X-Men: First Class (2011)

United States of America

Action, Science Fiction, Adventure

The Donners' Company, Bad Hat Harry Productions, 20th Century Fox

James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult

Matthew Vaughn

Matthew Vaughn, Bryan Singer, Jane Goldman, Sheldon Turner

Taglines: Witness the moment that will change our world.

cia, nuclear war, superhero, mutant, mine, based on comic, superhuman, historical fiction, cuban missile crisis, world war iii, 1960s

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 arch-enemies, they were closest of friends, working together with other mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known.

Reviews:

Author: Geronimo1967
If it's not sacrilegious for a Brit, I found this outing for the "X-Men" to be far better without the presence of the two elderly thespians who usually underpin these adventures. James McCoy takes on the mantle of the younger "Xavier" with Michael Fassbender introducing us to the role of "Erik". The former has the ability to read minds, his friend to manipulate metal. By means of flashbacks, we learn the back story for both of these characters, illustrating how they met and started to work together to ensure that their kind were safe and sound in an increasingly hostile world of human paranoia and suspicion. They are making progress until the re-emergence of "Shaw" (Kevin Bacon). Now he and "Erik" have a past - and the latter blames the other for leading atrocities carried out by the Nazis on his Polish family during WWII. His determination to seek revenge causes a rift between the two friends, and soon they - and their respective followers - are at loggerheads whilst a dangerous nuclear war looms for an humanity caught up in a devious cross-fire. Bacon isn't at his best here, he isn't remotely menacing - but the others, including Jennifer Lawrence's "Raven" and Nicholas Hoult's geeky "Hank" work well to give us quite an action-packed flavour of the birth of "Magneto" and of the foundations of his later hostilities with the "X-Men". The visual effects deliver well and the underlying narrative actually offers us a bit to think about - forgiveness, vengeance, fear and intolerance are all touched upon with a superior script that doesn't entirely rely on the effects and pyrotechnics to make it's point. This film works better on a big screen, these stories never really thrive on the television, and is easily - for my money - the best of the franchise I've yet seen.