Marvel May - X-Men: First Class (2011)

        Hey guys, Chuck here and it's been quite a weekend for me, especially getting to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But, it's back to the X-Men franchise with today's Marvel May review: X-Men: First Class. Released in 2011, this was arguably the best comic book film of the year. 

        We open with a scene at Auschwitz in Poland during World War II, and we see a young Erik Lensherr, separated from his parents by the Nazis, causing the gate to bend as he reaches for his mother. A Nazi knocks him out, and we see these events being observed by a doctor named Klaus Schmidt. We then cut to the Xavier Mansion in West Chester, New York, where a boy named Charles Xavier hears a noise from the kitchen. Seeing through the charade of an individual appearing to be his mother, it turns out to be a girl with blue skin and the ability to shapeshift. She introduces herself as Raven, and Charles offers her a place in the mansion. Back at Auschwitz, Schmidt tries to see Erik's powers up close, but the boy is unable to move the coin placed in front of him. Erik's mother is brought in, and despite her encouragement, Erik is still unable to move the coin before Schmidt counts to three,.and Schmidt pulls the trigger of his gun, killing Erik's mother. Sending the boy into a rage, we see metal flying, cabinets and Nazi helmets being crushed, and so forth. 

        Cut to years later in 1962, and we see Erik Lensherr, now an adult, traveling around the world searching for Schmidt, who now goes by the name Sebastian Shaw and leads a group called the Hellfire Club. A banker leads Erik to Argentina, where he sees Shaw's picture in a bar, and locates the yacht Shaw is photographed on in Miami. Meanwhile, Shaw and the Hellfire Club, which consists of mutants Riptide, Azazel, and Emma Frost, recruit Col. Bob Hendry of the U.S. Army to push to place nuclear missiles in Turkey. CIA agent Moira MacTaggert, needing an expert in genetic mutation, heads to Oxford University to meet Charles, also now grown up and using his theories on genetic mutation to basically hit on college girls in bars. Oh, and Raven is officially Charles' adopted sister. 

       After seeing what Moira saw in Vegas regarding the Hellfire Club, Charles agrees to help her, and meets with the CIA higher ups. Most of them are dismissive of him, except for one man who leads "Division X." Moira and Charles then head off to apprehend Shaw, who has been spotted. Unfortunately, Shaw escapes and Charles rescues Erik, convincing him to let Shaw escape or else he'll drown. At the Division X facility, we meet scientist and mutant Hank McCoy, who is working on top tech, including a device called Cerebro. Yes, this movie sees a prototype of Cerebro, which Charles agrees to use to find mutants across the United States. The ones recruited include exotic dancer Angel Salvadore, cab driver Armando Munoz, teen drifter Sean Cassidy, and Army prisoner Alex Summers. Erik and Charles also attempt to recruit Logan/Wolverine, but he instantly dismisses them by saying "Go fuck yourself." 

       Okay, so ultimately, the young mutants all confer on code names, with Raven calling herself Mystique, Sean calling himself Banshee, and Armando calling himself Darwin. Angel keeps her actual name, and after showing what he can do, Alex is dubbed by the others as Havok. Charles, along with Erik and Moira, head to intercept Shaw, who is supposedly going to meet a Soviet general. However, they find Emma instead, and learn of Shaw's plan: with the Americans placing nukes in Turkey, he plans to have the Soviets place nukes in Cuba, kicking off not only the Cuban Missile Crisis, but also World War III, and the nuclear fallout would ultimately trigger mass ascendancy of mutantkind. Shaw himself, along with Azazel and Riptide, head off to meet the mutants at Division X, ultimately recruiting Angel, and unfortunately killing Darwin for trying to save her from obvious villains. 

       Returning to the ruined Division X facility, Erik and Charles decide that everyone needs to train to control their abilities, and choose to do so at the Xavier Mansion. Erik is taught that control comes between rage and serenity, with Charles unlocking a happy memory from his childhood to help him. Meanwhile, Hank builds a solar panel based device for Alex, allowing him to concentrate the energy he emits into a single blast, as opposed to a series of uncontrollable rings. Banshee is given a wingsuit, allowing his screams to propel him into gliding. Hank, meanwhile, is told to "let the beast free," and is able to move fast with his abnormal sized feet that are primate-like. Hank, who has also kinda started to form a romance with Raven, creates a serum using her blood as a means to affect appearance, but not ability. However, she rejects the idea, starting to see from Erik's perspective on how mutants shouldn't have to hide who they are. However, when Hank injects himself, it accelerates his mutation, giving him his signature blue furry look. 

