X-Men First Class Getting Rave Reviews!?

One of the better comic book movies out there. Great guest appearance from Boris the Blade. I enjoyed it for what it was. Unlikely to watch it again like Iron Man or Batman Begins but a fun time at the movies.

I think I could have sat through the movie again right after watching it tonight. Up there with the best of the genre for sure and exactly what the franchise needed.

On a related note, I am in love with Rose Byrne aka Moira MacTaggert.

Saw it at the Drive In on Friday. Loved it. The Wolvie cameo was amazing. I also didn't want them to shoehorn him in for idiots that think X-Men is just Wolverine but it has to be one of my favorites period.

How many times did I mutter to myself "That's a bad motherfucker right there" whenever Magneto was on-screen? And when was the last time I actually clapped in a theater?

Only issues would be that Shaw's two bad guys have exactly as much character as Magneto's two bad guys (Toad and Sabretooth) from the first X-Men. I know Azazel was the devil lookin mofo but I seriously can't even remember if the tornado guy was even named.

And another issue..(don't click if you haven't seen, fellas)


But man, what a fantastic movie.

I've become pretty jaded and cynical over the years, but that happens to humans, right? When we're young we look forward to movies with high anticipation, but when we get older that sheen kinda wears down. And watching movies in the theater nowadays, well, what can I say? I'm older. I'm not easily WOWed like I was.


But this movie lit that old spark inside of me.


I swear I will not, I repeat NOT let the internet ruin this for me. Awesome flick.


PS there is not an after-credits scene.


PPS i wanna be magneto when i grow up

LoneSage said:

PS there is not an after-credits scene.

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i know, those bastards!! how dare they get a nerd like me so used to after-credits scenes! even orgins had that deadpool scene after it's credits...

It was good, almost great. There were several moments where sloppy editing threw me off. Most notably As a few people have mentioned, some of the minor villains weren't described very well at all, while I appreciate that they didn't over do the "wow, you're _____!", I also had no idea what to make of the tornado guy or even Hellboy --err, the devil guy. The climax involving Kevin Bacon was also a bit of a letdown given all the time they spend on building up the hype around his power (though, to be fair, I'm not sure what they could've done with it). I liked the fanboy reference to Wolverine, but I liked how they handled the Magneto/Xavier relationship at the end It's been a while since I've watched a finale that was both so satisfying and at times frustrating at the same time. I'll be lining up for the sequel on opening day.

I'm still frothing for Taiso's review.

Hoping he spends at least 250 words on the dichotomy presented with the line "We/They were just doing their orders."

Caught this a couple days ago. Took my cousin to it for his Birthday.

All I can say is wow, my bro and everyone else was right when they say how much ass this film kicks.

Much more satisfying than Super 8, which is so overrated IMO it's not even funny.

Looking fwd to First Class 2 (Second Class?)

'sage, here's your long ass review

Sorry it took a while. I had it written up the weekend of the movie but gave it some time to breathe so it could edited properly.

As the title implies, this is a long read. Hope those of you who take the time will enjoy it. It's long, but I needed to express all my thoughts to create what I felt was the most honest piece I could about the film

Warning: some spoiler content is contained herein.

On the whole, I am not a fan of this franchise. The sturm und drang of mutant persecution is a heavy weight crushing down on any sunshine or joy that might otherwise be had. The X-Men are mutants, yes. They are 'different' somehow, yes. And the subject matter of serving a world that 'hates and fears' them is largely lost on the audience, as there are very few in it who are going to watch a movie about mutant hate and draw anything substantial from it. A movie about, say, the Holocaust, probably tells us more about ourselves than a movie about 'homo superior tension' ever could. It doesn't really work as social allegory because at the end of the day, it's all about people with amazing abilities dressing up in costumes and hitting each other. There are, at the end of the day, no laws, politics or social mores to observe. One and all, these people are colorful vigilantes and that empowerment acts as shield and armor against the same troubles a Jew, by comparison, might have had to deal with during the rise of Germany in the 30s and 40s.

These films do not exist in a vacuum. Three doors down at the local multiplex, an extra dimensional being who controls the weather is beating on a giant, energy filled automaton with his hammer in defense of regular human beings. Soon, it will be a man with a ring that can do amazing green things. A few weeks after that, it will be a star spangled soldier deftly maneuvering his way through nazi goose steppers, dodging their bullets and deflecting them with his shield as he punches, kicks and shoots them down on the way to glory. And yet, this is what defines the X-Men. Fans are able to accept that mutants are hated and feared by normal people in one movie, but those same normals might love Thor or Green Lantern. I've never been able to connect with it.

