2011
Dir: Matthew Vaughan
At one point during X-Men: First Class, you would be excused for thinking you had accidentally wandered into an episode of The O.C, or, perhaps more accurately, Misfits, as a group of young, hip and attractive youngsters party the night away and show off their superpowers. Earlier, your hand would have been firmly placed over your mouth, with you questioning the validity of the ‘12A’ rating, as a man’s fillings are forcibly extracted from his head in a scene that makes Marathon Man look like Bambi. Therein lies the dilemma of Matthew Vaughan’s second, but much more traditional, exploration of the superhero genre: how to blend the light with the dark.
It is 1962. The United States of America and the USSR are in the midst of the Cold War, unaware of what is taking place around them. There are special individuals in the world who have evolved - or “mutated” - past the standard human abilities to possess what we would consider superpowers, such as telepathy, teleportation, super strength etc. Two of these men, Charles Xavier, a telepath and Erik Lensherr, a man with the ability to control metal, are on very different paths. Whilst Xavier is trying to explain his condition and help his fellow mutants, Lensherr is on a path of vengeance against the man who murdered his mother in front of him in a concentration camp during the Second World War. That man is Sebastian Shaw, an extremely powerful mutant who is trying to manipulate a nuclear war between the USA and Soviet Union, a plan that ultimately leads Xavier and Lensherr together.
The contrast of darkness and light is of particular interest in First Class. It is obvious that the creators of this story - including Vaughan, writer Jane Goldman and previous X-Men director Bryan Singer - are acutely aware of the central theme of this universe. It is all about Xavier and Lensherr; one represents the light, and one the darkness. There are even unsubtle references to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein made throughout the film, playing on this theme even more. It is an ambitious attempt, and one that superhero films have struggled with in the past. The great ones such as Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, as well as Sam Raimi’s Spiderman I and 2, have handled the adult themes within the comic book setting with enough care that it doesn’t become overbearing. Bryan Singer himself achieved this in X-Men and X2, but considering that First Class actually charts the rise of a particular character to who IGN consider to be the greatest comic book villain of all time, Vaughan and his team faced a much sterner test.
And it works. If this film is all about the emergence of Magneto, then it works perfectly. He is the most captivating character in the film by quite a significant margin, helped largely by the mesmerizingly intense performance from the continuously wonderful Michael Fassbender, who plays a much better James Bond here than Daniel Craig does in an actual 007 film. It is true that his Irish accent makes an unwanted appearance towards the end, but that doesn’t take away from just how tremendous he is. In terms of X-Men characters, Fassbender’s Magneto completely blows Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and even Ian McKellen’s own excellent version of the magnetic manipulator out of the water, standing head and shoulders above the rest as the best character in the comic book, and deserving a spot on the lists of great comic book screen villains along with Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor, Alfred Molina’s Dr. Octopus and, of course, Heath Ledger’s Joker. He is even given his own theme music, reused but changed ever so slightly each time by composer Henry Jackman - who emerges triumphantly from John Murphy’s shadow with this score - to great, menacing effect each and every time Lensherr graces our screen.
But, unfortunately, the film is not only about Magneto. As with all X-Men films, part of the enjoyment is that there is an absolute plethora of other characters, some on the lighter side of things, and others sharing the shadow. It is, for the most part, the ones in the light who suffer. The younger characters are just not developed at all. They are recruited far too easily; they do a bit of training, they do a bit of moping, and suddenly they’re ready for the final showdown. For characters such as Lucas Till’s Havok and Caleb Landry Jones’ Banshee, this lack of character development doesn’t really matter, as they are only bit-part players anyway who go absolutely nowhere. However, for the likes of Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique, Nicholas Hoult’s Dr. Hank McCoy, and Zoë Kravitz’s Angel, all of whom have significant moments over the course of the narrative, their lack of character development is a great hindrance, and makes these moments either jarring or just plain weird. That being said, Hoult is very likeable in his role as the team’s resident Q, proving that some of the lighter characters can work, but it is really down to their individual performance. It is the same with James McAvoy as Charles Xavier. McAvoy manages to make the young professor intelligent, serious and likeable, so his leadership qualities are never in doubt. It is his relationship with Magneto that is the real draw of First Class, and both he and Fassbender sizzle when sharing the screen with one another, whilst the script avoids the mistake of simply having them fall into long and lazy ethical debates.
