With the end of the original trilogy there have been rumours and whispers of many different X-men origins films. With Wolverine being the first, receiving mixed critical reception and some box office success in its first weekend, it made sense for another origins film to be made, while rumours of there being separate films for each character (personally I heard of a Cyclops and a Storm movie being made). During these rumour storms though an actual picture was being made, namely X-men First class. Those of you who have read my previous posts will know I wrote an expectations piece in which First class was mentioned, those with a good memory (or the ability to read things a little down the page) will note how I was not excited but cautious about this picture. Surprisingly these fears and initial beliefs turned out to be right on the money, mostly.

I'll start with the plot, something I had not considered or heard about previously as I knew almost nothing of it. The start shows both the main characters (Magneto and Professor X) as children. Magneto's introduction is very chilling, atmospheric and quite horrifying being set in a Nazi concentration camp where footage from the first X-men movie is used to move onto newly filmed scenes. During the scene we meet Kevin Bacons character as the main villain of the piece, but we shall get to him late. The opening scene involve a wonderfully done reveal scene in which you are suddenly shown that Bacons office is attached to a torture chamber. The entire scene is evocative of the times it is set in, and works well to introduce two out of the three leads. Professor X's introduction is by far the weaker of the two opening scenes, showing him catching a thief (who turns out to be Mystique disguised as his mother) stealing from his fridge. Upon discovering she is a mutant like him, as it would appear the idea of powers appearing during puberty was thrown out of the window for this instalment in the series. The scene is there to show how from an early age Charles Xavier was a force of morality and understood when things are right and wrong. Not wanting to go into too much detail on the characters in these scenes, it should be mentioned that the differences in these two scenes highlight the films essence, in that Magneto has the more interesting story. From these opening scenes the plot goes into the creation of the X-men as we know them, only with Magneto and Mystique on the good team. Despite the interesting scenes seeing the two main men grow up and become James McAvoy (Prof. X) and Michael Fassbender (Magneto) the plot takes some rather odd turns, deciding to look at the plots of the other films then forget them or voluntarily shout FUCK LINEARITY, as certain franchise plot holes begin to appear, for example I’m sure in the first X-men Xavier states that him and Magneto built cerebro, but in this it was built by Beast. Also Hugh Jackmans cameo is wonderful, but leaves the question of why didn't Xavier remember him in the first movie, as he is definitely a memorable person.

From here the plot just gets worse with a cold war setting acting as a ham-fisted attempt at subtlety symbolising the prejudice and discriminatory behaviour of humans against mutants, a theme present throughout everything to do with the X-men. While the setting does give justification to the actions of Xavier and Magneto and their team of teenage ninja super mutants, it also gives the entire film an atmosphere of “Oh look how bad it was, it was sooo bad that no one could get along because they believed different things” becoming something which is slightly preachy and can ruin some of the better scenes. Then there is the elephant in the plot, Mr Bacons grand evil plan, which involves starting world war three, and hoping the nuclear holocaust will cause more mutation and so he can take over the burnt, irradiated hell hole that would be earth. Despite the idiocy of wanting to rule a charred rock, the film shows how mutants were around before what Bacon's character calls the age of the atom, an age he attributes the appearance of mutant to. An argument which makes no logical sense as he was a mutant long before any atoms were split, and he even refers to it as evolution! If it were a direct result of atomic explosions and radiation surely every mutant would be either Japanese or mountain men from the hills of Nevada, and I'm pretty sure they made that movie, at least three times. The final ridiculous part of his dumb ass plan is that he can not ensure the survival of any mutants, he doesn't know if as mutants they survive gamma radiation, some may survive the blasts, but then how can he know if they will join him, lets face it the most likely to survive is Wolverine and we all know he don't take shit from no one. In essence the plot is mostly bad, some good parts, but mostly bad, Michael Platt was just as I expected as well, awesome but only with about ten to fifteen minutes screen time, acting only as a way for Xavier and Magneto to work together, using Beasts Cerebro, to find mutants as well as introduce the relationship between Magneto and Mystique. Obviously the plot isn't great but it was also probably the best we were going to get and there are plenty of worse stories out there.

Now none of you want to read about the plot, I expect many of you have skipped that paragraph, if you have go back and read it, now. Ok you've done that? Good. The next big thing, and the part of the film everyone wants to know about are the men behind the legends, the boys before they became the men we all know and love. Namely Mr Charles Xavier A.K.A Prof. X and Erik Lensherr A.K.A Magneto.

Lets start with Mr Xavier, as a character in general Xavier is supposed to be a man with unshakeable morals, charismatic but not egotistic, a natural born leader due to his nature not a desire for power. First class conveys many of these attributes while adding some more. Seeing him as a young man in Oxford we get to see a different side of the great moralist, we see him mercilessly hitting on women using a speech about mutation, I would guess to bamboozle them into bed, we also get to see him downing a yard of ale. Additions which make the audience see Xavier as a fun loving young man with a small ego, creating a more interesting character. However as mentioned earlier we see his extreme moral view when he is very young, showing the man as someone who always knew what was right and what was not. Though effective at highlighting the better parts of his personality I think it would have been more interesting to see how Xavier became the man we know, to see his morality change and develop throughout the film, allowing the audience to witness the creation of a truly great character. Instead we are simply shown that he was always a good man and that nothing can change that. More issues arise with the relationship between him and Raven A.K.A Mystique, mostly bringing in more linearity plot holes and making a bit more of mess out of the franchise. Overall though McAvoy was thoroughly convincing, he played the part well putting his own twist on the character presenting him in a way previously unseen, it was refreshing and did more than simply convey Xavier as the same man but younger.