So why does it work in X-Men: First Class? Why am I able to buy into it with more than just a summer moviegoer's myopic acceptance and suspension of disbelief?

X-Men: First Class is about awakenings and realizations, internally and externally. This is a movie about people understanding truths about themselves and the world around them, coming to grips with that and reacting to the shifting landscapes of their universes. The film pushes the theme with nearly every scene, and while I am not a big fan of theme in a super hero movie, it works here.

The movie is primarily about the origins of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, who will one day respectively become Professor X and Magneto. As one might expect, Xavier grows up as a compassionate, if isolated, individual who as a youth feels alone in a home his parents never seem to be in. The metaphor here is obvious: as Charles feels abandoned by his family, he also feels abandoned by his own kind. The implication is there that the parents are either too busy for him. Or is it that they don't like being around him because he can read their minds? An interesting premise, never explored. When Raven Darkholm, who will one day be known as Mystique, invades his home seeking food and shelter, he instantly knows she's impersonating his mother and when she reveals her true form, he is relieved and overjoyed that he is not, as a mutant or as a person, alone anymore. Raven, feeling similar isolation, is equally relieved that she no longer has to run or be denied the kindnesses 'normal' looking people receive from society.

On the other hand, Erik is a product of a world that hates him, but not for being a mutant. The masters of the world he lives in hate him because he's Jewish. Ironically, Erik has the one thing in his life that Charles doesn't: a loving mother. When she is ripped from his grasp, he reaches out with his magnetic powers and grabs onto the iron gate separating them. German soldiers try to pull him away, but they are not able to get him to relinquish his invisible death grip on the bars and he bends them while his powers are at their most frenzied and emotionally charged. He is brought before power broker Sebastian Shaw, who wants to unlock Erik's potential and make it his very real weapon, and he's only able to force Erik to use these powers when he shoots the young mutant's mother before his very eyes.

One man finds love where there was only isolation and fear. The other man finds isolation and fear where there was once love. Less intuitive audiences want to say that very little separates Erik and Charles, but this would be untrue. Their powers and inspiration come from very different emotional wellsprings, and that difference may as well put them worlds apart. They will find common cause and friendship and respect for one another as their lives intertwine, but each wants the other to come to his side of the fence-common ground was not only impossible, it was never the goal of either man to begin with. This is evidenced time and time again, reinforced and pushed to the forefront with delightful subtlety. Taken on its own, each scene where they share a difference can be viewed as justice versus patience. But the dichotomy between the two men has an underpinning that puts their fundamental differences on display if you're perceptive enough to grasp it. This element of the movie, the foundation of what separates Charles from Erik, is expressed so subtly and with such profound agility that it's expressed in nearly every scene without the filmmakers even trying to push it. It is there, and yet the magic of each individual scene obscures it from the forefront and makes it a force of nature, a living idea that simply 'is.' It is laying groundwork for the very believable schism that will come.

Of course, this is a movie about clashing ideologies and I can't think of a better time in which to set the origin of the X-Men than during the Cuban missile crisis. People are pointing fingers, waving flags, declaring exactly who and what they are and accusing everyone else of treachery for daring to be different. And feeding all of this is one Sebastian Shaw, the same man who once shot Erik Lensherr's mother to help the boy tap into his powers. In a way, his needling is helping push the world along to what he feels is its ultimate fate. He is feeding on mankind's intolerance and hatred, and making it feed on itself as well. In time, the groundwork he has laid will, he hopes, come to a bloody and violent rebirth of mankind in the fiery burst of nuclear arms. Children of the atom, indeed.

Caught in the middle of these men as they come to grips with the truth of who they are, Raven is equally drawn to them both for the strengths they possess. Charles is compassionate, warm and loving, if somewhat distracted and distant at times. For her, Charles started as an adopted brother but has since grown into someone she desperately wants to notice her. She huffs and preens as he pursues other women with his quick wits, charm and psychic powers, wishing for all the world that he'd turn such affections on her. She tries to look more like the girls he likes and to make herself as alluring as possible, and her deep rooted childhood fears take hold once more as her womanhood blooms and she believes he doesn't see her as someone to be desired because of her blue skin. While he is uncomfortable with her blue skin, it isn't because he finds it undesirable. The sense one gets is that she is, perhaps, TOO comfortable around him and the pleasures that invites sully his long held view of their brother-sister relationship. She's not someone he wants to desire. She's a sister-that's her slot and her role to Charles, and there's no room for it to grow beyond that.

