X-Men: First Class (2011) Review

X-Men: First Class (2011)

X-Men: First Class follows Charles Xavier, who is recruited by the CIA to form a team of mutants to combat the threat of former Nazi, Sebastian Shaw, who looks to start a war between Russia and the US. 

For older fans of the X-Men, First Class provides a treat rarely seen in superhero films, and that’s making a period piece that looks and feels like the comics of old, which are the stories that made most of us fall in love with these characters in the first place. Setting this in the Cold War 60s, we get an X-Men that are in their infancy, hardly in control of their powers, and more importantly, still very much a secret to the world population and US government, who, as usual in these movies, only sees them as a threat. Luckily, Sebastion Shaw, an alpha level mutant, would form his own team first, and more importantly, spark the idea that mutants are the future and as with all other species, the weak must die out for civilization to truly progress; an idea vital to Magneto’s development later on. 

Often, prequels like this don’t work, whether it be sloppy writing, lots of brainless retconning, or just a younger cast that feels disconnected from the originals, but none of that really applied here. What legacy characters are here are done with care and respect in making them both comic accurate while also faithful to what’s come before. Also, just the lineup, with throwbacks like Beast, Havok, and Banshee, along with the classic blue and yellow look that, until then, we had never actually gotten from the X-Men. It all feels so Uncanny X-Men and true to that era, and it will only progress from there (a prospect I love). 

We get a bright cast, starring Rose Byrne, Edi Gathegi, Zoë Kravitz, Jason Flemyng, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Till, January Jones, Nicholas Hoult, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and James McAvoy. McAvoy certainly makes for a solid, young Professor X, but Fassbender just steals every scene he’s in with an intensity and caged fury that just feels so much like a younger Ian McKellen. 

X-Men: First Class, directed by Matthew Vaughn, is a fun little throwback that breathed new life into, at the time, a stagnant X-Men franchise, charting their beginnings as well as the growing rift between Eric and Charles that would make up so much of the originals. 

8/10