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

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Saw it last night and, while I know I'm in the minority by a fair bit, I was underwhelmed. Grade: C.

I liked:

- Fassbender's Erik, for the most part.
- McAvoy's Xavier, for the most part.
- the several tips of the hat to the early comic & characters (including the costumes)
- the Erik/Charles relationship and development
- how Charles was paralyzed
- the Concentration Camp scenes
- How Erik "disposes of" Shaw
- early, non-hairy Beast
- Havok
- Banshee
- the attempt to get the '60s feel right
- that Fassbender was able to pull off the dramatic final beach scenes wearing that stupid helmet.

I disliked:

- how they barely kept Erik's personality from becoming Logan's
- the first pub scene, where they tried to establish Charles as a roguish ladies man, which he then proceeds not to be for the rest of the movie; totally unnecessary to the plot and slowed the movie down unnecessarily (a recurring theme for me.)
- January Jones (can't act her way out of a paper bag)
- how slow and plodding the movie was. It needed a good editor, and some life. I can't recall ever being bored before in a comic book movie (okay, maybe Daredevil.)
- how they only made a half hearted attempt to get the '60s feel of the movie right; clothes, cars, horn-rimmed glasses and a groovy white sitting room aren't enough, and the other bits they attempted seemed superficial and inconsistently used.
- the "fish bowl" scene, when the CIA facility was attacked and the "kids" all just watched from an incredibly vulnerable position
- that they didn't make me really care about any of the secondary characters, such as Darwin; I felt nothing when he died.
- the "training montage", which seemed to have been intended to be lively and action-packed, instead came off plodding and filled with more comic relief than action.
- the blue Beast make up; HORRIBLE!
- that they used the Moira McTaggart name for a role that was completely unlike her character and could have been filled by any number of other Marvel characters.
- Magneto's helmet. I liked that they brought in the concept and explained it and stayed consistent with X1, but using the actual original design just ended up being comical (and not in a good way.)

It was okay, but just left me more disappointed than entertained. I actually found myself yawning and looking at my watch at points. I'm one of those old time geeks who collected the X-Men comics from the very beginning, so I admit I may be overly critical of the movies. On the other hand, I enjoyed X1 just fine. This had so much potential, and has been so highly touted, I suppose that may have led to some of my disappointment.

Anyway, just one viewer's opinion. No more or less valid than anyone else's, I suppose, but there it is. Let the bashing begin.

I was thinking of posting a full review (I may still do so) but I am pretty much in full agreement with all you said here.

Additionally:

-The villain is all wrong. Really. He was ok when we thought he was a human Nazi conducting a cruel experiment on mutants like Erik (killing his mother to get him to use his abilities) because this would justify Erik's hatred and mistrust of humans that is the core of his very character. Making the villain a mutant really tables all that. Worse is the fact that he is an uber-powerful mutant. Gawd. I'm less interested in how powerful a villain is and more what their character is like.

- The movie was oddly paced. These scenes should have fell in different spots. Usually I am all for a movie having more backstory to tell, but not in this case, and all the various mutant scenes early on would confuse many people. I also was sure going in that the whole Cuban Missile Crisis thing would come earlier in the film, at the end of the first act, and would be followed by action scenes that were a lot more personal later. (other scenes placed in the same spot in a film would be the mansion raid in X2, the Slimer scene in Ghostbusters, the Times Square Goblin Attack in Spider-Man and the Batmobile chase in Batman Begins) Placing the crisis at the end of the film makes the film too busy to have scenes like Xavier's paralysis and Erik's defection play out properly form an emotional level.. there's just too much going on too many onlookers. Also, the training scenes come so close to the end of the film that it seems awkward. The people that wrote this film had no idea how to edit or pace a film. All they had was a lot of energy.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Film commentary from the fine followers of a mainstream news site:

Fox News Contributor Likes X-Men First Class. The Commentors? Not So Much.

Like, really?

 

[exodus]

^

I don't remember a scene that had Charles & Mystique together in any of the three movies.

They didn't have too.
She tried to murder him using Cerebro in X-Men 1.
That's some gratitude for taking her in and caring for her all those years, huh?

I guess this is a case of simply choosing to ignore X3.

They still included Beast & the cure plot from X3 in "First Class".
It seems kind sloppy that they'd ignore a major thing like Charles walking and not the lesser, such as the cure.

that they used the Moira McTaggart name for a role that was completely unlike her character and could have been filled by any number of other Marvel characters.

Exactly!!
They could have used Angel's old gf from the comics: Officer Jones and just made her FBI instead.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

-The villain is all wrong. Really. He was ok when we thought he was a human Nazi conducting a cruel experiment on mutants like Erik (killing his mother to get him to use his abilities) because this would justify Erik's hatred and mistrust of humans that is the core of his very character. Making the villain a mutant really tables all that. Worse is the fact that he is an uber-powerful mutant. Gawd. I'm less interested in how powerful a villain is and more what their character is like.

