X-Men: First Class

After X-Men: The Last Stand and the Wolverine movie I guess I could be forgiven for thinking the franchise was very firmly at the bottom of the rubbish bin. Having enjoyed Bryan Singer's excellent work with the first two X-Men films, I thought it was a damn shame to see the potential of the series squandered so recklessly (and I know I'm not alone on this one). But, in the crazy topsy-turvy world of Hollywood these days, it seems that extreme sequelisation is no longer an indicator of poor quality... X-Men: First Class is the fifth big screen X-Men adventure and it comes admirably close to being the best film in the franchise.

The masterstroke with this film is that it's a balls out superhero origin story crossed with a '60s period adventure. It plays out against a Cold War backdrop, with a villain named Shaw (Kevin Bacon, the guy gets everywhere) trying to force nuclear armageddon during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. It adds some extra oomph and fun to the standard comic book stuff to see it all tied in with real historical events like this, and the script makes use of the era to move beyond simple gimmickry and examine some more current concerns by paralleling the communist scare of the '60s with our current post-9/11 mindset. When we have homeland security classifying mutants as 'not human' and therefore not having human rights, it calls to mind recent issues regarding 'terrorism'-related arrests.

Also, we have familiar characters like Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Professor X (James McAvoy). I don't think anyone expects anything particularly original to be said about these guys, but this film still manages to redefine the characters somewhat in their youth. Magneto and Xavier are very much the stars of this film, and a lot of the film is spent on the contrast between Magneto's power being unlocked by anger and pain and Xavier's power being unlocked by kindness. I was highly amused by the idea of Xavier using his theorisations to pick up chicks in the '60s (he's a lover not a fighter), but I wish they'd done a bit more with this throughout the film rather than just using this joke as a way to introduce the younger version of the character.

This entry in the series also gets back to what made the first film so successful, being an emphasis on characterisation. The idea of X-Men in the '60s on its own is a pretty good selling point, but exploring Magneto's drive for revenge against the Nazis is also a pretty appealing proposition just on its own. I mentioned earlier that there were parallels with 9/11 and the Cold War; well the other major parallel is Magneto's status as a Jew vs. his status as a mutant. His revenge against the Nazis eventually turns into revenge against all humans, and I think director Matthew Vaughn does a good job of illustrating these motivations in clear and easily understood terms. The emotions that make certain mutants into 'villains' - resent, bitterness, anger - they're all emotions born out of discrimination and prejudice. This film is a real winner because it doesn't forget that this is an important subtext to the overall X-Men story.

DIRECTOR: Matthew Vaughn
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Ashley Miller, Jack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn, Bryan Singer and Sheldon Turner. Based on the comic series and characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
KEY ACTORS: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones, Nicholas Hoult, Oliver Platt, Ray Wise, Zoe Kravitz, Jason Flemyng, Michael Ironside, James Remar

RELATED TEXTS
- The four previous X-Men films were: X-Men, X-Men 2, X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
- Matthew Vaughn previously threw himself into the world of superheroes with Kick-Ass. Before that he also directed the films Stardust and Layer Cake.