X Men First Class, or: an X-men movie that doesn't suck

[stefan]

I mean, sure, there are some pretty cringetacular bits, but those are mostly in the first half and the rest of the movie is either fantastic scenes of characterization/mutant violence or kevin bacon baconing around in a funny hat. all in all, it was a vast improvement over X3 and wolverine origins, as well as, from what I understand, telling both of those movies to fuck off by way of deliberately contradicting some of the scenes in them.

I almost kind of feel bad for liking this movie though, since so long as fox keeps making successful X-men movies then we'll never see the X-men in the marvel movieverse.

[Kerensky287]

I just saw it today, I really enjoyed it. I haven't seen X3 in ages, so I don't remember how/if that was contradicted away, and I didn't pay enough attention to Wolverine Origins to notice shit about that, but I'd be 0kay with pretending those movies never existed.

A few things I didn't like, though: Near the end, when the massive missile barrage/shelling happens, why didn't Charles just use his telepathy to send the same message Miss CIA Agent was trying to get across? As a bonus, he could've sent it to the Russians as well.

It also felt WAY too campy at times. Young Erik's "Big Nein" at the start was one of them. Old Erik's "I prefer Magneto" at the end was another. In fact, the only point at which the codenames actually felt like they fit was when they were thinking them up in the first place, because that's totally what some drunken teenagers would do.

Other than that, there were just a few parts that didn't make sense, like Hank McCoy's mutant feet somehow giving him superspeed during 5 seconds of the training montage. And, well, Ginger McSoundwave's ability to somehow fly by shouting at the ground didn't hold water with me either, especially because it apparently required the use of his flying squirrel suit and yet he could fly perfectly well while one of his arms was occupied by carrying a person.

On the plus side, the characterizations were top-notch, Erik's turn to the dark side felt completely natural, and the action scenes were great as well. It's definitely worth a watch.

[The Sevenshot Kid]

I caught this at the midnight showing and I loved it. Honestly can't think of a single thing I didn't like. I'm really happy about comic book movies starting to wear their origins on their sleeves. This felt like the first real X-Men movie. The costumes weren't shit and the team actually worked as a team. Can't say that for the previous films.

And Magneto stole the whole movie. I mean, holy shit! Fassbender was awesome in this. McAvoy, too. They both had great chemistry and it sold the friendship that they had. In fact, the whole cast was pretty great.

The only thing about the movie that didn't quite work for me was Magneto's costume at the end. I liked it but it didn't really fit. I really hope that we can get a sequel to this with the same creative team behind it. Vaughn is the only guy that should be allowed to direct an X-Men movie.

And I'm pretty sure I'm going to never forget the scene where Erik slowly forces a Nazi coin through Shaw/Xavier's head. That was surprisingly graphic and proved that Xavier was a serious badass.

[Arhra]

It's like the better elements of the X-men films collided with a Bond film! In the sixties!

'Twas pretty good.

Couldn't help but feel the good guys were a little outgunned though. Xavier and Erik were the heavyweights and everyone else on that team was... just kinda there.

You know, compared to the squad of persons of mass destruction led by the HUMAN ATOMIC BOMB.

The training was absolutely hilarious though.

[Nique]

Everything felt really a little bit too modern to be set in the 1960s. Also TONS of contradictions between this film and every other X-men film so far.

Loved the Hugh Jackman Cameo.

[The Sevenshot Kid]

Originally Posted by Nique

TONS of contradictions between this film and every other X-men film so far.

I'm so cool with this. As far as I'm concerned, everything else was shit compared to this.

[Nique]

True. BUT! It's still part of Fox's licensing or franchise or whatever so you'd think they wouldn't allow these sort of inconsistencies. I mean, there are huge glaring contradictions not just some tiny maybe-this-could-work-ones.

Unless they have worked out a deal with fox that this film is going to somehow be incorporated with or be the link between marvel's current 'movieverse' and the previous X-men movies, I see this film as being totally confusing.

