X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

Surprisingly good movie!

Like the recent Thor movie, I was not expecting much.

I have been a huge X-Men fan in the past and am pretty familiar with all the storylines and characters... and I was sort of expecting them to mess this one up.

But it actually had a pretty good story and made good use of the mutants featured in the story.

It is a prequel to the other X-Men movies... but not exactly. Some stuff doesn't jive up if you really pay attention, but nothing obvious.

Liked the use of the Hellfire Club... Emma Frost/White Queen

X-Men: First Class doesn't have the traditional line-up from the comics...but that isn't really a problem.

There are a hell of a lot of mutants in the Marvel Universe to pick from, I don't mind who they throw in the movies, as long as it serves the story.

The heart of this movie, of course, is the relationship between Xavier and Magneto... James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender do a great job stepping into the younger shoes of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan.

Anyway, go see it. It's a good time.

That the one that in the 80's, they drew her with that teeny "V", bikini that barely hung on to her camel toe?

Ahh, memories...

FFS spoiler up that cameo appearance!

Saw it last night. Very good. My biggest criticism would be that they tied it all up in one film - would've been far better to show the Xavier/Magento schism develop over a trilogy. Minor nitpicks would be some of the CGI, Fassbender's Ulster accent appearing in the final third of the movie, and the facet that January Jones can't act for shit.

I enjoyed the movie. I've never really been a big X-Men fan so as far as the choice of mutants, that doesn't really bother me either way.

I did like Hugh Jackman's cameo.

I've never seen a single X-Men movie. But I like Fassbender and this has that very 60's militaristic look to it, so I might give it a whirl one PM if I'm bored.

Saw it, enjoyed it.

A few anachronisms (it's 1962 and someone refers to someone else as "bad-ass", American soldiers have XM-177s, etc.) and there are some real liberties taken with the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis (e.g., I don't believe the Russian cargo ship Aral Sea was sunk). There are also some inexplicable contradictions with what the earlier movies have established: when Charles becomes handicapped, Charles' relationship with Mystique, the nature of Beast's appearance, etc. But these are relatively small points.

The leads--James MacAvoy as Charles Xavier/Professor X and Michael Fassbender as Eric Lensherr/Magneto--are both terrific actors and bring real credibility to their characters. The supporting cast is mostly unknowns, but everyone does a decent job. Rose Byrne (damn, is she in EVERYTHING now?!?) is good as CIA agent Moira McTaggert.

Kevin Bacon is pretty pimpin' as the bad guy and he has some long dialog scenes in both German and Russian, which he handles reasonably well. His master plan certainly didn't lack for scale, though his powers went unexplained (presumably, he, too, is just a mutant).

There are a couple of cameos from earlier films (which, uh, take place later), and both are fun and fit organically into the story.

It isn't The Dark Knight or Iron Man, but X-Men: First Class is pretty watchable. If you liked the other X-Men movies, you'll like this one.

6.5/10

As an X-Man reader since the 70s, I'm fairly disturbed that the movie features characters that were MUCH later additions than the actual "first class" (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast and Angel).

But if it's good, that's good.

Well, they've been playing silly with the X-Men's membership chronology since the first trilogy anyway. Iceman for example was one of the original five X-Men, but in the movies he was a scrub student while the more experienced adult X-Men were running around fighting bad guys.

James has had a good film career since children of dune.

Don't recall Marvel Girl (though I'm a little weak on Marvel mythology) but Cyclops isn't in it, though there is a character called 'Havoc' whose last name is also Summers. Scott's father?

Havok (Alex Summers) is Cyclops' (Scott Summers) brother.

The only "original" X-Man to appear in First Class was Beast. Neither Cyclops, Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Angel, nor Iceman was in First Class.

Yes, Scott's YOUNGER brother I believe.

Um...maybe he got strong enough to shoot a wormhole in reality, and skip across 50 years?

Oh, vey.

Well, we knew from the outset that the movies and the comics diverged significantly, so I guess it's no biggie.

