Alright, now we get to “X-Men: First Class,” released in 2011. This film was hailed by many to be a return to the quality of the first two films, and some handful of people said it was the best out of all of them. Now, I think “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” were both great films, and I don`t want to support the haters on those films, but this film is brilliant in its own right, none the less. Some fans were critical of it, and although some arguments were valid, the film still is fantastic.
It tells a really complex multilayered story, showing how Xavier discovers the dangers some of the mutants pose, and he at first tries to work together with the government, but this doesn`t work out, as they try to control the team, and discriminate them. At the end, they try to kill the mutants. At the same time, Sebastian Shaw tries to tempt the mutants into joining him, and tries to influence the Cuban missile crisis. A lot of detractors thought there was too much going on in the plot, which was also used against “Spiderman 3,” “The Amazing Spiderman 2,” “Iron Man 3,” “The Wolverine,” and “The Last Stand,” but as I think all those films are great to me. It just makes the film all the more interesting.
Also, it is really clever how they show both sides playing a cat and mouse spying game, along with all the political intrigue.
The film also has excellent characterization with Xavier being extremely well done. We really see him starting off as kind and optimistic, yet a superficial and intellectual, who is also somewhat unfeeling and self-indulgent, and grows to be a wiser, more responsible and a sweet mentor.
Mystique is done very well, in my opinion. She got praise from Captain Logan, and it is deserved. I think the Blockbusterbuster and Filmmasteradam are wrong criticizing her in this film, so a question. Are you guys Catholics? It is important because it will be relevant when the day of judgment comes, when you will arrive tied up, and I will chose what torture to inflict, that is.
She is deep, likeable, has a detailed back story, and has a complex arc. She is warm, supportive, really loyal to Xavier, friendly, brave, and also proactive, showing of her powers to prove Xavier isn`t a spy, but also insecure and unconfident. Xavier doesn`t understand her insecurities and wants her to hide who she is, and she is frustrated and jealous, yet playful, witty and comforting in how nice she is to Beast. The Blockbusterbuster complains she whines a lot, but that is because she is still in a conflict of which side to pick and whether to hide and be proud, and she is younger. He comments Mystique was a lot tougher in the original films, but there she has decided to be against the world and is inward. Also, she is jokey here, and can be a smarty, like when she claims to Xavier she just couldn`t control her powers, even though she clearly could, and shape shifting into her older form. She is also attractive, and near the end is helpful during the fight. Also Filmmasteradam complaints it was dumb they made her Xavier’s long lost sister, but it makes both characters warmer and has a brighter past that went badly. We don`t see them together that much in the original trilogy. He comments why Mystique would poison Xavier when she loved him. Well, because she slowly became more obsessed with their cause. We see her become very angry at him. Like in real life, after nice break up at first, you can slowly become more resentful. This leaves things up for the next couple of films.
She also has a deep arc in this film. At first she is afraid people will fear her, and hides herself from everyone except Charles. She is frustrated, that he compliments a girl on her mutation. She is passive aggressive, and also needs reassuring from Xavier that he would date her in her true form. Although he accepts at first, that’s hypothetical because she wouldn`t be his sister. When she brings up her true form, he all of the sudden dodges the question. She is actually very open-minded liking Beast’s mutation, yet at first she wants to remove her powers, and is pragmatic. She wants to cure herself. Filmmasteradam calls her bipolar since after just one talk with Magneto, she would immediately change her mind, but from the beginning she wanted to be free. She just didn`t dare to. When she showed herself to the CIA, she already became more open, and when she saw the beauty in Hank’s mutation, she saw the beauty in hers and became more self-appreciating. When hanging out with the other mutants, she became more self-confident. Magneto simply made her realize she was wasting her powers and showed her she was talented. Then, as happens a lot in real life, her inferiority complex became a superiority complex. Also, there is another scene earlier on, where he makes her doubt the cure, by saying he wouldn`t change a thing about himself if he were her. She at first just doubts her plan for a bit, and then Hank made her realize she is doing this because the world hates her, while he is trying to convince her. She doesn`t feel comforted by him, and she then becomes more interested in Magneto. In fact, with Hank not finding her true self beautiful, it was also important she always doubted what she wanted. Magneto’s talk with her just helped. Even then she is first doubtful and talks with Hank. After that, she also at first still uses her human form to seduce Magneto, as she feels appreciated by him, and thinks she found someone who loves her the way she is. When he compliments her on her true form, then she only starts to fully believe in Magneto’s cause. She at first still talks with Xavier. It is really well developed, and then when Xavier is distant to Mystique. Then, she becomes against him and decides Beast’s natural form is beautiful.
