"X-Men : First Class" is First Rate
(CBS) Director Matthew Vaughn does what he was charged to do : successfully revive the X-Men series, bring back some much needed spark and add a healthy dose of star power to the Marvel comic book franchise. And, addi a whole league of fans while he's at it.
Originally a movie series created a decade ago, "X-Men : First Class" takes us back to the beginning, the origin of the X-Men, showing audiences how Professor Xavier and Magneto first met.
The film reprises much-talked-about images from the original film's opening scene - outside the barbed fence of a Nazi death camp. Erik Lehnsherr is a Polish child torn from his parents by Nazis in 1944 and dragged towards the entrance of the camp.
In a flash of rage, he stretches out his hand and, harnessing the powers of his mind, twists the gates at the entrance. Watching from afar is a subversive Nazi official, who seeks to use the boy's power's for his personal gain. In a brutal scene, he has the boy dragged into his office and kills his mother when the child is unable to manipulate a coin on the table. After witnessing the boy's fury, he takes him under his wing to "develop" the young child's latent abilities.
Fast forward two decades and Lehnsherr (Fassbender) is all grown up, living during the rebellious '60s. He has honed his ability to bend metal with his mind to a new level and now he's out for revenge - intent on hunting down his mother's killer. The killer, meanwhile, resurfaces after the war with a new alias - Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) - and an all new accent to go along with his persona.
In England at the time is Professor Xavier (James McAvoy ), a young , not-so-nerdy newly minted Oxford genetics instructor with an eye for pretty women and a novel pick-up line.
He's telepathic. The only person who knows his secret is Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), a young girl with a unique "genetic mutation" of her own that allows her to shape-shift. The two met as children and the professor took her under his wing.
The film is cleverly set during the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, which makes for an intriguing, if sometimes frenetic, plot and sets the stage for all the shenanigans these unruly, headstrong "mutants" plunge headlong into.
The action goes into overdrive when Professor X is called upon to assist the military in a top-secret mission against the Russians. He recruits an "army" of mutants, each with a predominant genetic mutation that gives him superpowers. The group forms an uneasy alliance and after Professor X saves Fassbender's life, the two become friends. Fassbender earns the name Magneto.
Fassbender is exceptional as an enraged young man, out for revenge. Flashes of brilliance alternate with flashes of cold hard steel to give us an insight into the fire that rages within his Magneto, as he and the brilliant professor devise a plan to go after Shaw and bring him to justice.
One scene, in which he walks into a Swiss banker's office with a bar of Nazi gold, is riveting. With all his panache and ability to morph easily into other languages (German and French) Fassbender makes you think you're watching a really good Bond film, not just another super-hero comic flick. He is the real super star of the film.
Bacon delivers a believable performance as the Nazi operative, who reinvents himself. He had to learn several accents for the part and, though not as convincingly able to switch over into German as Fassbender, he does a respectable job. Along for the ride is his bedazzling sidekick, January Jones, in skin tight 1960s go-go girl attire and icy/hot demeanor.
Both James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence also deliver strong performances. He, as the brain of the X-Men operation, and she, as a conflicted young woman trying to decide between hiding her nature or embracing her real form. The other X-persons add the needed mix of entertainingly bizarre characters, all pulled together by their weird yet interesting differences.
At a little over 130 minutes in length, the film would have done well with some streamlining, but I, for one, was thrilled with the decision not to jump on the 3-D bandwagon. It wasn't needed and it wasn't missed. The action sequences were compelling enough on their own and the inevitable showdown between Erik and Shaw is pretty amazing.
The stage is definitely set for a follow-up to this prequel if the audience and ticket sales demand it. For once, I hope they do