Nah, ya gotta think of the movies as a "What If?" scenario (Elseworlds for DC properties), then there's no continuity to worry about.

Yeah, in 2000 I gave up on trying to synchronize the X-Men film continuity in any meaningful way with the Marvel Comics Universe's continuity.

I didn't like it. Too much historical and Marvel universe deviation. I wasn't invested in any of the characters.

Also, January Jones can't play anyone but Betty Draper.

January Jones can't play anybody.

Got a decent rack, though.

Wrong font!

Does she? It's not decent enough that it struck me as being superlative in any way. She really strikes me as a slightly substandard generic blonde Hollywood bimbo.

I can't believe there's not a character in the marvel universe already named January Jones!

*Googles January Jones*

[?=I see..]
Oh!!



Ohh!!!



Oh-ho-ho-ho!!!! (booinng, tingle, tingle)





[/?]

I don't see anything special about those pictures compared to any other "hot-ish" Hollywood blonde that can't act.

Oh, she's not superhuman or nothin, but she's cute.

And hey, naked.

Good movie, although I'm not an X-fan and didn't know who half the characters were.

A must-see if you ARE an X-fan and not a waste of time if you're like me. Entertaining.

Pleasant surprise: Rose Byrne running around in lingerie!!

Does anyone else think January Jones looks like Martha McCallum's younger sister?

Saw it, was reasonably entertained, it definitely exceeded my expectations. In fact, I think that's the reason for most of the positive vibe surrounding the movie - people are pleasantly surprised that it doesn't completely suck.

The X-Men franchise was derailed when Bryan Singer jumped ship to direct Superman (wonder if that's something he now regrets?). X-Men: Last Stand had some interesting ideas but was undone by a terrible script & terrible storytelling decisions:

1. Killing Prof. X & Cyclops? Especially Cyclops, robbed of a hero's death, instead turned into a depressed, weeping emo boy.

2. Ressurecting Jean Grey then giving her nothing to do except stand around and look menacing while a CGI orgy happens around her?

3. Getting rid of Mystique early in the movie so that she plays no part in the climactic battle?

4. Introducing Angel then doing nothing with him?

5. Rogue curing herself of her mostly useless powers - useless because in the comics she flies and has super strength, in the movies all she does is whine, scream, play damsel in distress for the other X-Men to rescue, and pine away for Iceman.

6. Failing to further develop Pyro, who in X-Men 2 joined Magneto because he felt the need to belong to a kind of family, but when we rejoin him in this movie he's just a stock sneering villian w/o any kind of motivation other than he likes blowing things up).

7. And of course there was the hack director (Brett Ratner) who lacked any kind of vision or message. Singer brought the whole "X-Men as a metaphor for gay teen rights" edge to the proceedings. Ratner was brought on to do a paint by numbers job and string together a series of action set pieces.

With First Class, the studio & director seem to have wisely made the decision to ignore the continuity of Last Stand. I agree it seems unlikely that given the warm relationship we see between Mystique and Prof. X in First Class that she would then try to lobotomize him with the whole "pour gunk into Cerebro's circuits to scramble Charles' brain" scheme we see in the first X-Men movie. Or abandon him to certain death in X-Men 2 after Magneto reverses Stryker's fake Cerebro to target humans. But perhaps these things can be explained away by having been subjected to years of indoctrination & brainwashing by Magneto.

It'll be interesting to see where they go from here. I almost wish they hadn't felt obligated to continue with the Prof. X is paralyzed thing - it was fun to see a dynamic & mobile Charles Xavier instead of one trapped in a wheelchair.

Best Kevin Bacon movie ever.

I thought Thor was better. But this wasn't bad, it just didn't fit in with the established movie continuity at all. In X3, wasn't a bald Xavier walking around when he and Magneto meet Jean Gray in a flashback?

Anyway, taken on its own, the movie was fairly epic.

Seen it. Not great, not terrible. Better than X3, but on the same level as th other X-Men movies.