So Mystique is very well done. Captain Logan justly praises her, but still asks why she can`t wear clothes. Well, it is a thing psychologist’s call “overcompensating.” Also, he is right pointing out that the cover up for the age inconsistencies with the original trilogy, where she would now be in her fifties makes little sense. Why would she age half as quickly when she became a teenager at regular speed?
Also Hank as Beast is great. Filmmasteradam justly praises him. He is smart, witty, but also insecure, pragmatic, cold, awkward, but also love struck, a bit playful, and sad. CaptainLogan complains he just has weird feet and is a whiner, but people can be very judgmental about minor things. Since reviewreviewer1 has Tourette ticks, he knows. Mystique loves him as she is a fellow mutant. Beast wants to be loved by society. When he is Beast, he is hotheaded and frustrated, but also helpful and proactive.
Captain Logan also praises the love triangle between Beast, Magneto and Mystique. I totally agree. Mystique and Beast can chat and play together, both feel trapped by their mutations, and she likes the different mutation of Beast. However, he doesn`t love his true self, and tells her that her human form is beautiful. He doesn`t love himself and hence not her enough, so she falls for Magneto, as he truly likes her as her true self. However, he is actually hypocritical as he pushes her to be herself, and actually views her a bit as a friendly object. He just really cherishes this object and discriminates her as well, just in a positive way.
The biggest problem for me in this film is the character of Magneto. He isn`t very likeable, his arc is rushed and badly set up, as well as his friendship with Xavier. This to me was a big disappointment when I first saw the film, as I really loved Magneto’s character. I am going to do something that is worse than denying The Holocaust, committing the holocaust, or…um…getting out of the holocaust, starting World War I, or saying to you that I am a nationalist. I am going to negatively compare his character to Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars Prequels, and his relationship with Xavier to Anakin’s relationship with Obi Wan. Dan dan dan dan…dramatic turnaround!
Magneto is obsessed, hateful, sadistic, manipulative, cruel, clever, determined, can be friendly, relaxed and smart. He is complex, but the problem is that he barely changes. He is evil from the start. Anakin wasn`t! No, he really wasn`t. No! Nine! Njet! No! Nee! He starts of being distrustful of humans as soon as he discovers he is a mutant, and to be fair, please here me out here!!!! Anakin already supports a dictatorship in Episode II. However, it was something that Anakin just mildly considered could work. Magneto has the scene where he tells Xavier that it starts with identifying people. That is fine, but unlike Anakin, he immediately refuses to work with humans, but also convinces Mystique she is better than humans, and she shouldn`t in any way compromise. He doesn`t have mildly evil tendencies, like Anakin. He just plainly is totally anti-human, arrogant, and completely prejudice, right when he discovers other mutants. He kills the people who helped at the camps and wants to kill Shaw. Again, Anakin had his sand people, but he did that in rage in one scene. This, on the other hand, is his main goal, and he mainly works together with Xavier to get Shaw. That isn`t a friendship or heroic, he does the same thing as a villain in “X2” with the X-Men. Also, as reviewreviewer1 pointed out in his Star Wars Prequel defense with Kyle, Anakin has loads of scenes where he acts noble, like when he saves Padmé’s life because he cares for her, or saves Obi Wan’s life, or helps fighting the droids and Dooku, or saves Palpatine. He, unlike Vader, has principles where he is loyal to the republic, and although he often whines about Obi Wan, refuses to leave him to die with Grievous. Magneto doesn`t have one scene where he is nice with regular humans, and mainly trains the X-Men to serve his cause and helps them fight near the end to get Shaw. His pushing Banshee off was funny, but he could have died. If that is the nicest team moment he has, that is not very good. His main nice moments are with Mystique, his future fellow bad guy, that follows his evil cause, and with Xavier as an ally, against a common enemy. Like Anakin, he disobeys him and tortures Emma Frost to get information. But here, that is all we get.
