Empire Review X-Men: First Class What's their verdict?

Here are a few excerpts from the 3* review by Empire's Dan Jolin. To read it in its entirety follow this link http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136807

It is a strange world we live in where an X-Men movie without Wolverine turns out to be better than a Wolverine movie without X-Men. Although, that really says more about the awfulness of Fox’s first ‘Origins’ story (a spin-off with prequel DNA) than the brilliance of its latest (a prequel with mild retcon tendencies). Still, we should be heartened that, with the help of Brit genre-sharpeners Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (who gleefully bruised the comic-book movie’s well-toned posterior with last year’s Kick-Ass), the X-franchise is back on the tracks laid 11 years ago by Bryan Singer. Even if they do only head towards the point where Singer first laid them.

Vaughn and Goldman prove a suitably bad influence on the franchise. This is easily the most brutal X-Men movie yet, pushing the rating to Dark Knight levels with some pretty raw violence. One superb sequence finds Jason Flemyng’s devilish teleporter Azazel revealing an especially nasty way of using his powers (think vertically).

The absence from the action of everyone’s favourite adamantium-clawed, cigar-gnawing semi-psycho isn’t too keenly felt, even given the more adult shadings. This is primarily because Fassbender’s Magneto more than capably fills the Wolvie-shaped hole.

In fact, nothing really lasts that long in X-Men: First Class, and that is its biggest weaknesses. It is so single-mindedly plot-driven that it whips along at too brisk a pace, rushing through scenes to an end point which feels too neat, too wrapped up, too contrived for a story which still has at least 40 years to go before we get to X-Men. It’s here that you really catch the scent of compromise, feel the pressures on the film-makers (also evidenced in a few too many disappointing FX moments — and don’t get us started on what they’ve done to Beast) to meet their release-date deadline.

A more steadily paced, character-driven story which focuses more on the Xavier/Lehnsherr relationship would have made for a much, much stronger entry in the X-canon. Who cares about all those kids with powers that are just slightly different variations on what we’ve seen in the series already, when you’ve got these guys in your movie?

Verdict
All you’d expect from an X-Men film (or spin-off, or prequel), but not all you’d hope for. It smacks of rush and compromise, but there’s thankfully enough to make you feel optimistic about the series’ future once more.

3 out of 5 stars