Unlike the last two X-Men films, First Class is not the multi-coloured, wham-bam spandex-fest you might be expecting. It's all the better for it, though. Instead, it's shot and paced a lot like an early James Bond movie. There's a globe-trotting storyline, a cast who dress immaculately at all times - not to mention some explicit shout-outs to the likes of Scaramanga's mirror maze in The Man With The Golden Gun in the set design.
I'm not saying X-Men: First Class is as good as The Dark Knight, because it isn't. But it IS as good as Batman Begins, and Vaughn and his writing partner Jane Goldman - surely two of the best pairs of ears for blockbuster dialogue in the business - could easily wring a franchise out of this, if they so wish.
When you come out of a superhero movie raving about the special effects, that's one thing. But when you come out raving about the cast's chemistry, the storytelling, and how much damn FUN it was, that's another thing entirely. First Class? Yep. I'd say that's just about the measure of it.