Also, his turn to the dark side just perfectly demonstrates this, because what causes him to decide to start his own mutant brotherhood. Well, Shaw holds his speech and he agrees with it. Yes people, just one villain speech was enough. That is like if Blade became evil in the first or even the second “Blade” after the offers he got from his opponents, or that Spiderman, just like that, would take the Goblin’s offer. Really, this makes it seem like the next logical step, and the fact he kills Shaw anyways, as he just needed revenge first for his dead mom. Then he takes his place, which perfectly shows it indeed was the next logical step. To all the prequel haters: Palpatine was like “Leave Obi Wan behind,” and he said “no,” that the Jedi don`t make him a master and tell him to spy on his friend. He still disagrees with Palpatine on the Jedi being similar to the Sith, then they still distrust him. He is more worried of Padme dying, wants to save her, and hears the dark side can make this possible. When Palpatine reveals he is a Sith Lord, he reveals it to the Jedi. With Palpatine dead, all hope is lost, which slowly drives him crazy. Only then, he goes to join the Dark Side. Yet Matthew said in that film, “Hey Anakin, you want to turn to the dark side,” and Anakin says, “Yeah, sure. Why not,” even though Anakin, in only one scene, entertained the notion of a dictatorship where here, Magneto refuses any working together with mutants and consistently sees them as less. Sorry for turning this into an extended prequel defense guys, but I am going to do so some more.
His friendship with Xavier barely exists. Again, like with Anakin and Obi Wan, they have opposing views and fight. Yet, I am going to go Confused Matthew here and say, there is no balance, they have opposing political views. Magneto disobeys him, and both are cool, yet he totally supports Mystique against Xavier, her brother. They just don`t share that much. People are right now screaming of the scene where Xavier asks him not to kill Shaw, but he never considered it. Xavier saves him near the beginning, but Magneto never really saves him. Anakin saved Obi Wan from falling and refused to leave him behind, and Obi Wan saved him in the bar. Obi Wan comforts him when he talks of the nightmares with his mother and when he is nervous to see Padme, and when he thinks she forgot him. Anakin saves him also from Dooku and is in fact convinced by him to temporarily let Padme go, yes. Magneto is trained to find his inner peace by Xavier, but that is near the end, when he is already planning to kill Shaw. After that, he will turn evil and fight Xavier. He doesn`t really take the wisdom from Xavier to be kinder or be just a little bit more caring of humans. He just trains to use a power to kill the guy that killed his mother. In fact, he learns to use powers based on inner peace, while not actually using inner peace and uses this to kill Shaw. I didn`t mind Anakin being a “quote, unquote” whiney boy before he became Darth Vader, but to me it is weird that while Anakin is planning to turn to the dark side halfway in Episode III, Obi Wan teaches him that by remembering the love for his mother, he can be stronger with the force. It turns out he uses this to force choke people. Yeah, I agree Magneto using happy thoughts is an “X-Men: First Class” failure.
Now having focused on this as a standalone problem, this is inconsistent with the first X-Men, where Charles describes him as having helped found the school and at first being his friend, making you think they at first were both at least semi-idealistic. Here, Magneto just hangs out with them because they help him achieve his revenge goal and that`s it. In “The Last Stand” flashback, we see he really helped Charles and cared for the school, and his students. Again, I am not like Redlettermedia or ConfusedMatthew, that I expect him to be a saint before his fall, but just more than, “Well, you guys can help me achieve my revenge goal. Ok, it is achieved. Screw you guys! I am going to my evil lair.”
Also, his back story is he grew up in a concentration camp. As a result, he knew first hand that prejudice is deep, and it is an interesting addition to see that his mother was killed, because they were interested in his powers. This caused him to focus on rage. However, since another mutant did this makes him say humans are Nazis, black and white, thinking less believable, mutants hurt him even more.
