Review: X-Men: First Class, by Jason Kerouac
“Where are Jean, Scott, Bobby, and Warren? This isn’t the first class!”
You’re going to hear a lot of that. Hell, I was one of the first to take that standpoint. Azazel and Havok!? What the hell!? Y’know what, anyone who’s still saying that (and me of 12 months ago)… grow up (oh, look, I did). There are plenty of reasons for this NOT to have been the story of the five original X-Men. First and foremost, that story has already been told ad nauseum. It didn’t NEED to be repeated. Second, if you work with those characters, you’ve got two choices – slavish devotion to what’s gone before or else deviation for the sake of originality at the risk of outrage over not following continuity. Starting off with an entirely different team means you have leeway to tell whatever story you want with the characters. And it also leads to my third point, which is… this isn’t the first group of students that Professor Xavier reaches out to and invites to come study at his school. This is the group of mutants that persuades Charles to form a school in the first place. Aside from Hank’s presence here, you could still go off in the next movie and bring the other four originals in and it would work. Though I’m not saying you should.
Where this movie shines is balance. It balances the themes and characterizations of classic X-Men comics with interesting new twists for the movie universe. It balances a story rife with pathos against phenomenally choreographed action sequences and beautiful special effects. And of course, it balances Charles and Erik and their divergent paths. It does all of these things, and it does them flawlessly.
Do I have questions? Absolutely. They seemed to combine Sebastian Shaw and Mr. Sinister, and I’m not entirely certain why. Who was “The Man in Black?” (For the record, I’m guessing Malcolm Colcord). And of course, the big one… does this mean they’re dumping any and all established movie continuity?
Dear god, I hope so. This movie was great, and there was plenty they did here that does not match up with the standing continuity. I can only hope that they continue down this road without a thought to what came before. The opening scene payed homage to the prior films, as did a certain cameo (called it!), but the majority of the rest of the film set itself apart, and did so in a VERY good way.
I’m not saying, like our own Lee Rodriguez did, that this film is perfect. That’s overselling it. What this film is, however, is SO good that you’ll overlook or else forget entirely the things that didn’t hold up. They’re there; don’t get me wrong. When asked if he can pilot the Blackbird, Hank says “Of course! I designed it!” Ummmm… yeah. I don’t think all aeronautical engineers are trained pilots. There’s the scene on the island (Jekyll Island, ironically enough) where the CGI of the palm trees being crushed is absolutely horrendous. The physics behind Banshee’s flight are dubious at best, as is the acting in a few of the lesser roles. But it’s all so minor and so far removed from what REALLY matters that in the end, it doesn’t at all.
The single most legitimate complaint I’ve heard about this movie is that the lesser characters end up under-developed. We know NOTHING about Azazel and Riptide; scarcely more about Banshee, Darwin, and Angel. They’re set dressing… a chance to show off some cool special effects and advance the plot. It’s a fair criticism. The movie could have done just as well if you’d pared the cast down a bit. Fassbender and McAvoy carried the film as Erik and Charles and this almost could have worked with just the two of them; Mystique was somewhat necessary for their story and was fleshed out almost solely for that purpose; Beast served as a wonderful counterpoint to Mystique, the “good guy” who is in reality far less noble than “the villain”; Mr. Shawnister was delightful as the extreme that lies beyond even Magneto; and hell, even Havok served a purpose as the embodiment of everything that humanity has to fear in mutantkind. But beyond that? Even Emma was nearly pointless as anything other than a MacGuffin.
Add it all up, though, and the good far outweighs the bad. This movie was better than all of the best parts of X3 and Wolverine: Origins combined. It was a more well-rounded movie-going experience than Thor. And frankly, by the very nature of the plots, I suspect it will be a far more grounded and relatable story than Green Lantern. And, yes… I’d put it up against the first X-Men and argue its superiority (though I still say X2 has it beat).
First Class gets 4.5 out of 5 idle-threats-with-a-grenade gone horribly wrong.
Don’t worry about staying through the credits, though. There’s nothing. They should have saved the final scene… it would’ve been the perfect payoff.
Very good review Kerouac! I agree with everything you said! I loved it! Anyone who doesn’t want to see it because “last stand” was crap needs to stop holding a grudge and just break from the mold! First Class clearly washes away any stain left by the two bad X movies.
Abso-friggin-lutely my friend!