       Gearing up, Erik, Charles, Moira, Raven, Banshee, Havok, and Hank, whom Alex decides to call Beast, all head to Hank's jet to aid to U.S. Navy in stopping Shaw and the Hellfire Club from letting the Soviets reach the beaches of Cuba. Banshee locates Shaw's sub underwater, Erik lifts it out of the water, dropping it on the beach, and the battle between Charles and Erik's mutant recruits and the Hellfire Club ensues, with Erik sneaking onto the sub to go after Shaw himself, taking a telepath-blocking helmet from Shaw and using the coin from Auschwitz to kill Shaw. Unfortunately, Charles feels the pain, as he's connected to Shaw. After the death of Shaw, Erik realizes that the Americans and Soviets now plan to turn their weapons against the mutants on the beach. Moira attempts to shoot Erik, but he deflects the bullets, causing one of them to hit Charles in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. Ultimately, Angel, Azazel, Riptide, and Raven join Erik, who looks to form a Brotherhood of Mutants, leaving Charles behind. 

        At the Xavier Mansion, Charles reveals his intentions to turn his childhood home into a school for mutants. But, to protect the school from prying eyes, Charles wipes Moira's mind of the events of the movie. When questioned by her superiors, Moira can only recall following Hendry into where the Hellfire Club was based in Vegas. In the lower levels, Erik, now calling himself Magneto, breaks into Emma's cell to recruit her to the Brotherhood of Mutants. 

        Director Matthew Vaughn, who co-wrote the film's screenplay with Jane Goldman, definitely delivered arguably the best X-Men film since 2003's X2. The idea of exploring how Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr first met, as well as the beginning of the Xavier School, was a stroke of genius, and was actually something that was being touted by Bryan Singer and Lauren Shuler-Donner during production of X2. So, to have this movie be what started the course correction of the X-Men franchise was absolutely genius, and I'll always love this movie for that. 

       And since this is an origin movie to a degree, it was nice to have a new antagonistic group of mutants be the villains with the Hellfire Club. Kevin Bacon was an excellent choice for Sebastian Shaw, and I did enjoy how his character tied into the backstory of Magneto. I also enjoyed January Jones as Emma Frost, who definitely combined what fans love about the character from the comics with a little bit of her character Betty Draper from Mad Men. Zoe Kravitz, a full eleven years before she suited up as Catwoman in Matt Reeves' The Batman, was also a fantastic addition as Angel Salvadore, who has insect wings and spits acid, which is pretty neat. 

         As for the heroes, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult are all fantastic as Charles, Erik, Raven, and Hank. These four actors take characters we've already seen, and elevate them beyond what was shown in previous films in the series. With Fassbender and Lawrence, both Erik and Raven go from memorable comic book movie villains to fully fleshed out characters that fans can love and appreciate. James McAvoy as Charles Xavier definitely has the demeanor of a feckless youth, but also has shades of the great man he's destined to become as seen with Patrick Stewart's portrayal in earlier movies.

         I also enjoyed the inclusion of Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee and Lucas Till as Havok. Banshee is a fan-favorite X-Men character that I'm sure many were waiting to see, and Caleb definitely did a good job as a teen version of the character. As for Havok, this guy is MY personal favorite X-Men character, and I absolutely loved how Lucas Till brought him to the screen in this movie. Now, in most iterations of the character, Havok has always been morally ambiguous, but always looks to stand on the good side. In this movie, they kinda hint at that with his loner attitude, but he steps up and becomes a hero in the end, which is awesome. 

        Now, I do want to mention Edi Gathegi as Darwin, Jason Flemyng as Azazel, and Alex Gonzalez as Riptide. These three mutant characters honestly get the least amount of character building, with Riptide and Azazel just serving as Shaw's hired help, not really doing much aside from using their powers to wreak havoc, and Darwin gets killed off before he even gets character development. I will say, though, his "adapt to survive" power is pretty cool. 

       The time period this movie is set in is pretty neat, as it gives a disconnect from the previous films in the series and allows space to build up to that era. Also, I like that they made the Cuban Missile Crisis a looming threat in this movie, as it was a very unsteady incident during the Cold War. And the idea of mutants trying to kick off nuclear holocaust and increase the mutant populous is kind of an interesting plan, and definitely something that mutant villains in the Sixties would do. Also, the music score by Henry Jackman is really good. I, personally, still prefer the work John Ottman did for X2, but Henry Jackman did excellent work with the music for this movie, giving it a really epic feel. 

       Overall, if any fans were disappointed in X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I highly recommend checking this movie out instead of either of those two letdowns. Honestly, it takes the promise of X-Men prequel films and makes it all work. Now, there are a few hiccups, like some of the supporting players are a bit too snobbish at times, but overall I like this movie. I'm giving X-Men: First Class a rating of 4/5. Now, because of the film's success, Matthew Vaughn was approached to make a sequel, which he did plan to do. However, scheduling conflicts would force him to step down from directing the film, which would instead be directed by Bryan Singer. But, we'll get to that on Wednesday when I talk about arguably the best movie of the X-Men franchise: X-Men: Days of Future Past. As for tomorrow, well, we have another solo adventure for Logan/Wolverine in the 2013 film simply known as The Wolverine. Which we'll get to next time as we continue Marvel May.