Sebastian Shaw is a great villain. He is very arrogant, focusing on his own power, and sadistic, manipulative, methodical, using psychological temptation, manipulation and violence. He’s secretive, pragmatic, and prejudiced, wanting to kill the whole human race, and working with The Nazis. He is very theatrical, acting charming to the people he needs on his side, and intellectual, cruel, but also able to admit real danger, and he believes in a fellow mutant cause, like Magneto in the original X-Men trilogy. He is somewhat caring, wanting Magneto on his side, not killing him at first, saying they don`t hurt their own kind, and also Fascist, believing in their own mutant group and offering others to freely join him as long as they are mutants. He is menacing because he has extreme powers and can very cruel, but also because he plays in on the fear that people indeed hate the humans, that they are the future and should rule mankind. He is intellectual, smooth, and also presentational. He is really strong, he (yes, this joke is unavoidable, it has to be made. I am sorry about it. I really am) so much reminds reviewreviewer1 of his old mentor Adolf. Oh, the Nostalgia! He really has humanity and is actually just very Fascist, finding his goals more important, like Magneto in the original trilogy. Also, interestingly enough, Hitler had humanity also. He was a vegetarian, like Arian kids and was kind to those on his side. Well, at the same time committing mass murder of basically every group that was weak and different. That contrast is perfectly captured in Magneto in the original trilogy and here in Shaw.
People have complained of the mutant team serving no purpose, but the reason they are in the film is to show Xavier grow as a teacher. They first have to be trained, but as the first class team, are crucial near the end. That is what their training built up to. It is their origin film.
Banshee fights Angel, helps Havok escape, finds the sub, and Havok helps takes out Angel as well as Shaw’s other servants. They give a perspective of the difficulty of training mutants as well as how they can abuse their powers and be too immature. However, the need to fight for what you believe in as well as showing how a lot of mutants aren`t properly understood, showing the need for a mentor.
Also people like the Blockbusterbuster and FilmMasterAdam have complained they have no development, but Banshee was shown to be a smarty, irresponsible, obnoxious, but also scared of his powers. He becomes more caring, self-confident, a team player, loyal, and is concerned for his friends. He’ determined not wanting to go back home, and he also is a bit whiney. I disagree with Filmmasteradam and say the scenes where they were talking with each other as a group wasn`t pointless because we saw his irresponsibility, his whiney attitude, and him being a smarty. He said the talking went nowhere, but it actually developed their characters, and we see Havok is irritated, but also caring, helpful, sad, and loyal with him not joining Shaw, and also doubtful of his own powers. Fair that he can acknowledge Hanks great training.
Darwin, on the other hand…Yeah, he was just your token black guy. We knew nearly nothing of him, and all he did was die.
Angel, on the other hand, was good. She was hurt by people discriminating her, yet was a prostitute and a smarty, but also sad and pragmatic, joining Shaw, and aggressively fighting her former team. She showed how hurt mutants were, and therefore, Shaws cause appealed to them.
Moira was responsible, hardworking, sensitive, worried, authentic, caring, and open-minded. She is frustrated of being discriminated. She is serious when not giving into Xavier’s childish advances, sad when he is injured, and courageous. She has a subtle romance with Xavier not liking his childishness, but respecting him when he is responsible and caring. Then they are helpful together, and Xavier becomes more honest with her. They work as a team, and she is worried when Magneto hurts him. When he gets injured, it’s sad and we see how much she cares for him and appreciates him, having grown, yet he erases her memory, as she isn`t a mutant. This made her tragic, not remembering a man she cared for, and only having vague glimpses. Also, Xavier’s more ambiguous and was very poignant.
So yeah, Darwin was a horrible character, but the other characters were well developed and served a purpose.
The film is really thematically deep as well, like the first 4 X-Men Films. It has many deep, smart and nuanced themes.
