X-Men: First Class [M]

Before they were Professor X and Magneto, they were Charles and Erik, two friends who, along with other mutants, worked with the CIA to prevent World War Three from being perpetrated by another, extremely powerful mutant. But in the process of saving the world, a rift formed between the two friends, causing them to become archenemies, and so began the age-old battle between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men. 

This movie is hells awesome! The story, the special effects, the recognisable characters, as well as a few new ones, makes X-Men First Class a great film that is equally as thrilling and rollicking as Indiana Jones, Star Wars, or Transformers. 

Before they were Professor X and Magneto, they were Charles and Erik, two friends who, along with a group of other mutants, worked with the CIA to prevent World War Three from being perpetrated by an extremely powerful mutant named Sebastian Shaw. But in the process of saving the world, a rift formed between the two friends, causing them to become archenemies, and so began the age-long battle between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men. 

I think that the first thing that needs to be said about this movie is that there is no real need to watch the originals beforehand. A bit like Star Wars (the original ones from the 70s for those who are unaware of the saga’s unique chronology), the first three X-Men movies focused on the battle between Professor X and Magneto, as well as simultaneously focusing on the battle of humans and mutants. With this film, we go back to how it all began and, even though I don’t think these films are being made as some sort of continuing saga like Star Wars, it’s still interesting to note that we begin the X-Men journey in the middle rather than at the beginning. 

All the performances were brilliant, particularly those of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender who play the film’s shared protagonists, but without a doubt the movie belonged to the special effects department. The various mutations and powers of the heroes and villains as well as the brilliant display of wreckage after a classic action-drenched climactic battle, were wondrous to behold and it’s amazing to think that we, as a pretty egocentric and arrogant species, have managed to come this far by way of creating these amazing illusions. Creating illusions, that’s something that humans can do really, really well. 

Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Oliver Platt, Jason Flemyng, Zoe Kravitz, January Jones, Nicholas Hoult, and featuring a surprise appearance from Hugh Jackman (watch out for that), X-Men First Class is a great rollicking film that’s perfect for a night in. Filled with action, memorable characters, war, comedy, drama, violence, and awesome abilities, I am literally going to go down to my local Blockbuster and buy myself a copy as soon as I publish this. It’s awesome!