Despite being a monumental disaster, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was instrumental in shaping the future of the X-Men film franchise. It’s underwhelming critical and commercial performance meant that the planned ‘Origins’ series was scrapped and needed to be reshaped as production had already begun on the next film in the series. The next film was planned to be an origins story for Professor X, but rather than follow the same formula as Origins: Wolverine the story shifted into something with a wider scope to become a series reboot.
Auschwitz 1944, a teenage Erik Lehnsherr is separated from his mother and his abilities for being able to control metal become known. He is noticed by Klaus Schmidt (Kevin Bacon), a Nazi officer who trains Erik to control his abilities and become even more powerful.
Meanwhile in New York, a young Charles Xavier meets Raven, a girl with blue coloured skin who can change her appearance at will.
Eighteen years pass and Charles (James McAvoy) graduates from Oxford with a doctorate in genetics, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) lives with Charles as together they try to understand more about mutants. CIA agent Moira MacTaggart (Rose Byrne) is tracking Colonel Hendry (Glenn Morshower) as she believes he may be involved in the movement of nuclear missiles closer to Soviet territory, in effect setting the U.S and Russia down a path that will lead to nuclear war. With the help of Charles, Moira discovers that Hendry is in cahoots with Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a mutant capable of manipulating power. In a failed assassination attempt on Shaw, Charles is introduced to Erik (Michael Fassbender), and the two join forces to assemble and train a group of mutants to locate Shaw and stop him from starting World War III.
Auschwitz 1944, a teenage Erik Lehnsherr is separated from his mother and his abilities for being able to control metal become known. He is noticed by Klaus Schmidt (Kevin Bacon), a Nazi officer who trains Erik to control his abilities and become even more powerful.
Meanwhile in New York, a young Charles Xavier meets Raven, a girl with blue coloured skin who can change her appearance at will.
Eighteen years pass and Charles (James McAvoy) graduates from Oxford with a doctorate in genetics, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) lives with Charles as together they try to understand more about mutants. CIA agent Moira MacTaggart (Rose Byrne) is tracking Colonel Hendry (Glenn Morshower) as she believes he may be involved in the movement of nuclear missiles closer to Soviet territory, in effect setting the U.S and Russia down a path that will lead to nuclear war. With the help of Charles, Moira discovers that Hendry is in cahoots with Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a mutant capable of manipulating power. In a failed assassination attempt on Shaw, Charles is introduced to Erik (Michael Fassbender), and the two join forces to assemble and train a group of mutants to locate Shaw and stop him from starting World War III.
X-Men: First Class was the breath of fresh air the series desperately needed after the underwhelming X-Men: The Last Stand, and the atrocious Origins: Wolverine. It’s very much a back-to-basics X-Men film in the same style as the 2001 original, but this time telling the tale of how Charles and Erik became Professor X and Magneto respectively. Being a total reboot of the series, it also is given the flexibility to approach the story from a different angle, with backstories being slightly different to how they were told in the original trilogy for characters like Mystique, Beast (Nicholas Hoult), and of course Xavier and Lehnsherr. Yet the changes aren’t so drastic that people only familiar with the original X-Men films won’t be confused as the discrepancies are small in nature but allow for massive divergences later down the line.
Considering how incredible the performances of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were for Xavier and Lehnsherr in the original trilogy, it was certainly going to be a tough job living up to such high expectations for the characters. But McAvoy and Fassbender are not only incredible in the roles but equal the standard set by Stewart and McKellen. It’s strange how for so long it seemed like Stewart and McKellen were the only two people capable of playing those roles, but yet First Class managed to find two other people clearly born to play these roles.
Lawrence also delivers a standout performance as Mystique, giving the character a much-needed voice, considering she didn’t do a huge amount in the original films. Her chemistry with Nicholas Hoult is also fantastic and gives both of them some humanity and really helps to emotionally anchor the film as they both contend with the difficulties of having extraordinary abilities but will never visibly fit in with society.
Bacon also delivers a strong performance as Shaw, though he’s not anywhere near as intimidating a villain as either McKellen’s Magneto or Stryker from X-Men 2. A shame too because I feel that falls down to the script rather than the performance itself, and it’s clear to see how Shaw’s character influences the person Magneto becomes in the future.
Considering how incredible the performances of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were for Xavier and Lehnsherr in the original trilogy, it was certainly going to be a tough job living up to such high expectations for the characters. But McAvoy and Fassbender are not only incredible in the roles but equal the standard set by Stewart and McKellen. It’s strange how for so long it seemed like Stewart and McKellen were the only two people capable of playing those roles, but yet First Class managed to find two other people clearly born to play these roles.
Lawrence also delivers a standout performance as Mystique, giving the character a much-needed voice, considering she didn’t do a huge amount in the original films. Her chemistry with Nicholas Hoult is also fantastic and gives both of them some humanity and really helps to emotionally anchor the film as they both contend with the difficulties of having extraordinary abilities but will never visibly fit in with society.
Bacon also delivers a strong performance as Shaw, though he’s not anywhere near as intimidating a villain as either McKellen’s Magneto or Stryker from X-Men 2. A shame too because I feel that falls down to the script rather than the performance itself, and it’s clear to see how Shaw’s character influences the person Magneto becomes in the future.
The film is given a lot of time to breathe and develop its characters too. First Class trusts that you won’t get bored waiting for the next action sequence and so has considerably fewer than any other X-Men film to date, but they are all more spectacular than any previous film. The final battle in particular off the coast of Cuba is phenomenal and potentially the best action sequence in the entire franchise.
X-Men: First Class is first class entertainment in the superhero genre. It revitalises the X-Men brand, has some of the best casting choices to really bring out the nuances of each character, and delivers some top-notch action sequences. It all seemed too good to be true, but thankfully what was to come next proved that First Class was no one hit wonder.
X-Men: First Class is first class entertainment in the superhero genre. It revitalises the X-Men brand, has some of the best casting choices to really bring out the nuances of each character, and delivers some top-notch action sequences. It all seemed too good to be true, but thankfully what was to come next proved that First Class was no one hit wonder.