It has a theme like, in the first 3 films, on intolerance, but also expands on this, developing thematic sides of conspiracy and pragmatism. We see that at first, mutants just live in secret. However, they are mutants themselves, who are planning to destroy humanity. We see that the CIA is skeptical of the idea of mutants and think of it as a fairytale, showing that human fear is often preceded by skepticism. We often don`t believe in anything that could be a threat, which is a fresh angle for this theme in the series. Yet once they show they are mutants, he wants to have them locked up, and they don`t want to face Shaw. We see, like in “The Abyss,” that often once we accept something new, we just put it in a fearful context. Also, we see that they don`t want to use the team at first, showing that often we are unable to work together peacefully with different people, even when they are on our side. This is furthered by how they even state safety is more important than liberty. People don`t really value rights, only stability, which is what has been used to support things like The Holocaust, the greater collective good. It is very Fascist, but we see some people do really trust them and care for them, as they are more idealistic. There will always be heroes on both sides. Also, it’s interesting that Xavier becomes wise enough to realize mutants shouldn`t be known by the government, as this can make prosecution easier. Minorities can always be better on the safe side, and this develops further when the governments decide to drop their mutual hatred for each other for hatred on the unknown that they share. The US decides to turn against the mutants just because they cannot separate the good from the bad, showing how fast people can generalize.
This theme was really smart, as indeed often people generalize not knowing who is on their side, which is why Jehovah witnesses were prosecuted during World War II and Japanese immigrants. The greater good is used to justify many evil and minorities, which are safe for a long time, can always be suddenly prosecuted, like Poland had 3 million Jews before World War II. They were welcome there, which makes sense as it was a Catholic country, but of course The Nazis came.
Also, it has a theme of the fragile state of humanity, how our paranoia as pragmatism is our biggest weaknesses. We see that they are able to have world leaders make moves that will lead to war, just by intimidating them. We see as in real life that we were close to a nuclear war, and the mutants only needed to light a match. We see that it’s also a weakness of anyone intelligent, regardless of race or gender, as “The Hell Fire Club” wants to destroy all humans. Magneto wants to kill even other mutants. They have the same ultimatums be with us, or be against us. Please don`t talk about this having a Bush reference. We have had enough of that with Star Wars Episode III. Also, we see that wars are often caused by those who can best survive it and it has selfish intents, like with “The Hell Fire Club.” It can be justified, like they use their powers to prevent Shaw from starting a war, but that it is best to avoid unnecessary harm, like with Magneto wanting to send the missiles. He could stop back at the military.
Also there is a theme on cruelty and Fascism. That has an angle focusing on hypocrisy:
Shaw had Magneto’s mother killed and used him as a lab rat, using The Nazi’s methods. Why, because they were more effective. That is extreme pragmatism; showing Fascism and pragmatism are much intertwined. He claims they don`t hurt their own kind, but he does by killing Darwin. He kills anyone that doesn`t support his group, and within his group they aren`t even equal, as he is arrogant to Emma Frost and treats her and others like servants. He is also dishonest like killing a general that helped him. We see that often we use people for our own cause. Anyone can be expendable and our cause is often self-centered. We see that group thinking is wrong, as we hurt innocent people, and use it as an excuse to be immoral. The mutants value all good people, including humans. They value the innocent. They save the life of good people, and therefore, Xavier is a wise mentor, as he sees that, like with Hank and The CIA. Humans and mutants can be friends. There are good individuals everywhere, personified in Moira, who is a human that helps both humans and mutants, and Xavier, who helps the humans and the mutants. We see this is why, and also we see fascist group thinking is a common human treat with the humans treating mutants this way. Also, we see that although we should understand of naïve enemies, people following orders is what caused The Holocaust. We see that Social Darwinism is wrong, as Shaw mistreats people as they are weaker, and want to hurt people simply as they are weaker. This is similar to The Nazis and…oh my goodness, I am so looking forward to giving my overview on this. Oh yeah! We see that Fascism is often hypocritical, as Magneto kills Shaw, even though he agrees with his views. Magneto starts his own brotherhood, and Xavier preaches equality, where the humans treat mutants as inferior and Magneto compensates by acting superior. So we see that Fascism is very intertwined with Social Darwinism, as Shaw and Magneto both focus on their own groups, and based membership of this group on being stronger than regular humans. This is both shown to be wrong, as it is hypocritical, as Magneto’s individual happiness and his mother were sacrificed for this cause. He takes revenge for it, yet does the same thing, and it makes abilities more important than morality, as Shaw is murderous and sadistic on women and the weak just because they are weaker and different. They ignore the kind humans that supported them like Moira. It is generalizing and circular, as they excuse humans of wanting to hurt them because they are different, yet they hurt all humans, and only care for themselves. We see Social Darwinism includes even killing individuals, like Magneto’s mother, because they are weaker, and that this is a part of The Nazi philosophy that many people hypocritically adopted.