But to Raven, Charles represents so much more than a brother; he is validation that she can be beautiful and special and treasured by another. It is something that she has craved all her life, this fairy tale. And yet, despite her emotional turmoil, I never once saw Raven as weak or in need of rescue by a mutant version of Prince Charming. She is willful, intelligent, resourceful, charismatic and charming-her salvation already rests within itself, and in believable premises rather than poor expressions of self confidence. She is no helpless damsel. But, despite all of that, she is still as vulnerable as any young girl who wants to matter to 'that special someone.' Sucker Punch's Zack Snyder really should have taken a cue from Bryan Singer and Matt Vaughn on how to truly create a character that embodies female empowerment, while at the same time showing them to be complex and layered people. I really like Raven in this movie. Everything about her. I found her blue skinned appearance more seductive, by far, than any of the artificial forms she wore. She exuded far more confidence, capability and comfort with herself in her natural state. Singer and Vaughn completely got it right with Raven here: more filmmakers need to study their treatment of Mystique if they want to know how to make respectable women in movies that can hold their own with the men.

We all know Raven will one day become Magneto's right hand woman, and this movie shows us why. Despite her every effort to be seen by Charles as a woman, it is Erik who validates her. Erik is direct and sees his power as something to be used to attain their desires, and one gets the sense that he is only subtle with his power for as long as secrecy allows him to get closer to Shaw. After that, even if he were to initially agree with Charles, he would soon stop hiding his powers from homo sapiens or waiting until 'the right time' to interact with them as he would like. That is Charles' way, and the movie has pretty much reinforced throughout its running length that the two can never work together. Their disassociation is inevitable. It begins when Erik goes to his room one night and sees Raven lying naked in his bed, in her blonde human skin, trying to seduce him. To this point, he's been coy with her and reinforcing, testing the waters but never truly crossing any lines. It's only when he tells her that he likes her best in her natural state that he hurtles that barrier. Raven, hearing the one thing from a man that she's been wanting to hear more than anything else in her entire life, realizes at that moment who she wants to be with and how she will spend the rest of her days. People will say that the difference between Charles and Erik is over some major conflict or violent exchange of powers. I disagree. It's here, in a far more subtle and emotionally affecting sequence, that the difference between the two is illustrated: Charles wants homo sapiens to be ready to receive homo superior, and will take as much time as necessary to integrate and show normal men that they can coexist. Erik doesn't want to waste any more of his life placating those he feels will never reach Xavier's lofty degree of social consciousness. This is, in my opinion, where the split finally occurs.

Other characters are introduced, their foibles and quirks are dealt with in an amicable and abbreviated manner, and so they should be. This movie may be called 'X-Men', but the title is in regards to two people: Charles and Erik, and the movie wisely stays the course with this. Certain characters' origins are either directly detailed or indirectly hinted at, such as with Havok being somehow related to Cyclops (they share the same last name and in the movie iteration, their powers bear visual similarities) and a demonic looking, tailed, teleporting assassin named Azazel who is clearly a progenitor of Nightcrawler. They serve necessary functions to move the plot: these people are the ones that Charles, Erik and Sebastian are fighting over but don't really have much more context beyond that (except, perhaps, for the Beast.) If a movie is going to be about the future of a species, the species better be represented adequately so the audience can see what the fuss is over.

One last thing about the film's narrative. I said before that the Cuban missile crisis is the perfect time for this to all happen. There is a scene, which you've seen during the trailers, of Magneto lifting a submarine out of the water. On its own, it's powerful imagery that details the extents of his power. But more important than the feat is the reaction of the normal humans as they bear witness to this event. The Cuban missile crisis was seen as the sign of the changing times, and people were simply more receptive to the reality that they lived in a very different world now. They hated and feared anything and anyone that was different from them. But when the normals see the sub rise, they are awestruck and horrified. At that moment, the conventions of their era, military might and political idealism, mean nothing. Everything they thought was important or mattered or made a difference is suddenly rendered impotent. Career soldiers who rely on scientific figures for megatons, velocity, cannon size, steel plating, air speed, nautical miles and all other measurable quantities, understand the consequences of a nuclear exchange, even if it's something they dread. But when they see something they can't process right in front of their eyes, they understand that the world they've built up for themselves is a house of cards. There is a new factor in their formulas. An immeasurable factor, that can't be put to reason or made to align with the familiar.

An X factor.

It terrifies them, American and Soviet alike, and when something is introduced that threatens everything they know and understand, they react in the only believable way: by finding common cause against that which scares them more than each other. The oldest of sci-fi conventions, but still very powerful and telling about the flaws of our species when communicated effectively through a fictional premise.

