Two trailers in and I have noticed a vehement hatred of X-Men: First Class appearing on this, and other sites and have wondered what the problems are. I am a keen X-Men fan myself and I have to be honest that the trailers thus far have filled me with hope for the franchise. Albeit this is a double edged sword as I would be the first signature on the petition to return the rights to Marvel.
It is not all rosy, there are a few very clear mistakes and I'll deal with these first, as First Class bashing is very much a sport around here:
Taking the moniker of "First Class" when it is clearly NOT the first class that we are all aware of is an error on the part of Fox.
When I first heard about the film I expected - nee - hoped to see Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Iceman and Jean. A new set of mutants was not expected - however it is understandable why it's been done. The core fan base are familiar with both the comic book and movie incarnations of these characters and I think we can all admit we as fans can get rather stand-offish when the their movie counterparts don't match how we know the characters we know and love. Hugh Jackmans astonishing performance as Wolverine protected him from the "too tall, too good-looking" discussions but I remember them when promotional images were originally released.
Having the comic book fans doing this is bad enough, but imagine having to contend with the general theatre-going public having the same attitude - "That’s not how Angel is"...."Well if Angel was a teenager in X3 how is he there in the 60s?". We of course answer "Well actually he wasn't right in the first place". But you don't want to alienate all the fans of the cinematic version as ultimately - they outnumber us and these films need to make money! Do that and you effectively need to completely reboot the franchise. Maybe it will work - we'll have the wait for Spiderman to see, but I suspect that it will need to be even more spectacular to make you completely forget what has gone before.
The next thing to address is the choice of Mutants. I think Xavier and Magneto went without saying really. I've always been a fan of the Hellfire club and it will be great to see it as an organisation on TV. Kevin Bacon really is an underrated actor as far as I am concerned and I'm sure he will do an excellent job of Sebastian Shaw. He looks different to the comic book version but more importantly I feel is whether he captures the scheming malevolent force that is Shaw. As for the odd appearance in the trailer things have to change when they go on screen. The character standing there unflinchingly taking a pounding would simply not visually work. The choice of Mystique, I think IS a mistake. I might be wrong, but her presence does nothing to link the series forward than the presence of a Changeling or a Morph wouldn't do. Having a mutant by the name of Havok - does it NEED to be Havok? Do they need to completely adjust a characters history when I'm sure that there must be another energy flinging mutant to choose from? Azazel as a lackey of the Hellfire club? I hope there is more to this than we can know from 2 trailers. Beast I don’t mind, as the age difference can be explained between the 60s and the 2000s. I perhaps would have preferred a little bit more exposition as Hank McCoy before transformation but it’s a personal thing. Even then, they have tried taking the approach of selecting a lesser known mutant in Riptide and legions of fans aren't happy with this approach either! Either way these are characters with a smaller profile for both the general public and comic book fans and so more amenable to character adjustments.
There is no defense for those appalling posters.
OK, enough of the bashing – what’s good?
Both McAvoy and Fassbender are excellent actors and will bring significant gravitas to their respective roles. I am mildly peeved to see Xavier neither bald nor confined to a wheelchair but it does get ol’ chrome dome into the action rather than as the strategist we’ve seen previously. It allows for the character interplay between Xavier and Eric to extend beyond a single room and out into the world.
Matthew Vaughn is a director of exceptional quality who has managed to juggle a career with a few different genres successfully navigated but all with a degree of the fantastic: Lock Stock, Stardust and Kick-Ass.
Real comic book costumes! Am I the only one who is pleased to see the Yellow/Black jumpsuits (slightly changed from the original spandex!) appearing, to see the influence of Banshees original costume on the wings, or Magneto in Scarlet? Emma Frost looking like Emma Frost but with a 60s twist to fit in with the films setting. Being able to pull these things off is surely a good sign.
Occasionally I wonder if I’m the only one who has watched the trailers. The action looks fantastic! The costumes are spot on and some of the sets look amazing. The 1960s setting adds a nice twist, and a throwback to the original X-booksl
We haven’t got that long to find out either.
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