Now this is a really smart and also very honest theme, as it criticizes Nazi teachings, but also many of its more commonly excepted forms. The film, like the other X-Men Films, cleverly comments on racism, but what a lot of people still seem to ignore is that they also comment on eugenics and Social Darwinism. People say the scene in “X2” where Iceman’s mother asks if he ever tried not being a mutant was a metaphor for how gays are treated. Yeah, that or I don`t know how people with Autism are treated, or with Tourette, ADHD, or OCD. This film clearly comments on eugenics as we see them trying to use Magneto forcing him to move the coin, Mystique having to hide her abnormalities and mutants being seen as dangerous. These are different abilities, not race differences. They are taught to learn to deal with them instead of being forced to suppress who they are. This makes the film really fantastic thematically, as eugenics are a great evil that people ignore a lot. People constantly argue that homosexuals need to be allowed to be open about their tastes. They need to have bars and model shows, and need to work in every nice profession, as do women and people from different races and religions. However, people with OCD are constantly told that, as they have an addiction, they should be forced to fight it, suppress a part of themselves, they deserve to be bullied and hated on by their teachers as well, as most people. People with Autism or retardation are often used as insults in movie debates. This film greatly comments on the evil of eugenics. It shows people are forced to deal with it in ways they can`t, like Magneto, and are forced to hide who they truly are. We should be able to be ourselves, as Mystique shows by happily showing her true form, and be trained to be happy with it, as Xavier trains them to control their powers. Also, they show Nazi practices were closely related to eugenics. A lot of people know of their racism and hatred for homosexuals, but they also supported the killing and sterilization of the mentally and physically handicapped. This was indulged by psychiatrists as being ok, similar to how know Shaw is a doctor with his own goals. This is also interesting, as the practices of that time have been made tamer, but the principles remain people with handicaps, who are therefore depended on others or different, and a burden due to their differences. They are insulted a lot by Psychiatrists for being a parasite on society and often psychiatrists are very manipulative and cruel in their methods. This film is really wise for showing that, just because your behavior is a handicap doesn`t mean you have to hide it unless you want to. You should be able to be happy with what you enjoy. Also, The Nazi’s ideas survived in many other left winged schools of thought. Man, I love this! Now don`t worry, I am not going to insult most lefties watching this. I am just talking of The China Communists, The Soviets, etc.
The film, like all the X-Men Films, is serious and has a dark tone, with deaths, revenge and intolerance. It has a heavy conflict, deep themes, and can be really realistic, but it is more exciting, colorful and also has lighter moments. It has a lot of humor, s more colorful and this makes it feel fresh within the series, yet it isn`t overdone. Also, it is fun with exciting action in big numbers. It again combines many genres: action, superhero, science fiction, cold war films, political thrillers, character drama, morality plays, and revenge films.
The film is very well paced with always new things happening in the plot, yet developing all existing plot points well. It takes it`s time to develop its characters and themes, but continuously has action and humor. Filmmasteradam complains the stuff with the CIA was drawn out and boring, but seeing Xavier use his powers to read their minds at their meeting showed his laxer morals. We see Mystiques loyalty to him showing her shape shifting, but also it is important that we see how he convinces the CIA of their existence to work with him, he gets them to attack Shaw, and how they get him Cerebro and Hank so he can start recruiting. He does this without the humans showing him, starting to act secretly and cautiously, and it is important how in the end, they turn on the mutants, leading to Xavier fighting Magneto. Also, it’s important was them discussing that they were going to limit liberty, keeping Emma Frost, showing the building paranoia of mutants, pragmatism and corruption. Also, the scene where they green light Xavier leading to the team showed how some people trusted mutants, but how Xavier’s team was already distrusted by the CIA. All of it was actually relevant, heavy and complex.