[BloodyMage]

They're not really going to care though, because the last two films were failures, and if they don't keep making X-Men films, then they lose the franchise, so it seems like 'let's make an awesome film regardless of the old fanbase that will make people like X-Men movies again.'

[The Sevenshot Kid]

Originally Posted by BloodyMage

They're not really going to care though, because the last two films were failures, and if they don't keep making X-Men films, then they lose the franchise, so it seems like 'let's make an awesome film regardless of the old fanbase that will make people like X-Men movies again.'

Exactly. And the film was much stronger because of that.

To be perfectly honest, the other X-Men movies weren't all that great. Aside from some great casting they didn't really have anything too good going for them. And this film fixed my major complaint about the other ones, the team did shit! For once it wasn't, "Let's send in one guy to save the day while we kind of watch!" but instead, "This shit is serious, pull your goddamn weight!"

The X-Men were goddamn X-Men for once with costumes that didn't look like shit and bonafide teamwork. Havok and Beast were awesome together and I hope to see their friendship evolve over the course of another film!

Anyone who walks out of this film unhappy either has their expectations way too high or shouldn't even be watching this type of movie.

[Magus]

I didn't like it very much. Is it better than Origins: Wolverine? Yes (but maybe no), but not by much (and maybe not by much, in fact maybe its worse, I haven't decided yet), and has its own logical inconsistencies and just plain sloppy writing.

The quality of X-Men films seems directly proportional to the amount of mutants present, because instead of focusing on the plot they focus on trying to explain each of these mutant's powers and give them a modicum of development (and fail). In this one there were way too many that I could care less about. Character development? There was very little except for the main characters, so why bother with all the extras, especially since half of them were made up (I can only assume that the fairy girl who spits fireballs was made up, anyway, since it is just so terrible and she had the same name as another character in another movie who could also fly, and the guy who is a Nightcrawler rip-off seemed included simply as a plot device to explain why Sebastian Shaw is absolutely everywhere...but then so are all the other characters so why bother to explain it? Darwin was by far the worst mutant idea, though the character himself was at least moderately charming, the power was kind of silly...)? In fact characters we might like to see discovering their powers are just straight-up given their powers from the get-go, such as Xavier and Mystique (BTW naked child Mystique is just creepy. Also that whole scene was silly. Why go to some rural mansion to steal food? But anyway)

There were some good scenes, true. Magneto was fairly compelling, and the scene where he decimates those Nazis in that bar was good in a "haha they sure had it coming to them" way, not to mention a coolness factor of how he uses his power. The final scene with the coin was also good since it harkens back to the beginning and again delivers that "haha take that you bastard" feeling (even though it creates inconsistencies with exactly how the powers work...see below) and was stylistically interesting.

However, pretty much every other scene was quite terrible, with poor pacing. They seemed extremely rushed and awkward, just to create a needlessly complicated story. Why is Sebastian Shaw so ridiculously mustache-twirling in the first scene and not all the rest? Since when the heck was Xavier responsible for Mystique's upbringing (especially since in the establishing scene, he is what, two years older than her at most? Not exactly a father figure, besides being a ridiculous addition to the background story)? Why are we told that Xavier and Magneto were best of buddies at university and formed a deep friendship but this movie takes place over maybe a month or two at best (seriously, there is, as expected, a long montage scene where the mutants master their powers and gain intense skill in them [I'm guessing this is where we get the title First Class...I think a better title would be First Lesson after seeing the ending, but that's way too subtle an idea for whoever wrote this, I'm sure...], and it seems like this must be where Xavier and Magneto were forging their deep friendship...but then we are told at the end of the montage that it has only been a week. Blorp).

