Oddly enough, I have very little to say about “X-Men: First Class.” There was a rush to celebrate the film that felt hasty. It gets a number of things right (like the Xavier/Lensherr relationship, which is spot on), but it also feels like director Matthew Vaughn is a bit tone deaf, as the energy of the film felt incredibly unbalanced (perhaps owed to re-shooting with Bryan Singer, I’m not sure — and I haven’t been a big fan of Vaughn’s work so far). In any case, the film opens this weekend, and east coast midnight screenings should be letting out shortly, so you’ll all have your own opinions to offer. Cut loose with them here when you get around to it.
Comments
56 responses to “Tell us what you thought of ‘X-Men: First Class’”
I just saw this film, and yes, it’s very fun! All around nicely performed and put together. Fassbender was great and all, but McAvoy stuck with me the most by the end of the film – but I don’t think either of them has enough screen time/material to land themselves a Best Actor nod.
But I think that it could land itself into the Top 10 as long as it beats Super 8… but I don’t think both movies will make it together with Harry Potter around. Time will tell.
The female characters are poorly written and have nothing to do. That being said, January Jones was still terrible, even with the little she was given.
Some of the dialogue was cheesy and unintentionally funny. I think there was too much going on, especially in the beginning, and it would have been better to cut some of that out and flesh out what remained. For example, the big finale, where the US and Russia join forces to attack the mutants. I’m like, “you’re telling me that 2 minutes ago these two countries were ready to nuke each other and blow each other’s fleets apart with missiles, and now, with seemingly no communication or discussion between the two countries or consultation with the respective governments, they sort of looked at each other, nodded and winked, and decided to join forces to launch hundreds of missiles at 10 people standing stranded on a beach??!?!?”
Fassbender and McAvoy were awesome though. The best part of the movie.
I’d probably put it in the A-/A range as a film. Strong production values all around, and the 60s period setting is tremendously fun; it’s not surprising that superhero films don’t do more of this, but it’s refreshing (and there’s another one coming up in a month or so).
The film’s plot managed to surprise me in a number of instances. Some of them were just as simple as killing off actors that I didn’t expect them to get rid of so quickly, as with Oliver Platt.
Character-wise, there are basically three tiers:
1. Professor X, Magneto, Mystique (surprisingly)
2. Beast, Moira
3. Everybody Else
Tier 3 is fine as action figures, but there are occasionally significant moments that hang on them which are a bit of a stretch – Angel’s defection would be the most obvious instance of this. But then, having more characters than can be managed effectively is fairly in keeping with X-Men comics.
Everybody cites Fassbender as the standout, and he is indeed quite impressive, but I’ll just chip in for Jennifer Lawrence, who impresses me more and more. I suspect she’s at the start of a long and successful career. McAvoy is also very good as Xavier, though he strikes me as an actor who is perpetually waiting for the film where’s he’s allowed to be the main event; even when he’s notionally the lead and is very good, he always ends up being overshadowed by his (often female) costars (Keira Knightley and Saorise Ronan, Forrest Whitaker, Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, etc.).
Of all the superhero films coming out this year, this one had me split. On the one hand, there was the casting of McAvoy and Fassbender, which grabbed my attention immediately, but on the other, there was the extremely short production window, leaving me concerned that the whole thing would be a rushed mess.
Turns out…it wasn’t. Aside from some unfinished FX, I was more than impressed with this franchise overhaul. Fassbender and McAvoy were great together, and I agree that their scenes together made the film. I was also impressed with Jennifer Lawrence, and even Kevin Bacon was fun to watch (despite the oddness of hearing him speak German). Depending on how Super 8 and Cowboys and Aliens play out, this could end up being my favorite film this summer.
Just saw it. Loved it. Really enjoyed the young mutants. And I dug the story; carrying through from actual history to the rest of the X-Men mythology.
Fassbender & McAvoy were great. And I even liked January Jones; who I thought gave an intentional cold/aloof/wink-wink performance as Emma Frost.
It’s not perfect (parts of the score, some of the fx, some underdevelopments). But I really liked it.
I don’t get why people are hating on Jones honestly. I thought she was good. Emma Frost is a cold mannered broad and she did it well