X-Men: First Class first view

Okay. Okay. I said I wasn't going to watch this movie but I ended up watching it anyway. Here are my thoughts on the movie. The article will broken up into two parts. The first being a review and the second just me babbling about what could have made the movie a little better.

To get things started I was pretty surprised about this film. I still don't like the title though X-Men: First Class it really should have been X-Men Origins: Magneto. The plot revolved around Magneto primarily although that it isn't a bad thing considering Michael Fassbender did a pretty good job portraying his character. I prefer Fassbender's Magneto over Ian Mckellan his take on the character just came off as more bad ass. He showed more range with the character and what he is capable of. James Mcavoy did a great job on-screen too although I never really imagined Charles using pick up lines on women in bars. I felt that the two leading stars had good chemistry on-screen and played well off of each other. Kevin Bacon was cooler than I expected him to be as Shaw. I do hope they find some way for Shaw to return later in the series. He was pretty likable as a character. The boat scene with Shaw and the grenade was pretty cool.

The secondary characters do feel one-sided though the villains more so than the X-Men. The secondary characters don’t really get that much screen time compared to Charles , Erik and Shaw. My ratings for how well the characters turned out.

Charles : 5 out of 5
Erik : 5 out of 5
Shaw : 5 out of 5


Beast : 4 out 5
Havoc : 3 out 5
Mystique : 4 out of 5
Banshee : 2 out of 5
Angel : 1 out 5
Darwin : 3 out of 5

Emma Frost : 3 out of 5
Riptide: 1 out of 5
Azazel : 2 out of 5

Banshee annoyed the hell out of me I got to say him and Angel are the weakest parts of this movie. The reason being I didn't know what was up with the actor’s voice. Not the lack of an Irish accent but the way he said his lines just came off as a southern accent at times. It might of been written that way because of the character's vocal powers maybe. Angel she was pretty weak with the all "I’m a woman angst" and the lamest super powers in history. I'm pretty sure they could have found another flying character to put into this movie besides her. Beast, Mystique and Havoc were pretty good in their roles as well. Though Mystique came off as rather useless in battle compared to how she is in the earlier X-men films. Now lets talk about Darwin. He needed more screen time all the time he used his powers he was either goofing off or failing. The secondary villains were a let down but that is expected from X-Men movies. Emma Frost had the most lines and screen time of the secondary villains. They have limited lines or in the case of Riptide absolutely none at all. Azazel could have been better I’ll just leave it at that.

The special effects were good but sometimes it felt kind of strange. Beast's transformation was one of the better scenes but afterwards he did look pretty goofy throughout the rest of the movie. Still it is a step up from the effects for Beast in X-Men : The Last Stand. Havoc's powers needs a little adjusting color-wise. Emma Frost walking chandelier diamond form needs to go back to the drawing board. Angel spitting fireballs thing just looked pretty bad. I'm not too found of the character so I may be a little bit too harsh. Shaw's powers looked goofy at times but I think he made up for it with his action scenes. The costumes for the characters were pretty good and I'm glad it wasn't leather uniforms this time. I’m not sure what was with Azazel’s plastic-like hair.

Overall it was a pretty good movie a step in the right direction for the X-Men franchise. Hopefully the sequel will be worthwhile. My hopes are that Wolverine stays out of the next movie entirely. His cameo was pretty funny in the movie by the way. The ending scene was great too. On a scale out of 5. I think I would give it a 4 out of 5.


Now let’s see what could have made it better. To begin calling it something besides X-Men: First Class would be a step in the right direction. A movie titled that should actually have the first team of X-Men that being Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman , Beast and Angel. Not focusing on that what would make this particular story better. Beefing up some of the secondary character’s dialog and writing wouldn’t have hurt. Focusing more on the three main characters would have made the story stronger by not having the focus being pulled away from the main plot and being refocused on the secondary characters which just seem to be there for the sake of it being a team movie. Fully replacing Angel with another character would have been good too. Definitely give Darwin more screen time and an actual battle scene.

As far as special effects go improving Beast’s look would have improved the movie. Having Havoc’s powers look closer to the comic book would have been cool just it being blue would drastically improve it. It has to be red so the kiddies can see that he is related to Cyclops apparently. Improve the combat sequences really. It’s a team movie have them fight as a team not everyone go their own separate ways all the time in a combat situation. None of the previous X-men movies have captured that to date. Most of the other movies involved throwing Wolverine at the problem.

Hopefully the next movie will have another good villain that we haven't seen before. Thanks for reading my review any comments are welcomed especially ones on pointers for articles. I was wrong about not wanting to see the movie. Still though I think it would have been better received as X-Men Origins: Magneto as far as not getting flack for it not having the original first class of students but that is just my opinion what is yours?