X-Men First Class Review

Hey Guys, just wanted to post my review of the movie. Let me know what you think.

Excluding the exceptional Christopher Nolan directed Batman series, there has always been a flimsiness in every super hero movie that comes out each summer. Be it rushed production/editing, plastic looking CGI, forgettable one liners and one too many one-dimensional characters. The Matthew Vaughn helmed X-Men First Class decidedly carves its own lane and does what was once thought of as unthinkable; it decides takes itself seriously.


Delving into characters subplots and removing the tired 'good versus evil' theme, Vaughn offers a glimpse in to the X-Men universe exposing a far more complex character analysis than in all previous tries. Rather than treat mutants as a sideshow (they are) and spend half the movie scientifically explaining the unexplainable, Vaughn skips right through, diving head first into the humanity of each character. You feel the rage, and empathize with the moral conflicts humor, and envy.


The story focuses on three characters; Magneto, Xavior and Mystique. Michael Fassbender playing a young predestined Magneto, whose surface icy cool mixed with his interior boiling rage definitely rivals what Daniel Craig was able to do as James Bond. James McAvoy as the pre cerebral, swanky telepath, Professor Xavior, and lastly Jennifer Lawrence, as the beautiful young Mystique who ironically has trouble being in her own skin.(She really brings the character to life) With exception to Xavior, one by one each character is faced with the decision to choose who they are, regardless of what the world deems of them, or what led them up to that point.


McAvoy, will undoubtedly not get the share of praise he deserves. Knowing who he is to becomes and watching him steer the rest of the team, not only stays true to Professor Xavior's character but as an actor he also raises the dramatic stakes of every scene he is in, from framing Mystiqeus insecurities to pacing along Fassbender, shepherding him to his inevitable explosion self realization. Watching McAvoy interact with Fassbender's albeit good yet tortured mind is sheer delight.


Yet slowly you feel the weight of the movie shift on to Fassbender's shoulders, which he magnificently commands, by the end of the movie you feel a satisfaction watching him drown his rageful vengeance to him being fully realizing the endless limits of his power when combined with mental stability. "You have the most power when you can combine your rage with serenity" seriously, how beautifully done was that in the last scene. Action sequences, CGI be damned, do more of that and you will hit jackpot every time.


Are there over the top cheese moments? believe it. Banshee, Emma Frost, the demon pixie angel thing along with the rest of the first class (minus Beast) weren't exactly the beefiest of characters to pick from the X-Men universe. And if I were to be perfectly honest, the fight scenes/CGI offered no real eye candy whatsoever. Cherry on top for the haters? They killed the black guy first...ugh. (What is this? 1997?)


But if you are a fan you will find this to be one of Marvels weightiest character assessment in a super hero movie ever. X-Men: First Class is definitely in a class of its own

Am I crazy or was magneto inconsistent with his accent

hmm, you mean other than when he was an assassin traveling the world hunting Kavin Bacon?

I thought there was a shift in the last few scenes of the film where he sounded, I dunno, quasi-Irish or something, yes.

Hey ur X-man review is great to read..
i liked all the points u have shared..
it would be great movie to watch it..

@Yoda, know its a late, but come to think of it I cant really tell where he was supposed to have spent most of his time, obviously not American, but still..

@MovieAdda, thanks alot! yes, if youre a fan of the whole superhero genre, this is definitely one of the best out. Not better than Thor (imo) but still really good

I agree that this is definitely one of the best super hero movies made. It wasn't all about action but about the characters and understanding them. I think the fighting scenes with Azazel was sweet though. Too bad Nightcrawler doesn't fight like that in the earlier movies.

I must have watched a different X-Men: First Class than you did...

I won't even mention the glaring inconsistencies within the X-Men franchise (read my blog to see me rant about that), but I didn't think the film did anything complex or meaningful with any of the characters.

Professor X was a womanizing frat boy and I never believed him as a leader.

Magneto was never a sympathetic character, he let rage run his life never paying attention to the fact that the world had changed since World War II. Sure, people look at the mutants with fear and suspicion, but he never even considers Professor X's point of view. He has no reason at all not to give Prof X's opinion a chance. No one is running around exterminating Mutants and yet he decides in the end of the film that humans should die and mutants should rule. Why?

Jennifer Lawrence has given one outstanding performance and it's not in this film.

I thought all of the character moments you are referring to played failed to resonate. I had no sympathy for any of the main characters and the side characters are so unrealized that they may as well be cardboard cut-outs.

