X-MEN: FIRST CLASS - Grading+Discussion **SPOILERS!**

I'm really starting to think this could be one of the best summer movie seasons in a long time. So far I've loved the two big summer movies I've seen (Thor and Kung Fu Panda 2) and I'm pretty sure at this point I'm gonna feel the same way about this.

 

The Dark Knight is still tops for me.

 

Hmm, thought it was good, not great. There were certainly some terrific sequences and a lot of great performances..... but the story jumped around SO freakin much and was so choppy that it was hard for me to form any real emotional connection to what I was watching.

Also, the way Shaw went about tricking the US and Russians into nearly starting a war just felt way too simplistic and cartoonish to me. Instead of using any kind of clever emotional manipulation or playing on people's insecurities.... all he did was basically threaten people into doing his bidding. He might as well have saved time and had his devil-looking buddy teleport into the missle control rooms and push the launch buttons himself. lol

And on top of that, it kinda felt like the movie was rehashing the same "humans vs mutants" arguments we've already heard a hundred times before.

It's possible most of those concerns would go away on a second viewing, but so far the movie doesn't even come close to X2 in my mind.

 

A

I liked the James Bond/Sixties Caper Movie feel to it, and Michael Fassbender nailed Erik Lensherr/Magneto, and most of the performances were pretty good. I liked the story, thought the cameos fit nicely and was satisfied with the way the ending tied into to first movie.

I do have "notes":

-I did like the sixties setting, but the blatant rip of the whole "Dr. Strangelove" war room scene was a bit much. Admittedly, most of the audience for this movie probably never even heard of Dr. Strangelove. I've seen it a few times.

-Moira MacTaggart and Banshee should have had Scottish accents. It would have been nice to have them here. Maybe it would have been a little much for the kid playing Banshee, but Rose Byrne's already faking an American accent. Would a Scottish one be so hard?

-Two things about Emma Frost:

1) I don't know what kind of actress she is on Mad Men, but January Jones acted like she was reading off a teleprompter...for the first time.

2) The diamond skin power is stupid. It was stupid in the comic, it was stupid in the movie. Emma Frost started out a powerful telepath, one capable of taking on Prof. X and Jean Grey. She doesn't need any stinking diamond skin power.

 

lol, yes. This IS the X-Men, you know.

That's akin to complaining about Hulk smashing in his movies.

 

Watchmen did the same thing, at least in terms of set design. Apparently the Strangelove war room has become cultural fact.

She had the accent in X3. Maybe she picks it up later?

 

I saw it last night, I voted B, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I'm having the same problem I had with Thor, I liked the mObie, but don't know much about the characters. I'm sure upon a rewatch I will like it more. I grew up watching the X-Men cartoons and loved them, but I never read the comics, ima DC man. I can say the soundtrack was awesome, it sounded very much like the other movies. I loved all the little moments like them training at Xavior's house. Iloved Professor X and Magneto playing chess, Beast and all of his moments. The Blackbird, the yellow suits. Kevin Bacon was awesome it was funny seeing him in the helmet with his pig nose. I think this was truly Magneto's film. I loved Wolvorine's cameo. I loved the setting. Everyone keeps saying it was like a Bond film, I was thinking that the whole time, Shaw's sub, the CIA, the whole shebang. The only real problem I had was my lack of knowing some of the other characters. Obviously Alex Summers is Scott's dad, but the others I didn't know. I liked how Professor X saw Storm, but I couldn't figure out who the others were. I walked away thinking this was a great prequel and a great fit for the other X-Men movies. I can see a sequel that will tie it up nice and tight. I don't see it so much as a reboot, but more of a continuation. I was thinking while I was watching that this felt very much like a live action version of the cartoon, but like a flashback. That is not to say it was cartoonish, but it really felt like the comic book brought to life. One more thought, does anyone think that we might see Omega Red since it's the 60's now?

 

Well, obviously, the CIA exiled her to Scotland because she was useless and she picked it up living there.

 

Source

 

So it's the director's fault. Bastard!!!

 

This is looking more and more like a reboot.

 

More or less, but after exiting the theater I thought "who fucking cares?"

 

Considering they've always fucked up Prof X's accent (the character being American), it's a bit late to start complaining about lack of attention to detail in that regards. But it does show a lack of respect on the directors' part for the integrity of the characters.

Looks like the opening is a bit soft. Doesn't surprise me - there are just too many comic book (and comic book-like) movies jostling around each summer, and the ones that don't have an obvious reason to go see them will get lost.

There's no big hook to this movie to get people into the theater. The X-Men movies to date didn't create some huge curiosity to see their origins. Who really cares where or why they came about? None of the actors are big draws. It's an easy movie to ignore.

I personally can't see either McAvoy as Prof X or Fassbinder as Magneto, although they might be perfectly good actors for other roles. As a longtime X-Men comics fan, I just don't recognize the characters as they've been presented in the movies, and the trend has been getting worse as the series goes along.

For X-Men to have a Bond-like atmosphere (if true) is just completely wrong for the story. The comics in the 60s never had anything Bond-like about them. They were far too serious for that.

 

^ You Post this Temis...and yet the reactions in this thread would totally disagree with you. I'm not surprised the box office intake so far is on the small side. I predicted months ago (not in any thread) that this would probably take in around $50 million in it's opening weekend and if it was a critical success (which is seems to be so far) it would continue to grow. This will be a word of mouth movie.

 

This is the best X movie. Gave it an A. Definitely worth seeing.

 

Saw it today. I rate it an A. Great escapist nonsense with a socially relevant theme. McAvoy and Fassbender were great, with the latter practically stealing the show even if Mags seems to have learnt English in Northern Ireland . Mystique and the Beast were great additions; wish they'd given the latter a few more polysyllabic words though. Other than that, I also really liked the scene where Banshee starts learning to fly. It's always a pleasure when a familiar comic book character is realised well on screen. Good thing they made him American, too; the comic book version's speech patterns are a little off.

 

I really enjoyed this movie, this is my favorite X-men movie yet.
I do have a question , I used to read xmen a long time ago and I only remember Emma Frost being a telepath, did she ever gain the 'diamond' skin power in the comics?

 

Emma's diamond form is directly from the comics. Grant Morrison gave it to her at the start of his New X-Men run.

 

Well, its been awhile since i've read xmen, or any comics for that matter. Although I do have a lot of older ones, i'm not up to speed on anything from about the mid 90's up.

 

Banshee's accent should be Irish, not Scottish, Admiral.