The dialogue is immensely deep with lines like: “So you can stay and fight for the people who hate and fear you, or join me and live like kings, and queens,” showing how he sees it as futile to help the humans because they hate and fear them, how tempting his offer is they can rule, that they should embrace their powers to be all powerful. It shows how power hungry he is. “Maybe I wasn`t clear enough. You will make this happen,” showing how confident he is of his powersm that he thinks people will certainly do as he tells them, just because he is a mutant. Also, lines like, “are you sure,” reflecting how worried Xavier is of shooting at Magneto. “Never looked better, don`t mock me!!” really reflects Beast is enraged and completely can`t handle his new appearance, immediately becoming angry when someone seems to joke about him. “You can`t. You will drown. You have to let go. I know what this means to you, but you are going to die. Please Eric calm your mind,” showing Xavier really learns to understand people’s problems and becomes wiser. Mystique’s line, “I always thought it would be you and me against the world, but no matter how bad the world gets, you don`t want to be against it, do you? You want to be a part of it,” really showed Mystique didn`t want to be pragmatic and Xavier would rather fit in than stand up for her.
The film also has really intense imaginative action. The Blockbusterbuster said the film, unlike the original trilogy, lacked great action scenes for a summer blockbuster. I think the film had many great action scenes that had a real thrill value. Well, the fight in the bay with the CIA, Magneto and Shaw was fantastic. A tornado blew away the CIA, their boats, and then Magneto uses the anchor to smash through the whole ship, crashing windows, walls, and mast. That was really thrilling. It had fluent flexible camera movement and fast editing. Also, Magneto originally moved barb wired, broke people’s guns, kicked them, was quickly shot and edited. Especially the attack on The CIA headquarters where Shaw got shot at by at least 20 cops and by a missile launcher, and used the power to blow up the whole room. His henchmen teleport past soldiers, getting shot at, stabbing them, and taking a machine gun, moving it to shoot through one window, while a storm blows over the other side, smashes everything and throws a guy through the other window. It is very complexly shot, has fast editing, and is a three-way fight, with windows shattering, the whole building blowing up, dozens of people shooting, stabbing, and rocket launchers. This was one of the best action scenes in the whole series. Also, near the end, Magneto pulls a whole submarine out of the water. Their plain gets stuck in a tornado, a whole submarine crashing on the island in great detail, and the Soviets use a missile to blow up one of their own ships. That scene was also shot and edited very detailed.
Also, Filmmasteradam complained the action scenes of the younger X-Men were lame, but they shot one of the guards, and Magneto break a wall behind a guy to push against him. The teleporter takes them up in the air, but they grab him, so he has to take them with him to land safely, as he cannot teleport independently. He grabs Havok with his tail, he shoots lasers over the subs, Angel shoots poisonous fire at them, Banshee blows her away, and has to fly at top speed, dodge subs, saves Havok, gets hit on the wing, touches the water, yet blows himself off the water unto the beach, where a precise laser hit takes Angel down. Beast hits the teleporter, Mystique distracts him and he punches her out. It was explosion packed, fast, you really got a sense of the great heights, and how they still have human sense, nearly crash and have to work to aim. It was gritty, tension filled, and fluently shot, with fast movement that focused on the characters heights. The editing was fast and sudden, and the firings of hundreds of nukes that are turned around and eventually explode midair. Also, the action furthers the story with the opening, causing Shaw to be discovered, Xavier to train against him, realize mutants like Magneto needed his help, and Shaw invading The CIA lead him to recruit Angel. The fight in Russia led to them discovering Shaw’s plan, the fight at the end stopped Shaw, prevented World War III, showed Xavier growing as a teacher, how much the mutants had grown, how they worked as a team and stood by the humans. Yet the humans mistrust them, nearly destroy them, and we so how fragile the human state is, with how quickly war erupts.
The film has great atmosphere. It can really be energetic and colorful, but also suspenseful, spiritual and silent.
The acting is magnificent of almost all the actors and the praise for it is deserved:
James McAvoy is fantastic as Xavier. He is intense, can be witty, exciting, but also serious, dramatic, comforting, principled, cautious, sad, authentic, but also, colorful, cocky, arrogant and obnoxious. He really gets the warm smiles as well as the mentor voice and his stressful looks, as well as his cockiness across. He played his sadness in the end very well. Also, he reminds me of Zach Braff. Yeah, he loves thinking about his ballet class. He excels all the other gals. Sorry, aach, the guilt again.