I thought Kevin Bacon was ok. I agree with you though he was more menacing as a Schmidt the Nazi than Shaw the mutant tyrant. I am now kind of wondering how Colin Firth would have handled the role, since he was Vaughn's other pick for it. If only they had given him more personality like say Hans Landa from Inglorious Bastards or to keep it in line with X-Men even William Stryker. To me he just seemed a little one note as a villain, but ultimately served his purpose, which was to set up the rift between Charles and Erik.

He was pretty powerful in the comics too. In this movie they had to make him even moreso because the tag team of Charles and Erik themselves is a tour de force.

That would be cool though if Shaw's whole "survival of the fittest" schtick was a set up for Apocalypse, but if that was the case there would probably be more clues eluding to his arrival.

 

[Trekker4747]

8 Worst X-Men Ever, courtesy of Cracked.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

-The villain is all wrong. Really. He was ok when we thought he was a human Nazi conducting a cruel experiment on mutants like Erik (killing his mother to get him to use his abilities) because this would justify Erik's hatred and mistrust of humans that is the core of his very character. Making the villain a mutant really tables all that. Worse is the fact that he is an uber-powerful mutant. Gawd. I'm less interested in how powerful a villain is and more what their character is like.

I thought Kevin Bacon was ok. I agree with you though he was more menacing as a Schmidt the Nazi than Shaw the mutant tyrant. I am now kind of wondering how Colin Firth would have handled the role, since he was Vaughn's other pick for it. If only they had given him more personality like say Hans Landa from Inglorious Bastards or to keep it in line with X-Men even William Stryker. To me he just seemed a little one note as a villain, but ultimately served his purpose, which was to set up the rift between Charles and Erik.

He was pretty powerful in the comics too. In this movie they had to make him even moreso because the tag team of Charles and Erik themselves is a tour de force.

That would be cool though if Shaw's whole "survival of the fittest" schtick was a set up for Apocalypse, but if that was the case there would probably be more clues eluding to his arrival.

Well, regardless of the performance itself, making the character a mutant really guts everything we know about Magnetos character.

Also, on a separate note, I couldn't help but get Plinkett's voice in my head for the scenes at the end of the film. In his Star Trek Nemesis review, he comments about the bald young Academy Picard noting the producers "think the audience is stupid." That voice applied to the scenes with Xavier's paralysis, the shape of Shaw's helmet, and many other things that they tried to patch up.

- The shot of the sub landing at shore was worse than most video games. Especially notable were CGI palm trees. Gad!

- While the recruiting montage and the cameo (the best scene in the film) were fun, the recruitment scenes seemed to be more important to the Lore of X-Men and they were trivialized here. Also, I was disappointed that Magneto didn't help with Cerebro as was said earlier.

The shots of the girl flying around (Angel) looked silly and I sank in my chair in embarrassment.


This is the worst of the series despite the well-cast leads.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Overall I thought they did a good job with the amount of time they got, which was less than a year to push this through production and post production. That probably explains the mediocre CGI.

Non sequitur, but here's an article with Mathew Vaughn.

http://electroshadow.com/?p=4777

I didn't know John Dykstra did the FX work on this movie. He also did FX work for Star Wars. And I almost forgot Vaughn was attached to direct Thor early on.

 

[lurok]

I thought Last Stand was bad (largely because X2 tough act to follow) but gone up in estimation now. The one joy I have reading other reviews here is almost universal consensus of how appalling Jones was. Does make you wonder why they never replaced her. Hopefully she'll get a well-deserved Razzie nom.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Probably because she is somewhat known, fairly inexpensive and not gonna bail and do romantic comedies. Also maybe Vaughn saw a lot of Betty Draper in his interpretation of Emma, which is kind of emotionless and wooden on the exterior but full of joy and life on the inside, haha who knows.

 

[od0_ital]

^

I don't remember a scene that had Charles & Mystique together in any of the three movies.

They didn't have too.
She tried to murder him using Cerebro in X-Men 1.
That's some gratitude for taking her in and caring for her all those years, huh?

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned...

...and, apparently, Mystique got scorned a lot, havin' to watch Xavier hit on women at the bar all the time, and then bein' rejected by him when she was blue, nude & feelin' vulnerable.

 

[exodus]

The one joy I have reading other reviews here is almost universal consensus of how appalling Jones was. Does make you wonder why they never replaced her. Hopefully she'll get a well-deserved Razzie nom.

I think appalling & a Razzie nom. are a bit extreme.
She wasn't that bad, she was just bland compared to the more colorful personality Emma has in the comic. Jones simply didn't play Emma as the snob she is.

The question is, is that the actor or directors fault.......or is it a little bit of both?

 

[exodus]

^

I don't remember a scene that had Charles & Mystique together in any of the three movies.

They didn't have too.
She tried to murder him using Cerebro in X-Men 1.
That's some gratitude for taking her in and caring for her all those years, huh?

