A feminine look at First Class…
I love superhero movies. I’m not a fan of comic books, but I really enjoy the movies and learning about the characters and their stories. I’m not going to lie though, I had no desire to see “Thor”. For awhile I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to see “X-Men: First Class”. I really loved “X-Men”, really liked “X2”, and liked “X-Men: The Last Stand” (although I remember being disappointed about something, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen it). I like these movies because of the ensemble of characters, the good guys working together, the good guys working together with the bad guys, mutants versus humans, etc. I never saw “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, because I thought it only focused on Wolverine, and I didn’t want to see a movie about just one X-Men (X-Man??); I like the dynamic of the group interaction. So, I was unsure about “X-Men: First Class”, but the more previews I saw, the more I decided that I wanted to see it.
The movie starts out with a scene that looks a lot like a scene from a previous “X-Men” movie, where we see the beginnings of young Magneto’s powers in the 1940s. Then we meet Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a Nazi who enjoys experimenting with people and mutants. What happens next is similar to a scene from “Star Wars Episode II”, and we see Magneto unleash his full powers. Meanwhile, Charles is asleep in his family’s mansion when he hears an intruder, and he meets Raven/Mystique, a homeless orphan who is different like he is, and whom Charles offers a place to live.
Fast forward 20 years to the swinging 60s. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has written a thesis on mutation. He is best friends with his “sister” Raven (Jennifer Lawrence). Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) is searching for Sebastian Shaw, who is now the leader of the Hellfire Club and has some powers of his own.
Meanwhile, there is some talk about nuclear weapons, Turkey, Russia, Cuba, and the CIA gets involved. Enter Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne, who is seemingly everywhere nowadays) who observes some odd happenings in the back room of a club in Vegas involving Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost (January Jones), and Azazel (Jason Flemyng). She seeks out Charles for help in explaining mutants to her boss. They track down Sebastian Shaw, but guess who else has also caught up to him?? None other than Erik!! Charles saves Erik from cetain death, Sebastian gets away, and the trio of mutants teams up to help the CIA. But first, they decide to find others like them. Other mutants. Other X-Men. Enter Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz), Sean Cassidy/Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones), Armando Muñoz/Darwin (Edi Gathegi), and Alex Summers/Havok (Lucas Til), some of whom appear in later installments in the series.
I really liked learning the back-stories of Mystique and Beast. It was also nice to see Charles/Professor X and Erik/Magneto as friends and to see what drove them apart. Prior to the screening, I had no idea that Kevin Bacon was in this movie. He played a really good villain, because I certainly hated his character!! And the first Magneto helmet, which Sebastian Shaw originated and wore first, I’m sorry but it made him look dorky. It was effective, but dorky-looking.
Overall a solid superhero film and an excellent installment in the X-Men storyline. After watching this movie you may be tempted to go looking for more information about the X-Men characters (I found this to be a very informative website: marvel.com/universe) as I did, to learn even more. And, keep your eyes open for a few surprises throughout the film.