I actually went into this movie presuming that Sebastian Shaw's ultimate goal was fairly greedy and down-to-earth (in a way): start a nuclear war so that he can absorb the energy released and become godlike. I even figured he was somehow responsible for Hiroshima or something, after we are shown him as a Nazi. Instead he starts out godlike and nigh-immortal (and boring, outside the initial scene), even replete with a giant cruise ship with escape submarine (no need to go out of his way to absorb nuclear energy by starting wars, just step into the core), lackies, millions of dollars, etc. Very Bond-villainish. His ultimate goal is very nebulous: destroy the world's governments so he can rise as the ruler of all humanity. This seems shoehorned in just so he can give Magneto ideas (oh, and the helmet. Don't forget the helmet...god so stupid looking. Whoever made the original X-Men movie back in 2001 or whatever would have been far smarter to make it a simple metal circlet or something, even if it deviated from the comic, since they don't seem to be afraid of doing that...) Sebastian Shaw's power is vague but basically he can absorb energy (the movie ignores that there are different kinds of energy, but be assure that Shaw can absorb any kind, kinetic, thermal, nuclear, whatever). However, there is a logical inconsistency with this power that we the viewer have to explain to ourselves, as the movie doesn't bother: in the end he is killed by a simple coin to the brain. Apparently Shaw has to have freedom of movement to absorb energy, which is accompanied by this weird "splitting" special effect, which at least is somewhat related to the whole "splitting the atom" theme, so maybe he's splitting all his atoms or something zany like that, to absorb the energy...however if you don't put two and two together you just get a weird scene where for some reason he is suddenly vulnerable because he is frozen despite being indestructible throughout.

Other powers are inconsistent as well. For example, Emma Frost can turn her skin to diamond. However for some reason it can be shattered by some probably fairly sub-par iron from a bedstead as long as you squeeze hard enough...yeah makes no sense to me either.... Nightcrawler rip-off guy can teleport anywhere anytime despite an earlier movie explaining that this is super-dangerous (maybe he's had more training than Nightcrawler, but you'd have to mention that in the movie, not just have me explain away the inconsistency myself.) As mentioned earlier, Darwin's ability really makes no sense and just seems a catch-all thing for a few particular scenes.

Also, the character development of Beast is really stupid. I mean just seriously stupid. So stupid...this reminds me suddenly of how awkward the whole assigning codenames scene was. "Hey, we should all have codenames! ...I think we should call you Professor X despite that not having a lot to do with how we developed all the other codenames!" There is something wrong with movies when I feel embarrassed watching them, and this movie had so many cringe-worthy scenes that it outweighed the jubilation at the few good ones. I feel sorry for all the big name actors involved. This movie could have had a much better plot and been written much better while still involving X-Men. Heck if they had just slowed the pace down slightly instead of trying to cram in as much crap as possible it would have probably come off half-way decent. It's sad that it was just a showcase for a really bad plot line and confusing themes...

Oh, and ruining Beast. I mean seriously. Beast was one of the better more interesting X-Men, this movie just ruined the character quite horribly. I probably should have just mentioned that as my reason for disliking the movie and not bothered with all that other stuff. I mean, seriously, no one can see your feet unless you take your shoes off, dumbass. No need to feel so damn uptight about it. If the character had started out with blue fur everywhere (another inconsistency, since if I remember correctly in the first three movies, he developed the fur sometime in between the second and third one...) it would at least be understandable, but the whole Dr. Jekyll thing was stupid and a needless addition, as well as making his horror at his initial appearance seem incredibly underwhelming to the viewer.

As for "inconsistencies with past movies don't matter" I would agree (well not really but maybe) IF this were being set up as a reboot. It isn't, though. It's just sloppy writing on somebody's part, as far as I can tell.

EDIT: And no, I actually had low expectations and enjoy this type of movie. Case in point: I really enjoyed Thor. And no, it can't be because the plot was so much better or that it didn't have logical inconsistencies or bad character development because Thor certainly had problems in those departments...I think the strength of Thor and pretty much any other good movie comes from some basic factors that would do anyone attempting to write a movie good: 1. focus on a few basic characters and develop them in depth, 2. have only a few settings, 3. don't try to cram too many plot devices and "cool scenes" into the movie just because it would be cool to see, and 4. don't try to cram too many themes or lessons into the movie. This movie had like, twenty, Thor had one, maybe two.

There's no one thing about this movie that is really terrible (well, the writing seemed kind of bad or at least the pacing, plus needless scenes...never mind), but the sum of all its parts didn't really add up to something really enjoyable, for some reason...