X-Men: First Class

I LOVE X-Men, even though I didn’t know it as a comic and only discovered it when the first movie was released.  I’ve watched each installment since, and was slightly disappointed only by the third, the final chapter of the original trilogy.

X-Men: First Class is the second chapter in the Origins series (Wolverine was the first), whose goal is both “rebooting” the franchise and explaining how the most beloved X-Men characters took their places in the X-Men universe.

What mainly attracts me to the X-Men mythology is the coolness of all the different “abilities” the characters have.  Who hasn’t dreamed at some point in their life to be able to change shape, fly, read people’s minds, or be super strong?  The series’ thinly veiled allegorical message of mutant rights for gay rights is obviously a big plus too.

And while I quite enjoyed Wolverine, I was looking forward to First Class because it featured two of my favorite X-Men characters, future frenemies Professor Xavier and Magneto.  They are skillfully portrayed by, respectively, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, and since back then the two men were actually allies, the bad guy here is played with panache by Kevin Bacon (does this man ever age??)

The usual trove of mutants, both good and bad, joins in the action, which is plentiful, but what I wanted to see this episode most for was the story of how the mutants first came to be known to humankind, and that part isn’t disappointing.

Actually, I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed by anything.  The visual effects are spectacular.  The cinematography, costumes and set decoration perfectly recreate the different periods and locations in which we are transported.  The screenplay never loses a bit and lays out a historical revision of the facts that plausibly inserts the mutants into the timeline so as to make it possible for the X-Men trilogy we’ve already watched to exist.

The Bottom Line: I’ve read plenty about the fact that this episode of the X-Men has been the least attended to date, hasn’t made as much money as its predecessors and so forth, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and would absolutely recommend it to lovers of the franchise, lovers of the comics, and lovers of sci-fi.

Grade: 8