Sunday, June 5, 2011

Movie Review - X-Men: First Class

I will try my absolute best to ensure I leave out any spoilers and simply focus on what made the movie good and what made it bad. That said, here is my review:

X-Men: First Class, the fourth or fifth installment in the series depending on whether or not you count Wolverine's movie, manages to find a niche unto itself which the other movies had not covered. In the previous movies the X-Men were already well trained, in control of their powers and keen to fight for their side. Whenever there was a battle, the audiences focus was on the ability for one characters power to beat another one's power (think this scene).

X-Men: First Class, being a prequel, takes the concept of powers in a different direction. We see internal struggle, with mutants having to overcome their own limitations, fears and humanity to rise above the rest. Those aspects made this film great, and allowed the audience to connect more with the mutants on an emotional level. This connection kept you distracted from the at times massive suspension of disbelief necessary to reconcile some of the situations.

In terms of the plot, the story builds slowly, adding in cameos and explanations to the origins of some of the characters from the first three movies. The other neat thing about the plot is that it does a great job of integrating actual history with the "what if?" of mutants existing. Speaking of mutants, so as to not spoil anything let's suffice to say that the powers in this movie are pretty cool and definitely subtly enforce the characters flaws/character traits without barging into centre stage.


I give this movie a hearty 7.5/10.

26 comments:

  1. Good review, but maybe you should make some space between new subject?

    The actors are....

    On the other hand, the scenes are...

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  2. Nice review. I think I'm going to check out this movie after the exams.

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  3. I'm going to watch this later tonight with a few friends. thanks for the review!

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  4. I saw it the other day, and I liked it. Kevin Bacon is a boss.

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  5. i'm not going to watch the movie for the following reason:
    i did not like the first two and didnt bother watching the third one and also...i'm not a huge fan of marvel.

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  6. Thanks for the review, think I may definitely go give it a watch

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  7. Sounds interesting. Good review, I'm with icey though. The third x-men left a bad impression. How can the comic books be so good but the movies are so bad?

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  8. A few points.

    Firts, I didn't like how Beast built Cerebro. It was Xavier and Magneto - over a long time, building up their friendship. Their companionship in the movie seemed to have evolved over night - and the only 'work' they did together was finding new mutants to recruit.
    (lol @ Hugh Jackman.)

    Second, Havok's little hula-hoop dance before firing a blast from his chest was a little gay, as was the Tornado guy from the Hellfire Club.

    I loved Kevin Bacon as Shaw. I always liked the Hellfire Club, and they fit perfectly in the movie.

    Magneto and Xavier were awesome. Good characters, good lines, good character building and depth.

    Overall, pretty good movie. Definitely watchable. A little disappointed though, considering all the marketing and high expectations. Sorry for the novel of a comment!

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  9. Look very good, everybody seem to like it.

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  10. i really wanna see this movie

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  11. Been looking forward to seeing this one, hopefully it's better than the Wolverine one.

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  12. I really want to see this movie and you have furthered my interest!

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  13. I wasn't goign to see this movie cuz it seems like theyre kinda leeching off a good series before. but maybe it will be good if you say so man.

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  14. i didnt read the review because i am going to watch it soon, but i will check back after to recap haha

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  15. It was just a great movie, enough said!

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  16. 7.5 is good enough for me. I'll be checking it out this weekend.

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  17. Still not sure if I'm going to see this one.

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  18. LOL i just realized that Kevin Bacon is a real person!
    i thought he was that pig from "chuck"

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  19. New follower here, I can't wait to see this!

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