X-Men: First Class

Surprise, surprise just when I thought the X-men franchise was played out X-Men: First Class delivers a superior film with a complex plot that is focused on character just as much as it is focused on special mutant powers and computer generated special effects.

The film is a prequel that tells the origin story of Professor X and how he formed the X-men and started his school for gifted children. It stars James McAvoy as Charles Xavier/Professor X and Micheal Fassbender as Eric Lehnsherr/ Magneto and the movie is primarily a story a bout their relationship. The film explores some of the same themes of the Star Wars films as Charles attempts to turn Eric away from the dark side of his mutant nature.

The film opens in 1944 Poland and we see the same scene from the Nazi concentration camp that opened the original X-men film. The movie jumps to Westchester where we meet a young Charles Xavier and the mutant girl Raven / Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). The plot moves along swiftly, advancing in time as it bounces around the globe. Eric is in search of the Nazi doctor who killed his mother. Charles is in Oxford completing his education. As a young man we see Charles is not above using his telepathic powers to pick up a girl.

The Nazi doctor Dr. Schmidt is played by Kevin Bacon and he is the films primary antagonist. He adopts the alias Sebastian Shaw and he has brought together a band of mutants, called The Hellfire Club, and has inserted himself into the serious tensions between the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union right before the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

CIA agent Moira Mac Taggart (Rose Byrne) becomes aware of Shaw's band of mutants and seeks out one of the world's leading experts on genetic mutation, Charles Xavier, to help her understand what they are up against. Xavier, Mac Taggart and Raven join up with The Man in Black (Oliver Platt) a CIA agent and head of Division X, a government agency.

The movie details the banding together of other mutants in order to stop Shaw from starting a nuclear war by manipulating both sides in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

While the film offers a multitude of mutant characters most of them are realistic drawn and seem like real people rather than just 2 dimensional super heroes. The plot is complex and yet easy to follow with just the right balance of drama, action and humor. Director Matthew Vaughn really tapped directly into the spirit of the X-men comics while bringing some freshness to the whole super-hero movie genre.

McAvoy and Fassbender are at the center of the film and each of them give strong dramatic performances that the film needs to maintain the dramatic tension of the film.

Visually the CGI artist do a great job of keeping all the super-hero action grounded with a sense of realism. 

I had very low expectations for this movie and was surprised and delighted by how good it was. Looks like the X-men series has gotten an official re-boot from Fox. Expect a sequel to follow in 2013 or 2014.

At The Movie House rating ***1/2 stars