Climbing Higher Pictures

For many, there was a moment when X-Men died. That moment came as Bryan Singer left the franchise to direct Superman Returns, handing over the reigns to Brett Ratner and dooming X3 to the bowels of the superhero genre. Matthew Vaughn was originally on tap to take over, but refused to work in the cramped schedule 20th Century Fox had made for the film, choosing instead to take his own crack at the world of costumed vigilantes with Kick-Ass. Now, Vaughn is back in the director’s chair for a new kind of X-Men, a period piece origin story set during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Does he have what it takes to deliver an entry that lives up to the original two films?

X-Men First Class Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: A

I think I’ve been waiting for another good X-Men movie since the moment they stopped making them, that split second when Bryan Singer decided that a shot at Superman was more valuable than finishing what could have been the greatest superhero trilogy of all time. X2 is still probably my favorite superhero film, in a close race with The Dark Knight, and it’s hard to find another example of a perfect marriage of graphic novel storytelling and Hollywood production value. Regardless of how badly Brett Ratner would scuttle the series with X-Men The Last Stand, the second was already a lot for any successor to live up to, much less compete with directly. For a while there was a Magneto movie in development alongside Wolverine, telling the origin story of one of the genre’s most complex and interesting villains. Yet Singer, returning to the series in a major producer position after his failed attempt to reboot the Man of Steel, wanted to do something entirely different by returning the franchise to its roots, a friendship forged in the heart of one of the most volatile periods in our nation’s history. Setting the new film in the Cold War and telling the origin of not only Erik Lehnsherr but Charles Xavier as well, formed the foundation for a whole new direction for the series. Does First Class do what the prior two films could not, and live up to the X-Men legacy?

Hell yes. Matthew Vaughn has crafted an epic and triumphant return to form for not only the franchise, but for superhero films as a whole. He trades in the cheesy, increasingly self-aware style of the recent Marvel blockbusters and brings everything back down to earth, adding a gravitas and weight none of the other installments had. It feels very similar to Batman Begins in its tone and look, drawing heavily on the period to provide a backbone for its suspension of disbelief. We believe that mutants exist in this alternate history because there’s no reason why they couldn’t have, and setting them up as early saviors of the human race informs the choices they make later and sets them on their separate paths. There’s an awful lot of story here, and it lets the film move at a brisk pace without feeling cramped or stifled.

Though I will do my best to avoid hyperbole, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are both phenomenal with their performances here. Both actors seem to have been waiting for their respective big breaks to come for years now, and even when they’ve landed starring roles (McAvoy in Wanted, Fassbender in Centurion) they’ve never felt completely at home with those characters. These are the parts they were born to play, and the chemistry on screen is truly remarkable. Despite what I suspect to be quite a few friendship-building sequences on the cutting room floor, we feel the support they have for each other, and the emotional conclusion works entirely because of the way they work together. The other major casting standout is Kevin Bacon, who looks more alive than I’ve seen him in years. He sinks his teeth into the villain role with a youthful gusto that reminds you of the charisma and presence he can have when he truly commits to a part. His Sebastian Shaw is ruthless and devious, capable of the quietest of threats and the loudest of actions, and there’s a certain amount of fear associated with him whenever he appears on screen. That kind of menace in a superhero film is an achievement in and of itself.

So the story’s great, the cast is terrific, and the pacing strong. What’s not to like? My couple nitpicks actually involve additional material that would’ve extended an already long film (2 hours and 15 minutes at its current cut). Rose Byrne’s Moira MacTaggert should be the love of Xavier’s life, and it seems like her scenes were trimmed a little bit more heavily due to time constraints. There will be plenty of time to develop her further in a potential sequel, but I can’t shake the nagging suspicion that the footage is there and they just ran out of time. Same goes for the entire opening of the film, which has a majorly truncated structure, something they could’ve let breathe even more. Yes, that’s right, I want an even longer cut of this film in a future release, because it’s just that good. Usually a movie will have a handful of moments that really hit the nail on the head, but Vaughn has crafted huge chunks of tremendously enjoyable storytelling that I could’ve kept watching for several more hours. This can only bode well for the future of the franchise.

X-Men First Class is the superhero sequel worth seeing this summer. It has all the elements of great historical fiction mixed with classic characters and performances that quite frankly blow the material away. Unfortunately for the studio, this is not lowest-common-denominator filmmaking, and I worry that the average moviegoer will choose to save their money for something more conventional. If that happens, it will be nothing short of a tragedy, as this is one Hollywood movie that deserves success, even if it may not have earned that audience from its most recent outings. Tell your friends, grab your co-workers, and bring the family because if this can’t beat Fast Five and Pirates 4, I may entirely lose faith in the movie-going public.