A new start for a dying franchise

Rating: Null/10 (22 June 2011)

Marvel's X-men saga has been scrambled to say the least. It had a strong start with X- Men and X2, then it was almost destroyed with that awful X-Men: Last Stand. Once they realized the franchise was dead, they came out with the prequel ideas. First we got the origins of Wolverine, and now we have the origins of Proffesor Xavier and Magneto. X-Men: First Class takes us back to the 1960s, in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when Charles (James McAvoy) and Erik (Michael Fassbender) were allies. They have to join forces and create a team of mutants to take down Erik's previous tormentor, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon).
The acting in this movie is great all around. Each actor takes on their character and adapts it in a very convincing way, namely, Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique). McAvoy did a great job with Charles as well. It was a lot of fun to see the fun-loving partier before he became a respected professor.
There were a lot of scenes that really jumped out at me. One was the training sequence in which Charles taught the mutants how to harness their individual powers. I attribute a lot of this scene to the score provided by Henry Jackman. It was important to see how he is able to work with the powers of others, including Erik's.
There were also a few scenes that were almost too impossible to enjoy. These were mainly the action scenes. One in particular, was bordering on ridiculous. There were a few scenes that were repetitive as well. I would have liked to see Jennifer Lawrence's character in action more because she is one of the central characters.
I would like to see First Class become a franchise entirely of its own. Apart from a surprising, yet hilarious cameo, the movie had very little that made it a prequel to the 2000 X-Men. The movie had me gripped to the end seeing the transformation of Erik to Magneto. Some parts had me laughing while not being afraid to cross a few lines. I wouldn't be disappointed if First Class became the future of X-Men