Category: Reviews

X-Men: First Class (2011)

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

Great acting, story, execution: the complete package. Quite long but earned the screen time, which makes it practically unique…

Spoiler-free Movie Review for X-Men: First Class

(#140RVW published 9/8/2012; full review published June 20, 2014)

Wow, an X-Men movie not featuring Wolverine? Sign me up. Don’t get me wrong, I love the character – nearly everyone does. But enough already. In fact, we’ve probably seen enough of all of these actors’ versions of the characters. Time for a reboot…

That’s not what’s exciting about X-Men: First Class, though. While previous films have had scenes set in the past, this is the first period film. What’s more, it takes place in the 1960’s, which gives it the interesting feel of being in the same rough timeframe that some of the early comics inhabited.

Personally, I can’t get enough of modern films using for their setting the past 50 years. Period movies that go back further than that in time are great, but hardly rare. It’s much more interesting to me to duplicate a much more recent time period. Particularly for a franchise picture. I harbor hopes that one day they’ll (re)adapt the original James Bond novels but leave them set in the 1950’s & 60’s.

(Very) loosely taking it’s premise from the comic series of the same name, this picture came about after plans for a Magneto origin movie in the vein of X-Men Origins: Wolverine were scuttled (thank goodness).

Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men films developed this and was on board to direct until conflicts with finishing Jack the Giant Slayer kept him from being able to helm First Class. With that they turned to Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Kick-Ass), who ran with the Bond-ian feel for the 60’s. He even employed other 60’s film techniques, such as split screens. It’s a very different look for a comic book movie and suits the story well.

The cast is marvelous, with Michael Fassbender & James McAvoy particularly standing out. The relationship between Charles Xavier & Erik Lensherr is absolutely the anchor of the film.

As for the rest of the mutants, it’s kind of a crapshoot. Sort of depends on your level of interest in the comics.

Jennifer Lawrence is wonderful as Mystique, although I’ve never found the character remotely interesting and I’m concerned that with a big-name actress in the role Mystique will get Storm/Wolverine screen time.
Nicholas Hoult as Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast: I think this character kind of steals the show, although I’m not sure about the look of the makeup.
Caleb Landry Jones as Sean Cassidy/Banshee: What a foolish character.
Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok: Cool…
Edi Gathegi as Armando Muñoz / Darwin: We’re starting to get into lazy comic writer territory here. “Hey, he can change into anything he wants – that’ll save some trouble.”
I’m not even going to go into the Hellfire Club mutants: Azazel, Riptide, Emma Frost, Angel (how many characters are there named Angel, anyway?). These aren’t characters, they’re plot devices. You need to solve a story problem, you create a new mutant that can miraculously do whatever you need for that scenario. It’s lazy and cheap without any plausible scientific explanation and why I never read the X-Men books.

X-Men: First Class is so enjoyable. Shattering the look of these comic book movies is so welcome as it was getting very tired. What sounded like another layer of superhero wallpaper turned out to be a well-thought out and executed breath of fresh air.

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Pass

The Representation Test Score: C (5 pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

[schema type=”movie” name=”X-Men: First Class” description=”In 1962, the United States government enlists the help of Mutants with superhuman abilities to stop a malicious dictator who is determined to start world war III.” director=”Matthew Vaughn” ]

Main Cast	James McAvoy Charles Xavier (24 Years), Michael Fassbender Erik Lensherr, Jennifer Lawrence Raven/Mystique, Kevin Bacon Sebastian Shaw
Rating	PG-13
Release Date	Fri 03 Jun 2011 UTC
Director	Matthew Vaughn
Genres	Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Plot	In 1962, the United States government enlists the help of Mutants with superhuman abilities to stop a malicious dictator who is determined to start world war III.
Poster
Runtime	132
Tagline	Before he was Professor X, he was Charles. Before he was Magneto, he was Erik. Before they were enemies, they were allies.
Writers	Ashley Miller (as Ashley Edward Miller) (screenplay) &, Zack Stentz (screenplay) …
Year	2011

September 8, 2012

#140RVW: The Artist (2011)

Better when it was called Singin’ in the Rain. Weakest Best Pic ever. A cynical appeal to H’wood’s favorite subject: itself = sure thing…

September 7, 2012
#140RVW: Ponyo (2008)

So many worked so hard to make beautiful film – that looks terrible. To me, anyway. Well executed, just not a fan of style. Odd but lovely.

September 6, 2012
#140RVW: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

Most enjoyable epic of all time? Yes. It has everything; adventure, wonder, emotion, jawas. 2 hours; perfect length. Never to be equaled…

September 5, 2012
When I Am Old I Shall Wear Midnight

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hmm…

Terry Pratchett is unquestionably my favorite author. I have read and re-read all of his Discworld novels many times; a lot of the non-DW ones, as well.

I enjoyed this book, certainly. But I’ve been getting progressively frustrated with one characteristic of the DW novels that is steadily increasing; the closed universe scenario.

Any franchise with a great many fans runs into the inevitable problem that many readers want more of the same; that they want their favorite characters and storylines to feature in an endless number of stories and situations. I cheerfully count myself in this group; I’m a sucker for Pratchett’s Watch stories or more novels about Jedi or James Bond.

But we ultimately rely on the author (or creator of any kind, as this problem is hardly singular to literature) to create the best tales in their own judgment. Just as a good parent must restrict a child’s intake of candy, a good artist really should be the one to best know when what we want is not what we need.

The Star Wars universe is the best example of this situation. A seemingly inexhaustible demand for content has led to the license holders authorizing so many works that there appears to be no area uncovered. Every line of dialogue from the films has been spun off into a tale. There is ostensibly no event that has ever been referenced that has not had at least one author come in and paint in the remaining corners.

Pratchett has a long way to go before approaching anything close to this gridlock, but the DW novels have slowly introduced more and more connections and crossover with each release. What began as a loose sort of continuity of characters and storylines has begun to resemble a tidy Doonesbury existence where no character is more than one connection away and Sam Vimes will appear around every corner.

This phenomenon is almost always welcome at first. Spotting some familiar character or common link to another story makes the reader feel like an insider and gives the novel a sense that there is a larger world; that the author has crafted a whole new existence of which we are only seeing one part. This gives the setting of the book real weight and authenticity; as if the author is merely recording their observations of a true event.

But when fill in all the empty spaces to create a linear and definable reality, it only draws attention to how artificial this “reality” is. An inverse equation results, turning a three-dimensional fantasy into a two-dimensional textbook.

Again, wanting everything mapped out and explained is the province of the fan; leaving some mystery and room to breathe is the job of the author. Put another way, we should want a published chronology and dictionary and atlas – but you don’t have to give them to us.

This is the first time that I truly felt that the tail was wagging the dog. When Vimes turns up in The Truth, it was an amazing device; we were given the opportunity to see how someone presented in all other tales as a hero might be viewed by a different protagonist. When Eskarina Smith turns up 35 books after appearing in 1987’s Equal Rites, it seemed less kismet than collision.

I enjoyed this final (?) Tiffany Aching book, but I won’t be sad to see the end of this series. If we hover over the same ground any longer, I’m afraid that we won’t be able to see the grass for the dirt, much less than the forest for the trees.

View all my reviews

August 1, 2012