X-Men: First Class

Let me preface this by saying that I am a very big fan of the first two X-Men films (the ones directed by Bryan Singer), and to some degree, the franchise as a whole. The night I saw the first X-Men film is forever locked into my memory as a huge moment in my childhood. X2 is one of my favorite superhero movies, possibly tied for my favorite overall. I haven't been a fan of either of the X-Men films after X2 (X-Men 3 and Origins: Wolverine were, to put it mildly, garbage), but I will always love the X-Men at their best. First Class, being produced by Bryan Singer, had all the potential in the world to return to the high standards of quality seen in those earlier films—or at the very least, one would expect it to respect those films. How odd is it, then, that First Class seems in some ways to do the opposite?

X-Men: First Class is a blending-together of the scripts for two separate X-Men films, one being a Magneto/Xavier origin story and the other being a film about the "first class" of young X-Men. Apparently one of these scripts was very good and the other wasn't. The Magneto/Xavier moments in First Class are largely good, while the moments with the teen trainees are largely boring.

James MacAvoy and Michael Fassbender are absolutely perfect as the young Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr. Their performances are by far the strongest aspect of the film as a whole. Perhaps wisely, they take their cues more from the comics' portrayal of the characters than the past films', but without contradicting the film versions either. It's rather masterful, really. Their story isn't as good as their acting, but it's good enough for the most part. If there's any aspect of First Class that definitely deserves to be held up as one of the best elements of the series, it's these two characters.

Unfortunately, most of the other characters are either useless or ill-portrayed. Nearly all of the other X-Men are, at best, C-list characters that frankly don't deserve to be part of the so-called first class. Instead of classic characters like Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, or Iceman, we get Cyclops' kid brother (who is somehow older in this continuity), a different character coincidentally named Angel (whose most notable trait is that she's a stripper with an attitude), Banshee (an Irish kid with screaming powers who we are given zero reason to care about), and a random guy named Darwin who is almost literally in only one scene before dying. The only one of the teens that's particularly compelling is Hank McCoy/Beast, who it should be noted is the only member of the team that was actually part of the first class in the comics. His story actually works very well, even if his blue furry makeup very much does not.

The villains of the story are varied. Kevin Bacon's Sebastian Shaw is largely very good, and a rather fitting villain for the story. The presence of the demon-mutant Azazel is also rather welcome, as he fills the "super-cool silent evil henchman" role well while also referencing continuity (Azazel being Nightcrawler's father). The other villains, however, are terribly bland. Riptide's only use seems to be generating badly-rendered CG tornadoes and filling camera space next to other more important characters, while Emma Frost—a huge character from the comics—is so badly-acted and -written here that it's painful for an X-Men fan to watch. Emma in the comics (as well as in the various animated series) is a cold, commanding, brilliant, and powerful character. Emma in First Class is essentially Sebastian Shaw's whore and little else.

The biggest issue with First Class is how it handles continuity with the other films. Normally, continuity shouldn't be such a big issue, seeing as how, at the very least, the film should be able to stand on its own terms, irrelevant of how it fits with everything else. However, in this case the continuity is central to the story and can't be ignored. Many elements of First Class directly call out continuity, setting up characters and events precisely to line up with the other films. A couple of actors from past films even make cameo appearances. There is no way that this is meant to be a "reboot" of any kind; this is a prequel, plain and simple. The problem is that while it definitely wants to be a prequel, First Class outright contradicts so much continuity that the emotional ties it draws to the past films actually hurt the experience more than help it. Apparently the reason almost no classic X-Men characters were used in the film is that chronologically they would have been too young for the era in which the film is set, requiring a different set of characters. Yet other elements of the story seem not to care about things like ages, sequences of events, etc. Here's a list of some of the biggest continuity contradictions:

-In X2, the main threat revolves around the fact that Magneto helped build Cerebro and is capable of building it again from memory. In First Class, Hank builds it and Magneto knows nothing about it.
-In both X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Xavier is shown as an older man (in either the 1970s or the 1980s) able to walk, yet we see him paralyzed in 1962.
-In the first three X-Men films, it's said that Xavier and Magneto met as teenagers and spent years working together. In First Class they meet as adults, work together for a several months at most, then part ways—notably before they meet Jean Grey in the prologue of The Last Stand.
-While not technically a continuity error, it seems odd that Mystique and Charles grew up together for eighteen years as brother and sister, yet this is never referenced at any point during the other films. Given how incredibly close First Class's Mystique is portrayed to the trilogy's version of the character, it seems very ill-fitting to make her Xavier's sister. Why would Xavier repeatedly mention his close friendship with Magneto that only lasted a few months, but never reference Mystique being his adopted sibling?

Ignoring the contradictions in continuity for a moment, perhaps the thing that disappoints me most about First Class is that it handles many important parts of the X-Men mythos so poorly. As mentioned before, the "first class" of X-Men are mostly poor, useless characters that do not live up to the X-Men name. Charles and Erik don't have a long, legendary partnership; they barely know each other, really. "Magneto" is a nickname given to Erik by a bunch of rowdy partying teenagers. Emma and Riptide shouldn't have even been allowed to grace the screen.

Now, as for scoring the movie, I'm going to try to remain more objective. As an X-Men fan, it's hard to see First Class as anything but a disappointment with some high moments. However, putting aside my personal bias, it is at least a pretty decent film. The two leads and the main villain are very good, the plot is good, and production values are decent enough.

In terms of personal enjoyment, I can't give First Class anything more than a four out of ten. On a somewhat more objective scale, it probably deserves something closer to a six.

6/10