Michael Fassbender plays Magneto very well. Even when the character is badly developed, the performance deserves all its praise. His voice and expressions are great. He is intense, obsessed, dramatic, creepy, and sad.
Kevin Bacon is fantastic. FilmmasterAdam was right praising him. He is intense, arrogant, slimy, presentational, seductive, power hungry, sadistic, and also a real intellectual. He gets the smooth and arrogant matters, the sadistic voice as well as the power-hungry and hateful looks across very strongly. The Blockbusterbuster complains that he was recognizable as Kevin Beacon, but Samuel L. Jackson was clearly Jackson in “Die Hard With A Vengeance,” and Liam Neeson himself in “Batman Begins.” If a performance is great, you may use it more often.
Now I am going to try and avoid a Jackson reference, but just know that if you dislike “First Class,” “I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”
Jennifer Lawrence is awesome. She is sweet and innocent, yet, intense, insecure, nuanced, multilayered, and also angry, lustful, supportive, sad, and “so” hot.
Rose Byrne is also great. She is really attractive…oh wait, I was supposed to be talking about the acting. Well, she really gets the professionalism, her caringn, as well as naivety and sternness across.
Nicholas Hoult is also fantastic as Beast. He can first play the shy, cold, but also intellectual, love struck and conflicted Hank well, and perfectly plays the more violent, angry, yet tough and depressed Beast.
Zoë Kravitz can really play her frustrations, toughness, and physicality very well, and is very subtle and detailed.
Caleb Landry Jones is also great. He is energetic, playful and immature, yet caring.
Lucas Till is funny, dry and very obnoxious, yet likeable.
Now onto the hot January Jones from that hit sitcom “Mad Men.” Although I didn`t mind Emma Frost’s character, her facial expression and delivery, as many said, were unconvincing, wooden and she often seemed bored and distracted.
Now on to the technical aspects:
The direction is very intense and energetic with fluent movement. The sets up are really detailed with complex framing, it uses fast close-ups, its character centered and emotional, very spiritual with making parts of the shots vague and changing focus adding to the hypnotic feeling. Yet, it can also be quite and character centered, with the use of shot reverse shots. The cinematography can be very contrasting and dark for the team of Shaw, and dark and dramatic, but also for moments of colorful romance. With the CIA, it’s colorful, yet ordinary and calm. The lighting can be suspenseful, but also brooding, soothing and optimistic.
The editing is fast with very smooth but fast, energetic cuts, and often we have split screens adding to the energy. Yet, it can also be slow and character centered.
The set design is detailed, complex and warm in our heroes. Their home has soft furniture and color, cold and robotic for the eugenicist. Shaw’s headquarters has cold steals, glass, only grey, and The CIA office is very vibrant, with detailed elaborate rooms, loads of screens and tables, vast corridors and loads of equipment. It is vibrant, energetic and professional.
The props are really great and realistic. They can be comforting and advanced with Xavier’s team, and stale with Shaw’s hideout.
The costumes are detailed and elaborate. Those for Magneto and Shaw are dark and self-indulgent, Xavier and his team as intellectuals, and those of his team colorful and energetic, fitting for teens.
The sound is sharp and intense, fitting the epic story and intense emotions.
The music is fantastic. It is energetic, epic, romantic, intense, dark, rhythmic and very epic.
The Special Visual Effects are amazing, just wonderful. The CGI is wonderful, the water fluid, the submarines detailed, the missiles harsh, the explosions colorful, the lasers lively, the screams natural, the wings organic, the gulls moist, the skins rough, the hears smooth, the crystals reflective, and the digital stunt doubles fluent. The stunts are relaxed. The staged explosions intense, and all the movement and stunts feel real.
So, it was a great production, a fantastic film, although flawed, and the least in The X-Men Film Series. I think it is fairly rated. It is great and deserves praise. Go see it. I give it a 9.5.
Check in tomorrow when we take a look at “The Wolverine,” another amazing film in the series. That one I will put in a few comments from reviewreviewer1, but it will mostly be my own opinion on it, since I promised that to him because at the time, he hadn't seen "The Wolverine" when we were planning on the joint reviews for the "X-Men series." See you then.
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