I still say this is a perfect movie. If not, then it’s damn near. Bitch about a couple of effects shots or window dressing from the supporting characters? Fine. But would knowing anything else about Azazel have made the movie any better? I don’t see how I could. I can’t think of much of anything that could have enhanced this thing.
Great review!!! Agree 100%
Maybe you should do all the reviews! Lol
Also where did you see the connection to Sinister and Shaw? Was it because he experimented in Magneto? It seemed like that was the only character he experimented on? Other than that I don’t are any other similarities.
1) Sinister was a Nazi scientist, not Shaw
2) Sinister is semi-immortal, not Shaw
3) When Erik pushes the coin through “Shaw”s forehead, it makes a scar EASILY covered by/transformed into Sinister’s trade-marked diamond
Bottom line, I’ll be shocked if Bacon doesn’t come back in a future installment as Sinister, and it makes me wonder why he couldn’t have JUST been Nathaniel Essex in this movie. Ah… but then how could we have gotten January Jones’s tits in frame?
Good review man, I agree with most of what you say.
What do you guys think about the X-movies pulling a Star Trek with its continuity? Have some sort of time event that allows for and offshoot timeline/reality. That way they’re free to take this First Class franchise anywhere, as well as include characters like Cyclops, Jean, Rogue, etc. however they want.
With characters like Cable, Bishop, Scarlet Witch, etc. you could easily pull this off…maybe even some version of AoA?
They would’ve been free to take this franchise anywhere had they rebooted in the first place…
Yeah I guess, but I think the X-franchise is so new and fresh in people’s minds that a full reboot would have felt unnecessary to a lot of people. Regular folks especially are only familiar with the X-Men through the movies so many would wonder what’s going on and why stuff is completely different. It doesn’t work as easily as it does for say Batman because everyone knows Batman and has seen him in dozens of different media throughout the decades.
I figure this is almost certainly the course of action to be taken, except I don’t even think they’ll acknowledge it happening.
What exactly do you mean by that? That they’ll just eventually reboot without actually doing a timeshift thing or that they might actually do something like Star Trek did?
The more I think about it, the more I think Bishop would be perfect for something like this. He could come back in time warning Xavier about his “death” in X3 and how it causes the world to go to hell and puts mutants in concentration camps with “M” marked over their eye, etc.
He means that they’ll most likely say “f— it” with the continuity yet give no rhyme or reason.
This.
I have a question for you K-Whack. I was re-listening to the post Thor PoP!-Cast the other day and you were complaining about how convenient it was for Thor to drop down right in front of Jane when he came to Earth. With this being one of your major complaints for Thor it leaves me wondering something. How you feel about the fact that Erik just so happened to find and attack Shaw on his boat at the same time that Charles and the CIA were coming for Shaw? That too was very convenient.
I’m just curious how something being convenient can annoy you so much in one movie, but not in another. And this is a serious question. I’m not trying to pick at you or try to question your love for First Class. For the record I LOVED the movie. I’m really just wondering about this.
To me, it didn’t feel as unlikely. You had two bodies (Erik and the CIA) moving to target Shaw. By coincidence, each finds him at roughly the same time. That, to me, didn’t feel as unlikely as Norse God falls to Earth, happens to land DIRECTLY in front of Jane’s RV. I guess to me the difference is the exactitude of it. If Thor had landed 6 feet to the right or left, he’d never have been found (well, not never, but you get my meaning). Whereas, Erik could have been a few minutes earlier or a few minutes later, or could have attacked from a different direction, or whatever… as long as Charles was in the general vicinity, he’d have picked up Erik’s thoughts. It just wasn’t SO precise, so it didn’t bother me.
Fair enough.
The odds of Thor landing right in front of the scientist’s vehicle are the exact same as him landing anywhere else on Earth.
Well, no, not really. Better, actually, since the celestial disturbance that the scientists were charting was indicative of the Rainbow Bridge. Thor WAS going to fall in that general area. It’s just him falling DIRECTLY in front of their RV that is the convenient coincidence.
I guess I don’t see it as being particularly convenient, since coincidences of that nature happen every single day.
This is why you’re my favorite Jason on PoP!
I had the same things going through my head that you’ve mentioned in the review, before even reading it: From the anemic supporting characters to Shaw being a mix between comic book Shaw and Sinister.
I also prefer to ignore previous movie continuity and look at it as a fresh new start.
Bottom line, I enjoyed the film very much, seeing it as the second best X-movie to date (X2 is still my #1).