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James McAvoy as Professor X – finding out what you want for tea

The next big man was of course Mr Lensherr, Magneto. Magneto is by far the most developed character of the picture, he is wholly sympathetic and his quest for vengeance makes you want nothing more from the film than to see him hunt down Kevin Bacon and destroy him in some wonderful mess of metal. His personal back story proved more interesting than any other and when he finally completes his purpose and becomes the great leader of the Brotherhood we are with him all the way. In this instalment he was portrayed by Michael Fassbender who was so good sometimes it was scary he portrayed the characters arrogance, personal magnetism and darkness very convincingly, while still making us believe he was a real man. But there is one very very bad part of Fassbenders performance, and that is his accent, it is never the same. Almost every scene brings a new accent with it, almost as if he played lucky dip on how to talk, while this could be a side effect of having to speak four different languages throughout the film it still breaks the immersion, pushing you right out of some of the more emotional scenes as you giggle away asking what on earth is he doing with his voice. Despite the lingual problems the performance is generally solid with his interactions with Xavier being some of the most important scenes, as well as the best. Magneto is by far the best part of the film, and in general his design is the most interesting, his costumes make him look like an assassin, moving silently through the world using what ever is near by as a weapon, for me the look of the character is what made him compelling, well dressed and neat hiding a deep power and a deeper anger. That is of course until the end where he appears with his full Magneto costume on, as in the costume from the the comics, and yes it looks ridiculous, and acts as another thing which makes you giggle away maniacally. In fact the design of the costume makes you thankful for the originals which managed to encompass all parts of the Magneto's look while making it both good looking and intimidating.

Michael Fassbender as Magneto – Considering how magnets work

Along with the two main men, we are introduced to a number of other mutants and characters. We meet Havoc, Darwin, Banshee, Angel, Beast, Mystique, Emma Frost and a Dr Moira MacTaggert as a CIA agent. Now all these people are cool to watch when using their powers but other than that they are forgettable, most having only a few lines of dialogue, with almost no attempt to make then sympathetic. As the CIA agent Rose Byrne is simply pointless, serving no purpose other than the love interest for Xavier, she does nothing other than contribute to crippling Xavier and gets a Superman style memory erasing kiss from the man in wheels. The other mutants are generally the same, simply acting as plot devices to show the beginnings of Xavier's school for the gifted, and to show the caring teacher that is Xavier, and the revolutionary leader that is Magneto. I will hand it to Nicholas Hoult for his role as beast though, despite my personal objections to his continued living he did portray the character with some emotion and did show Beast as something different to previous incarnations, although it must be said that Kelsey Grammars portrayal in X-men: The last stand was much better. The final character worth mentioning was of course Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw, the villain of the piece, I have already mentioned his retarded plan, so now I'll mention his retarded character. He is shown as intimidating for no reason, I get he has a big red devil with him, but we are still given no reason for him being able to scare high ranking Americans and Russians other than the fact that he is the villain and that he is supposed to do that. Further he is supposed to be some great leader, a man who people follow, and yet when we see him he is just bland, he never gives a lasting impression or makes you feel that he could seriously complete his plan. Oddly though When he is simply referred to as Schmidt, as the beginning, and you think he is a human Nazi scientist, not a mutant, he is genuinely intimidating, making a truly chilling performance which coupled with the reveal of his laboratory makes you fear him, you know just by looking at him what he will do to unlock Magneto's potential . Oddly I think the entire film would have been better with him as a human, not a mutant, as a human using mutants and managing to defeat the X-men when they have distinct advantages makes him seem a more convincing villain.

In the end though what makes a movie worth watching or not is if it is entertaining, and First Class is, but not for the reasons you would expect. The action is good, and the CGI scenes are impressive, if not a little dull sometimes. What makes this film entertaining is seeing the birth of the two men, seeing how Magneto was created by horrors forced upon him by an evil man, and how Professor X was obsessed with genetics and mutation, creating the teacher and father figure he is known for. More than this though the truly entertaining parts of these films are seeing these two be friends, whether it is the friendly banter between them or the deep conversations on responsibility and being better men. These dialogues are well written, well presented and hold the film together, when everything else around them like plot, likeable sub-characters and abysmal accents fall down these scenes stay strong. And those scenes alone really changed my mind on the film, it is worth seeing just for these parts, you will remember them and they will stick with you, especially if you are a fan of the previous films. Seriously check this movie out, just don't expect to see the greatest X-men movie ever made, just expect to see some semi-decent action and some really cool dialogue. Oh and watch out for the scene in which you see the burnt world and Bacon at the head of his legions, is only a few seconds in length but for me was one of the more beautiful scenes.