Reviews by Matt

It has been 10 years since the first “X-Men” movie. Take a moment and let that sink in. Maybe that means more to me than it does to you, but it means that the comic book frenzy has gone on for the better part of a decade. It is not going to stop anytime soon. There are a lot more coming out, some recent movies, like 2002’s “Spider-man,” are being rebooted. As long as they keep making money, studios will keep making them.

Now we have “X-Men: First Class.” It is not a reboot of the franchise, but a prequel to the events of “X-Men.” The focus of the movie is on the relationship between Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Eric Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) who will one day become Professor X and Magento, two rivals with a great amount of respect for one another. They are brought together in order to stop Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) a mutant who absorbs energy and wants to start World War 3 by getting the United States and Russia to go to war.

McAvory and Fassbender are the heart of this movie. Stripped down it is about the relationship between the future Professor X and Magneto. The audience (presumably) knows what the future holds for these two and that makes it all the more powerful to watch these two become friends and work together. Both McAvoy and Fassbender deliver amazing performances and prove why they should and will be bigger stars.

I do have some problems with the movie, despite how much I loved it. Jennifer Lawrence, who plays a young Mystique, is wasted. Her character is given nothing to do. I am still excited to see her in “The Hunger Games,” but this did nothing to help. She is basically reduced to saying the line “Mutant and proud” a lot. She did a fine job with what she was given, but someone with her talent should have had more to work with.

The other problem I have is that the other mutants were not that exciting or interesting. They were basically glorified background characters. There was so little development of them that I could not care about them. Since the focus was on Xavier and Eric, these characters who suffered. During the final big battle, I was more invested in what was happening with Charles and Eric than with the other members of the team. I had a hard time caring about their fates. No tears would have been shed if they were killed or sacrificed for the greater good.

The action scenes were pretty good, but they were few and far between. This is really a character piece masquerading as a comic book movie. I can understand why some people would not like it, but I loved it. I was a bit worried about it, but it delivered.

Just a quick note before I end this review. This movie has the best use of the one f-word rule in any PG-13 movie ever. To say more than that would spoil something awesome.

I look forward to seeing this story continue. Seeing super hero movies as period pieces is an interesting idea (look for another one this summer with “Capitan America”). This movie breaths new life into a tired franchise and the potential is there for some great stories.

9 out of 10
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some sexual content including brief partial nudity and language.
132 min