringing Singer back as a producer and giving Vaughn another shot after bailing on X-Men 3. These two men are highly talented. They aren't just churning out another blockbuster for the summer. They have sat down and thought about why these characters are popular and why people can relate to them. This allows for a confident film with a story. Unlike Origins: Wolverine, mutants aren't just thrown at you in an endless catwalk of effects.
The second great call was ignoring all previous continuity, but keeping the same film. This means it is neither a prequel nor a reboot. It's just a telling of a story. Sure, some of the facts don't line up, but when a movie is this good, you just don't care.
Fassbender and McAvoy play Xavier and Magneto. Both are younger incarnations, and as such, Xavier is now a bit of a scoundrel, using his talents to pick up women. This allows for some humour that juxtaposes well with Magento's Nazi slaying antics.
I also really loved how this film had a different way at approaching a team-up movie. Here there is action and danger before the team is assembled. Then once they are assembled, but before training, they are put to the test in a big way. Then they get their training and so forth. Thismeant I was never bored, and despite the running time, it seemed shorter than previous efforts.
Setting the film in the 60's allowed for many great costumes and sets, not always familiar in the comic book genre. It also portrayed the battles of our characters against real life events, making it a treat to relate to it. Every spectrum of the mutant fight is covered and how magnificent it was to see a hero (Magneto) and a villain (Shaw) want the exact same thing, but personal relationships make it an emotional vendetta.
This is a series that must continue. 11 years after X-Men started this comic book boom, the same franchise has brought fresh life into it. It shows comic book movies can be bother fun and serious. With exquisite action, well timed humour (hello cameo), and no gimmicks. The editing lets you see what is going on, and there's no intrusive 3D.
HURRAH for this movie.