Since Marvel Comics took over its own production of comic-based movies we’ve seen a lot of reboots. Some being more successful than others, from Thor (which was actually good) to Superman (bland) to Wolverine (bad).
X-Men: First Class sits somewhere between Thor and Superman; it's not a spectacular movie but not a total mind-numbing snore fest’ with action set pieces put together in the hope that it will resemble a story (i.e. X-Men origin : wolverine) .
Yet one had high hopes for X-Men: First Class, especially since it is directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass and Stardust) but like the first movie in the original X-men trilogy, First Class just barely wets the appetite, does a great job of setting up the characters and themes for the second installment but does not really deliver on the instant classic category.
Vaughn and company have carried the same themes from the first trilogy: issues of identity, acceptance and intolerance are well grounded in this film.
The whole allegory of civil rights is put in the foreground from the onset of the movie - there’s constant re-appropriation of civil movements and black Panther phrases such as “Mutant and beautiful” from the famous “Black and Beautiful” of those times.
Yet unlike Watchmen, First Class does not seem to take full advantage of the political-social climate it's set in, although it uses the real “Cuban crises” as a backdrop and nuclear annihilation fears of the 60’s and Cold War (which actually feels dated now).
It sidesteps the actual civil rights movement that was taking place at the time and the issues that race bring that are still with us today. Although Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr work almost as an allegory of Martin Luther King jnr and Malcolm X in their outlook around the solution to the civil right movement, in this case, the mutants' interaction are with “man" aka the human race. The real issues that plagued at that time are sidestepped, with not even a hint of it - I guess it would have made it less pop corny if they had gone that route.
The other not-so-great thing about First Class is that it has a lot of “déjà vu” moments that really don’t work - including character selection and character journeys, even dynamics. It feels like: mmmmh, we’ve seen this all before but with different faces, set in a different time but at least half way through the shining light of the film redeems it, which is the relationship between Charles and Erik.
The evolution of this relationship is what makes this film just cross the line of being bearable. Yet Fassbender is brilliant as Erik, he has some clever lines, cool killer moves but also a greyness to his make-up as a character which is appealing. This makes Charles look all too goody two-shoes without a real rationale for his motivations in the film. It also seems McAvoy is wasted in this role and he seems to just walk through it until the halfway point, where his talents start to shine through.
The supporting cast, filled with unknowns is not bad as well, from Jennifer Lawrence who plays Mystique to Nicholas Hoult, who plays Hank McCoy aka Beast are a joy to watch.
There are a lot of good things going for First Class, including Nightcrawler’s big red daddy Azazel action sequences, which tend to be more violent than anything we’ve seen in the X-Men movies thus far. Vaughn is not afraid to go for the shock factor with any of the characters when it comes to violence, which is cool.
There are a lot of witty, clever lines to be heard and even smarter cameos to be seen. Once the story gets its focus on the drivng force Charles /Erik relationship, it starts to cook.
The film has been able to make more than just Prof. X and Magneto but three dimensional characters. It will be interesting to see how the second film builds on this relationship.