Ah, X-Men. Everyone's favorite multi-colored, pick-your-favorite-team-member, ham-fisted-metaphor-toting superhero team. They've spawned countless films, including the most recent, an in-depth tribute to Wolverine that was maybe the silliest thing I've ever seen in a movie theater (and I've seen Twilight fans), but was nevertheless enjoyable, mostly for eye candy value.
But you already knew all that, didn't you? Or maybe you didn't. For this movie, you don't actually need to. Point is, X-Men: First Class is where things get weird for the franchise, and I for one love it.
The film is a prequel, chronicling the adventures of the older generation of X's in the sixties, leading up to the founding of our beloved School for Gifted Youngsters. The first half or so is composed of several different plotlines, which eventually meet in the middle. Things get off to a breathlessly gruesome start with a wrenching opening in a concentration camp, where a young boy named Erik is being ripped away from his parents, and in his anguish bends and distorts a metal gate. It's not only an impressive visual affect, but an oddly moving scene for a superhero movie, a trend that will be continued throughout the film. That is maybe the best surprise in a film where there are many: the cast decided to actually act, and it is splendid.
We cut to a giant mansion in, allegedly, Westchester, New York. I say "allegedly" because the small boy creeping through his mansion in the middle of the night has an upper-crust British accent, which he will hold on to in his older incarnations in the rest of the film. Now, I'm going into this because it is one of the few things that really bother me in this film: I have been to Westchester. People there don't have British accents. Giant mansions, yes, but they still talk like Americans because they are still, you know, in America.
But I digress. Our young lad creeps into his kitchen to discover, to his delight, a girl with unusual skin and a knack for camouflage, whom he, with a little help from his telepathy, takes in as his adopted sister. By now, as those previously involved with the franchise may have guessed, we have met our three chief mutants, Erik, Charles, and Raven, later known as Magneto, Professor X, and Mystique.
We follow these three around as they age, Charles (James MacAvoy) studying and being a minor lothario at Oxford with Raven by his side, and Erik (Michael Fassbender) going on a revenge quest against the Nazis who killed his mother and performed hideous experiments on him to harness his powers, indulging in some of the finest Nazi-killin' this side of Inglorious Basterds along the way.
-ATTENTION-
We interrupt this review to bring you some brief fangirling. I know that what with the accent and the arrogance-masking-pacifism and the being played by James MacAvoy, Professor X is intended to be the one who makes us fangirls swoon. But, alas, not that he isn't nice and all (and how bizarre to see him with hair and the use of his legs!), my affections lie elsewhere. This incarnation of Magneto is HOT! The eyes! The revenge motive! The voice! The inner torment! The arms! If I were back in my days as an eager fanfiction guttersnipe, well, I could think of some things my OC could do to him. And I know I'm not the only one thinking it. That is all.
-MOMENT OVER-
Although while we're on that topic, traditional British fangirl bait Nicholas Hoult does a lovely job holding down a shy smile and an American accent as the adorkable Beast. His interactions with Mystique (who, despite a lame catchphrase, turns in a beautiful performance, making her character a believable and multi-dimensional human girl, blue or not) give the film some of its most human moments, and are a nice contrast from the silly awesomeness of flying submarines and CIA plotting.
Speaking of which, the main "plot" of this movie (I use quotation marks because really, the whole point of this thing is to see how the crew became what they are, isn't it?) is a silly mess involving JFK, the CIA, Russians, January Jones as femme fatale Emma Frost, and Kevin Bacon as her boss, a quasi-immortal semi-Nazi Master of Eeeevil.
Much more important, though, are scenes like when Charles and Erik go mutant-recruiting (and stumble upon an awesome cameo), or when the gang pick their "mutant names". Because those, along with the massive set piece at the end, are what we came for. This isn't a great story, by any means- but it is a fun, funny, clever, occasionally touching, absolutely enjoyable ride.