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned...

...and, apparently, Mystique got scorned a lot, havin' to watch Xavier hit on women at the bar all the time, and then bein' rejected by him when she was blue, nude & feelin' vulnerable.

So her plan is to help murder him because of his personal preference in women from decades ago?
That doesn't make any sense, especially since their was no sexual innuendo or tension between them to imply any attraction.
That's not a scorned woman, that's a psycho.
I can't blame Charles for being morally and ethically sound in not wanting to see the women he grew up calling "sister" in the nude or beaten to death by the human public for being blue.
Mystique knew this too according to X-Men 1, her own parents tried to kill her for being born blue & nude.

 

[davejames]

- how they only made a half hearted attempt to get the '60s feel of the movie right; clothes, cars, horn-rimmed glasses and a groovy white sitting room aren't enough, and the other bits they attempted seemed superficial and inconsistently used.

I thought the movie did a pretty good job early on with the 60s setting, but once we were introduced to the decidedly un60s looking teens, that all went out the window.

And the way the Kennedy news footage was intercut just made the disconnect even larger in my mind. I didn't buy that this was the actual Cuban Missle Crisis we were watching for a second.

 

[TrekkieMonster]

- how they only made a half hearted attempt to get the '60s feel of the movie right; clothes, cars, horn-rimmed glasses and a groovy white sitting room aren't enough, and the other bits they attempted seemed superficial and inconsistently used.

I thought the movie did a pretty good job early on with the 60s setting, but once we were introduced to the decidedly un60s looking teens, that all went out the window.

And the way the Kennedy news footage was intercut just made the disconnect even larger in my mind. I didn't buy that this was the actual Cuban Missle Crisis we were watching for a second.

Agreed. It seemed like they were making a good effort in some regards, especially early on in the film. But, they seemed to just sort of let it go. I have to confess that I may have been a bit more critical of this aspect of the film than I might otherwise have been if we didn't have the likes of "Mad Men" and "A Single Man" to compare the efforts with. I think both of these do an admirable job of establishing that '60s "feel", and this may have led me to expect (hope for) more from FC in this regard. This also may have made what I saw as these stylistic inconsistencies seem all the more jarring to me.

 

[exodus]

- how they only made a half hearted attempt to get the '60s feel of the movie right; clothes, cars, horn-rimmed glasses and a groovy white sitting room aren't enough, and the other bits they attempted seemed superficial and inconsistently used.

I thought the movie did a pretty good job early on with the 60s setting, but once we were introduced to the decidedly un60s looking teens, that all went out the window.

And the way the Kennedy news footage was intercut just made the disconnect even larger in my mind. I didn't buy that this was the actual Cuban Missle Crisis we were watching for a second.

Agreed. It seemed like they were making a good effort in some regards, especially early on in the film. But, they seemed to just sort of let it go. I have to confess that I may have been a bit more critical of this aspect of the film than I might otherwise have been if we didn't have the likes of "Mad Men" and "A Single Man" to compare the efforts with. I think both of these do an admirable job of establishing that '60s "feel", and this may have led me to expect (hope for) more from FC in this regard. This also may have made what I saw as these stylistic inconsistencies seem all the more jarring to me.

Yes, good point.
As someone else stated too, why was there also no mention of the Civil Rights movement? You'd think Charles would be taking serious note of MLK and Malcolm X.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Part of the problem is Bryan Singer himself. He is a good filmmaker. However , he is not a "great" filmmaker. he's never hit one out of the park. Even X2 is held back but a sloppy "everyone goes to Boston" second act (What a crime is it to have Storm and Jean wait in an airplane for the script to remember that they are in the story.

But the mistake Singer makes here is similar to the mistake he made in Superman Returns.. yeah he didn't direct this, but in both cases he used the term "vague continuity" to describe how the various films fit together.

Thanks for screwing the audience, moron!.

 

[T'Baio]

I thought the 60's vibe was excellently done!

Outside of the mere production design, the film was largely shot like a movie from the 60's, and even scored like a movie from the 60's. The end credits were the last joy for me...I clapped when I saw them!

 

[T'Baio]

I thought the 60's vibe was excellently done! I think if they had pushed it much further, people would be complaining that "they beat you over the head" with the 60's vibe. You can't win.

Outside of the mere production design, the film was largely shot like a movie from the 60's, and even scored like a movie from the 60's. The end credits were the last joy for me...I clapped when I saw them!

 

[exodus]

Part of the problem is Bryan Singer himself. He is a good filmmaker. However , he is not a "great" filmmaker. he's never hit one out of the park.

Usual Suspects?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Part of the problem is Bryan Singer himself. He is a good filmmaker. However , he is not a "great" filmmaker. he's never hit one out of the park.

Usual Suspects?

Yeah, no shit!

Add to the fact that X2 has to be one of the best superhero movies of all time.