X-Men: First Class Review!

A lot happened to both Bryan Singer and the X-Men franchise since they split, seven years ago. An XMFC proves to me that they never should have been apart.

Sure, I know it was directed by Matthew Vaughn, and by no means I´m implying that he was just some kind of pawn for Singer, Kick-Ass is good evidence of that. He brings this stylish sixties feel to it that brings back a vibe of the old school Bond movies, but without ever feeling like something old and dated, in spite of being a period piece.

But there´s no ignoring the hand that Singer gave to his own X-flicks, the one that started a new age of respect for the comic book movie subgenre. Like maybe only Nolan with his Batman movies, Singer brings you the fantastic, exciting elements of the comic book world, but you never feel like you´re seeing something "comic booky" in the negative sense. It´s relentlessly no-nonsense, there´s very little room for broad humor, all acting is grounded in reality, action doesn´t upstage storytelling, a lesson Brett Ratner and Gavin Hood failed to emulate in their efforts.

And for once a Fox comic book movie didn´t feel like a big chunk of the story was left in the editing room.

Like all X-Men movies, being an ensamble means some characters are given more room to shine than others, but the whole movie is structured around the friendship turned rivalry between Charles and Erik. McAvoy and Fassbender make the characters their own, without ever trying to make an impression of master thespians Stewart and McKellen. One can argue even that Magneto has the main character arc of the story, a man who manages to evolve from unfocused anger and pain to a powerful fighter and leader, but never finds peace. It´s also heartbreaking to see a Mystique that went from desperation to fit in to feeling some acceptance for who she was to then become Magneto´s sexy spy and fighter.

The action and FX find a nice balance between fantastic and plausible. It has the most believable comic book aerial battle since Iron Man´s dog fight with jets.

There is, however, the question of whether this will interest non-comic book fans. Much like the SW prequels, this feels like a chapter of a story whose outcome we all know. The threat of the movie also feels like a bit of a rehash of the first movie, with a mutant seeking to extinct humankind in other to make the "next stage of evolution" take over more rapidly.

In spite of that, I gotta say this is my second favorite X-Men movie, only behind X2. Of all the superhero movies of this year, this was the one I had the most reservations about, and turned out to be my favorite so far. These arguments between fanboys of different franchises protecting their bias, or nitpicky complaints about comics canon accuracy have become so boring, irrelevant and dated I barely participate of them anymore. What matters is we´re gonna get a bunch of superhero movies this summer. And it looks like they may be all awesome.

RATING: 8 OUT OF TEN