X-Men: First Class (20th Century Fox)
A Prequel Is the Best of the Bunch
X-Men: First Class is a prequel to the stories of the X-Men. It fills in the back story on Dr. Xavier and Magneto and it does it with enthusiasm and excitement. Because it is a prequel that takes place several years before the time of the X-Men movies it has an all new cast and each and every one of the actors fit their roles perfectly. And as the story of these two mens lives play out some puzzles in the X-Men story are solved.
The film goes all the way back to World War II and the Jewish prison camps to begin its story. It is there that young Eric Lehnsherr, who later becomes Magneto, first discovers his hidden mutant talents. Evil villain Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) also becomes aware of these talents and wants to harness them for his personal use. He exploits young Lehnsherr as much as he can but eventually flees to South America after the war has ended. Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), now a grown man, pursues him there.
Meanwhile young Charles Xavier is growing up in England. He lives on a wealthy estate and meets a young mutant who he convinces to live with his family. Years later Charles (James McAvoy) and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), who he considers his sister, are recruited by CIA Agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) to work for the government.
All of this plays out logically even to the point where they recruit Erik Lehnsherr to work with them. They are to go up against Shaw and his evil assistant Emma Frost (January Jones) who has some special talents of her own.
McAvoy and Fassbender are the stars of the film and they take their roles seriously. If either of the two of them tried to camp it up the movie would fail miserably. The same is true of Lawrence, who was an Oscar nominee for her role in Winters Bone and will next star in Hunger Games.
The special effects are top notch and the story is easy to follow. It has a sort of James Bond theme with America going after the nasty Russians and the mutants saving the day during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yes they do get involved with this historical event and it all makes sense in the movie.
The film is rated PG-13 for violence and profanity.
For pure entertainment value this one puts all those other super hero movies to shame. Thor is definitely in the shadow of this film. It is an action driven, beautifully cast and acted movie that will please audiences from start to finish. I had a great time and I think you will too.
I scored X-Men: First Class a blue ribbon 8 out of 10.