This is why the notion of mutant hate worked for me in this movie. Because we had genuine filmmakers who were concerned about the flow of the narrative, and focused on communicating idea about the core concepts in a respectable, paced and perceptible fashion. Bryan Singer was unfairly derided for Superman Returns, which I've always argued is the best Superman movie because it's not about the spectacle. It's about being the last Kryptonian, the only one of his kind, and the travails contained within having so much responsibility. Displays of power be damned. That was a Superman movie ABOUT Superman.

In the same way, X-Men: First Class is a movie about being a mutant in a world that hates and fears you. And the inevitable question that follows: what side will you choose?

5 out of 5 stars. The best superhero movie I've seen since The Dark Knight. I legitimately am having a hard time deciding which one I think is the better film at expressing its core ideas. This movie is not to be missed. It took chances with the franchise and its characters and its audience. It chose to tell a story that made sense and meant something, rather than the soulless action spectacles of X-Men 3 and Origins: Wolverine. They've taken a good first step towards redeeming the once proud X-Men IP.

But the black mutant dies first!

You can't help but laugh at the "really?" moment that offers.

Oh snap, someone mentioned the word "slavery" --let's zoom in on the black mutant! Meanwhile this movie took place during the civil rights era, but why mention that --too complicated to deal with real world oppression.

I see where your review is coming from, but I think this film had a few too many clumsy moments that put it safely below Dark Knight.

Personally, I'd be totally fascinated by a movie about a black superhero dealing with racism during the civil rights movement.

Taiso said:

Personally, I'd be totally fascinated by a movie about a black superhero dealing with racism during the civil rights movement.

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Black Dynamite was close enough

Taiso said:

Personally, I'd be totally fascinated by a movie about a black superhero dealing with racism during the civil rights movement.

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i'd like to see how the public reacts to a movie like that.

I'd probably concede that The Dark Knight is the better movie, but not by nearly as much as your estimation puts it. It's closer than that, IMO.

Matt Vaughn is going to be a director to watch. I'll be interested to see what direction his craft takes moving forward.

Taiso said:

Matt Vaughn is going to be a director to watch. I'll be interested to see what direction his craft takes moving forward.

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Agreed --I'm hoping that the sequel is just as much better as Spiderman 2, Dark Knight or even X-Men 2.

I saw it the other day. I was pleasantly surprised. Very good movie.
Nowhere near the Dark Knight though.

Taiso said:

Personally, I'd be totally fascinated by a movie about a black superhero dealing with racism during the civil rights movement.

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I want a movie about John Henry as we see him in DC: The New Frontier.

Taiso said:

Personally, I'd be totally fascinated by a movie about a black superhero dealing with racism during the civil rights movement.

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Don't need that; just need a live action version of...

I would welcome a Power Man and Iron Fist movie but that's all after the Civil Rights movement., for the most part.

EDIT: Check that. I looked at the publishing history and saw it ran from 72 to 80, and the Civil Rights thing was going on, although after a lot of the hotbed activity of the 60s.

I want to see a well written and thoughtful account of it. For instance, what happens when the bigots attack a Freedom Rider bus with a black metahuman who has a moral conscience and wants to do the right thing but is struggling with the oppression his people are facing, and how he reacts.

Thanks for the review, Tai. I have nothing to add other than I enjoyed reading it.

I've said it before, but Taiso is one of the best reviewers I've ever read.

Except when he said Easy A was a good movie. I hated that movie.

This was a good movie, but not great. I'm glad I saw it but I was a bit disappointed, having bought into the hype a bit.

These made me chuckle a bit.

Mystique had nice tits.

Bigger than Rebecca's.

just throwing it out there

Finally saw this over the weekend. Loved it. I was expecting to be a little let down because of all the hype, but I came out of the theater thinking, "Holy fuck, I actually loved this movie." Usually, I'm lucky if I can come out with, "Yeah, it was perfectly decent," or, "I don't feel like asking for my money back today," but this, I legitimately liked. And yeah, I see good stuff semi-regularly on dvd, but I can't remember the last time I felt that way walking out of a theater.

I don't know why people seem to want to compare this to Dark Knight... They are completely different kinds of movies. Yeah, okay, Dark Knight is a better movie or whatever. I know I should say that. But I enjoyed X-Men: First Class more. A lot more, I think. Dark Knight is fucking oppressive. I love the bank robbery at the beginning, but after that, I really have to be in the mood to watch it. But I can't wait to watch First Class again.

And that Mystique actress is awesome. She was in Winter's Bone, which was also excellent.