As for the real antagonists of this film, the Hellfire Club certainly win the award for the best dressed villains of the year. In another nod to Bond, Kevin Bacon’s Shaw, January Jones’ stunning Emma Frost, Jason Flemyng’s demonic Azazel, and Álex González’s Riptide saunter around their secret bases in outfits that would have fitted in perfectly well at the pompously ridiculous Royal wedding. Bacon is the obvious standout of the quartet, but then he’s the only one really given anything to do. Flemyng and González fall into the same category as Ray Park’s Toad from X-Men, and Kelly Hu’s Deathstrike from X2, as extremely cool henchmen who kick some serious arse whilst barely uttering a word. Jones is a disappointment, with Emma Frost one of the more intriguing villainesses of comic book lore, and yet is relegated to little more than an extremely bored (and hot) looking piece of meat. Any scene that Bacon is in though is a great deal of fun. His introduction is reminiscent of Christoph Waltz’s sinister arrival in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, and I don’t think that’s an accident. He plays the role of the supremely confident, pleasant and calm ‘Big Bad’ excellently, never raising his voice, never taking a bite out of the scenery, whilst retaining enough malice in that creepy smile of his to remind you that any minute he is going to rip your throat out. And all that whilst wearing a great big silly hat for most of the picture.
But his evil scheme isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. Just like a Bond flick, the plot is ludicrous and obvious - I mean, come on, the film is set during the 60s and we don’t get a single reference to the American Civil Rights Movement? - and feels a teeny bit convenient just to get everyone in the same place at the same time for a big showdown with lots of explosions. And sadly the explosions aren’t all that impressive. There is no standout action sequence in First Class; nothing to rival Nightcrawler’s breathless, teleporting attack on the President at the beginning of X2, or the epic confrontation between Wolverine and Deathstrike at the end of the same film. The special effects just aren’t very impressive and look a bit rushed. The final battle that takes place on a conveniently placed tropical island reeks of Green Screen shitness. They might not be as bad as the ones in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but they are still pretty crap. It’s unsurprising really, considering that Vaughan only started working on this film barely a year ago, and here it is in the theatres. At least Azazel’s teleporting, like Nightcrawler’s before him, still looks funky.
So as you might have gathered, overall First Class is not as good as Bryan Singer’s X-Men 2. Vaughan’s prequel moves at a much swifter pace, and whenever Fassbender, McAvoy and Bacon are on the screen, everything is fine, but when we are left with the other, empty, horribly 2D characters, the speed just feels sloppy, and makes you yearn for the days of Rogue, Iceman and Pyro, three smaller characters who were handled properly and given enough flesh on their acting bones to stop them from looking like nothing more than handsome skeletons. It is such a shame that these elements, along with the aforementioned special effects, drag First Class down, because it does so much right. It is a better film that X-Men, and in a completely different stratosphere to Brett Ratner’s appalling X-Men 3, whilst also standing well above the usual comic book fodder. It will probably be the best superhero film this year, topping Thor and Green Lantern quite comfortably already, and I don’t really have high hopes for Captain America: The First Avenger. But considering the genius behind Kick-Ass was at the helm, with the combined might of Fassbender, McAvoy and Kevin fucking Bacon on our screen, this should have been a whole lot better.
I speak negatively mainly because I had such very high hopes, unlike with other films of this nature, and I just hope that by the time the inevitable sequel comes around - it’s not like there’s a shortage of characters - Vaughan and co. are comfortable enough with the big budget to mutate this from very good into great.
*** ¾ / *****
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