X-Men: First Class Review

Prequels are tough to get right. Filmmakers have to nail that perfect balance between interesting origins that tie into the rest of the series and a narrative that can support itself for those watching the film as an introduction to a franchise. Few sagas have pulled this off in recent years, which is why I was a bit unsure what the people over at Marvel were thinking when they announced a prequel to one of their most financially and critically successful sagas (let's try to forget 2009's Origins: Wolverine) . Although I’m aware that the series has one of the deepest backgrounds and some of the most spin-offs ever to grace a Marvel franchise, the X-Men movies have mostly centered around Hugh Jackman’s trademark performances as Wolverine, and I wasn’t sure whether fans of the film series would be willing to part with him and the entire cast of the other films just to get some background on the characters. However, I was wrong. Though First Class has a few hiccups, its faithfulness to its respective universe and interesting narrative structure coupled with strong performances should win over all those looking for another quality entry in the X-Men saga.

First Class tells the story of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr before they became Professor X and Megneto, respectively. Although it scrapes the surface of each of their childhoods, the film is really centered around their lives as young men. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of a young Xavier and see how he learned to manage his abilities, but this is a small gripe in an otherwise excellent set-up. The two meet while launching attacks on a small group of powerful mutants for two different reasons. They soon form a friendship and work together to assemble a team of mutants willing to fight with them to stop the bad guys, who plan to use the Cuban Missile Crisis to launch their diabolical plot involving the usual destruction of the human race. It sounds a bit standard, but the plot takes a few twists and turns that keep things very interesting, and its tie-ins to real world events make it very entertaining and, at times, quite intense. There’s no unnecessary fluff here. The filmmakers have put to use every second of runtime, but the film never feels too fast paced. It balances emotional encounters with breathtaking action spectacles almost perfectly. 

But the plot isn’t the only thing that First Class nails. Perhaps its greatest achievement as far as summer popcorn flicks go is the intelligence of its action scenes. A few recent big-budget action flicks (namely Thor and Fast Five) took their action sequences to a level that made them almost blinding to watch. But First Class rights those wrongs. Its fight scenes are fast paced, extremely entertaining, and yet I never once felt myself losing track of who was who. The filmmakers didn’t try to use a bunch of funky camera angles. They knew that the havoc playing out onscreen displayed quite enough excitement for the audience without the need for a flying camera and switching scenes from one fight to another. Although some of the scenes sported mutations that were a bit silly (for example, a flying bug lady who shoots fireballs from her mouth), the film was obviously staying very true to its fantastical comic roots, so this is understandable. Filmmakers of the world, pay attention. This is how you do action scenes. 

The film also improves on an area that the X-Men series has struggled with in past entries. It crafts a cast of very likable characters played by a group of fitting actors, each of which was very obviously and carefully hand picked for their respective roles. Strong performances all around greatly strengthened the film’s poignancy, especially from the two leads, McAvoy and Fassbender who give incredibly believable performances as Xavier and Magneto. They almost feel like younger versions of their counterpart actors in the other films. 

All this praise doesn’t mean that the film comes without its mistakes. The title X-Men: First Class implies that the film will revolve around the first class in Professor X’s School for Gifted Young, but the school is never mentioned throughout the film’s entire two plus hour runtime (although the second half of the film takes place largely on the campus of the future school). Hopefully we’ll get a sequel to this prequel that delves into the beginnings of the fabled institution. The ending of the film also leaves a little something to be desired. It closes on a rather corny note, and there are a few explanations to would-be plot holes in later entires that feel a bit shallow.

X-Men: First Class is what it is: a prequel done right. Not only does it give satisfying origin stories to much loved characters, but it balances emotionally resonant character interactions with jaw-dropping action scenes full of classic comic book spectacle. Rejoice, comic book nerds, this is the best X-Men film to date. So let go of your souvenir Wolverine claws and try rooting for some other mutants for a change. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. 

Final Score:

8.0/10
"Great"