Now, if you want to talk about continuity, I could write a novel about how big this film fails as a part of the series. And don't try to tell me that they weren't using the continuity of the previous films, if that were true they would have given us the original team roster. Instead of iconic characters like Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel and Iceman, we get...Banshee, Darwin and Angel Salvadore?!?!?!?

Stupid movie that should have been a whole lot better.

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I'm pretty sure a whole lot of the things you're asking about are specifically dealt with in the film. For example:

Matter of taste, to be sure, but I'm not sure you're supposed to completely buy him as a leader. He's not one yet, after all, he's just starting to become one. And given that, I think his moral authority and compassion are more than enough.

Sure he does. Charles mitigates his actions a number of times and keeps him from going fully rogue (forgive the pun) up until the end. The fact that he fails is a testament to how deep-seeded his hatred is. There's nothing inherently wrong with the idea that Magneto has more or less already made up his mind about humanity and Charles can only delay the day that he snaps.

As for sympathy: how could someone watch that opening scene and not feel sympathy for him? How could someone not witness (mild spoiler alert) his vengeance near the end and find a tiny part of them wanting to cheer? He was a long way from simply evil. His trauma was palpable.

This question really confuses me, because the moment Magneto flips is the emotional climax of the film and might as well have giant neon arrows pointing at it. There are two hugely obvious reasons that he floats out of Charles' moral grasp: first, because the humans launch a bunch of missiles at them, seemingly contradicting Charles' assertion that humanity will thank them for their help. Second, because of the way Charles chooses to defend them, using the worst possible phrasing:

"They were just following orders."

This is something that is often said in defense of Nazi foot soldiers, and it's the straw that breaks the back. Again, forgiving the pun.

Wasn't sure where to post this but I thought it was interesting.

Given that Charles is the most powerful telepath in the world he doesn't see this coming? He doesn't try to help more?

I get that he trauma was deep seeded. What I don't get is that for decades he doesn't try to get better. He doesn't see that humanity has moved forward. And yet, he is able to function as a friend and colleague to Charles? He should be either unable to function as a normal human or learning to live with the humans. I just never really bought into his character because I don't think there was a truly convincing tipping point.


Ok, but even someone as affected as Magneto should know that the humans weren't reacting to mutants in an act of extermination, it was an act of fear, completely different from the Holocaust. If his character had any amount of believable growth, this would be the point in the film that it would happen. And he grew in the wrong way. There's no way he could compare the missile launch at the end of the film to the trauma he endured as a child unless he was completely nuts. And, Charles and the audience know that he's not completely nuts, he's just vengeful. And he got his revenge when he killed Shaw. It should have been over and done for him. The film doesn't convincingly turn him into a human-exterminating machine, IMO.

Plus, Charles should have seen this deep seeded hate and tried to help.

Also, I hate that they took what was supposed to be a long and deep friendship between Charles and Erik and turned it into about 30 minutes of screen time and two montage sequences.

What would "trying more" look like?

Also, if we want to start talking about Charles' telepathy, I'm sure we can come up with tons of things you could say he should probably see coming, but they've got to draw the line somewhere. Though even if you're not willing to do that, you could simply say that Magneto was genuinely torn about which way to go, and didn't make up his mind until later on.

I really don't understand the statement that he either has to be totally unable to function as a person, or else totally fine with humans. Why? I see no reason why this would be so. Outright psychopaths blend in seamlessly with well-adjusted people even in real life. In fact, they're usually particularly good at it.

Magneto can function as a friend to Charles because he has personal respect for him and the moral authority he represents. Because he knows that Charles, though he disagrees with him, is not weak or a fool, saved his life, and showed him things about his powers he might not have discovered on his own. If someone doesn't quite "get" their relationship, that's fine, but why limit the complaint to this film? That fundamental paradox--the idea of a relationship that is also a rivalry--is pretty much the entire relationship, even outside of this film.

I'm not so sure I agree. Even the Holocaust was, at its core, a creation and manipulation of fear, which in turn inspired hatred. There's no reason it being "just fear" would assuage Magneto's own fears about what that will lead to. But even aside from all that, you're looking at a very emotional thing in a very detached way. You're trying to convince me that Magneto is wrong, but that's not the dispute: of course he's wrong, at least as a matter of degree, and that's why he's still the bad guy sometimes.

