X-Men First Class

June 3, 2011

Jays Rating:
Actors: / / /

If you really want to see how the X-men were created, then you’ll want to see the action, sci-fi film X-Men First Class. This film opens during World War II with a young boy in a concentration camp being threatened with the death of his mother by a scientist named Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon). Jump ahead to the 60s and the young boy is now a man named Erik Lehnsher (Michael Fassbender) later known as the mutant Magneto, who has the power to move metal objects with his mind. Erik meets and becomes friends with another mutant named Charles Xavier (James Mcavoy) later known as Professor X, who can control other peoples’ minds. With the height of the cold war in progress, the government asks for help from Erik, Charles, and a girl Charles took under his wing named Raven ( Jennifer Lawrence) later known as Mystique, who can take the form of any person she chooses, and they send out a message to all mutants to come join a team. Soon, some of our well known future X-Men, like Emma Frost (January Jones), Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) later known as Beast, Janos Quested (Alex Gonzalez) later known as Riptide, and several others heed the call and make an attempt to stop the Russians and Sebastian Shaw during the Cuban missile crisis. There were a couple reasons I wasn’t looking – no pun intended – forward to this movie. My first issue is that as a prequel it suffers from inevitability: 4 X-Men films have already told us what had to happen by the end of this movie. The second issue is the installments being sub par. Let me be the first to admit I was wrong. First, the script was fantastic with a compelling story, complex characters and no corny dialogue. Second, I was impressed with a fantastic young cast led by Fassbender, Mcavoy, and Lawrence. Jennifer Lawrence has been on my radar since her nomination for last years film, Winter’s Bone. Of course, January Jones performance isn’t going to win any awards but she looks good which is meaningless to a blind guy. I also loved that this is actually a period piece which is set in the 40s through the 60s and uses historic events to make the story even more interesting. Action junkies will love it, X-Men fans will be excited and everyone who enjoys seeing a well made, interesting film will be relieved. (Could someone describe January Jones to me again?) I’m giving this latest superhero film an A- rating.

This movie has been given a PG13 rating by the MPAA

Although I am blind, I can appreciate a good movie as well as sighted individuals.
I rely more on a good story line than special effects.