Honestly, we just have a huge disconnect here. I don't think it's properly appreciative of the nature of trauma (let alone the type we see) to talk about it in such a logical way, or to say there's "no way he could compare the missile launch at the end of the film to the trauma he endured as a child unless he was completely nuts." Sure he could. In both he sees people segregated and hated for what they were born as. How could he not see those parallels? How could he not fear the same sort of thing happening down the line? Even a psychologically healthy person would be bothered by the similarities, and Magneto is far from psychologically healthy. The guy's been hating something his entire life, on top of the normal feelings of separation and alienation that comes with being a mutant.

Well, at that point you're just taking issue with the fact that they told this story in a single film rather than, I dunno, half a dozen, but such is the price of seeing a longform story converted for the screen.

I guess I fall somewhere in the middle of the OP and BouncingBrick. I think this is one of the more entertaining superhero films out there, but it's not the best, or even close to my favorite (two very different things, btw). I'd much rather watch Thor. I feel weird saying that, as I like the X-men a whole lot more than the Thor character. Thor was just more fun in its directness, I guess. X-men is clearly the more complex film, that's for sure. I just didn't enjoy it as much. That said, X-men did a ton right, and it had some really memorable set pieces and developments.

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I've been meaning to write a review for this film but I've been lazy. However, I thought it was f***in' sick. Easily my favorite superhero flick and, IMO, one of the best films of the summer. I gotta disagree, Sedai, Thor just doesn't compare.

I'll try and get some better thoughts together soon.

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

I think I'm doing a poor job explaining myself, as usual.

The Hitler used fear to manipulate people into doing something terrible that they probably wouldn't have done elsewise. Erik had twenty-something years to realize this. Plus, another mutant was mostly responsible for what happened to him and his family.

What happens at theme of the film is a far different set of circumstances and he should have seen that. Now, is the potential for someone in power to use the public fear of mutants to perform evil the way it was during the holocaust? Absolutely. But that isn't conveyed in his thinking or in the conclusion of the film, however, it was conveyed in the far superior Bryan Singer films.

I think X-Men: First Class would have ended more believably if Erik and Charles had still been allies but on shaky ground. I didn't buy the way it ended, it felt like they had to end it that way because that's the nature of the characters, not because they arrived at that point naturally.

I wrote this post on my iPhone. I hope it's not riddled with auto-spell errors...

LOL at "the Hitler".

I hate you, iPhone!

I've just pre ordered this on blu-ray, I'm not a fan of the original three films at all, and don't get me started on that awful Wolverine movie. So going by everything in here by people who don't like it, in theory, I might like First Class... Plus the director hasn't let me down yet.

The MOST EPIC ROMANCE I'VE SEEN IN AGES!

Poor Xavier and Eric.. their love just never had a chance

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You are talking about a character who basically spent his childhood in concentration camps where he had his mother killed right in front of him and experimented on. A semi normal person with issues would likely do what you suggest for the character to do, but I obviously Magneto is not a normal person. He had been in a similar situation before with humans 'just following orders' and it shaped him into the angry man he became. His logic is completely plausible if you take that into account.

I too don't see how you could not have had any sympathy for him or any of the other characters, specially given the early scenes. He, alongside McAvoy's Xavier, came across as (almost) fully fleshed out characters, and while their relationship is rushed, it never feels less than real to me.


I agree with that it would have been more believable had they ended that way, but it probably wouldn't have been as entertaining since we

Sets up the eventual sequels quite nicely, I felt.

I get how it works for some people but the problem I had with Erik is twofold.

One, most of the things done to him were perpetrated not only by a specific group within the Nazi party, but they were committed by another mutant! Once he wiped out the Nazi's and Shaw, shouldn't his thirst for revenge have been quenched?

Two, despite this being a case of "people following orders", the circumstances are completely different. The humans were on the brink of Nuclear war, not readying for genocide at the hands of a mad-man. Their fear level was extremely elevated, to say the least. On top of that, they just watched a man lift an entire submarine out of the ocean with his mind and watched another guy fly around shooting sonic screams out of his mouth. Slightly different set of "people following orders". I just don't see this as motivation for him to go into complete war mode against humanity.

I get it, you guys accept that as motivation enough. Personally I felt it was flimsy and it resulted in how the character needed to be instead of him arriving at that conclusion more organically. For example, if they had tied it into the Weapon program and had Magneto see humans experimenting on mutants again years after WWII, then I would have accepted his transformation more readily.

EDIT: Hey, Prestige, I haven't seen you around in a few days, good to see you back disagreeing with me!