122, X-Men: First Class

Prequel time once more and this time we get the 5th movie from the X-Men (including the side story, Wolverine)

Stepping back in time, this story covers the making and rising of Professor X and Magneto from kids, understanding their powers through University and then, in the face of adversity meeting up to work hand in hand with the CIA as an elite Mutant Special Ops outfit against a sole ex Nazi / Mutant with his own band of unique beings.

Lets get my immediate issues out of the way - after watching this I went back and watched "Last Stand" on DVD and immediately noticed some poor inconsistencies from the end of "First Class" and the beginning of "Last Stand".  I wont spoil anything for you but First Class ends with some definitive story lines being set up which are kind of undermined by the 3rd installment.

Then there is Wolverine, Yes he appears and has the best 3 words in the whole movie which could easily have happen as at the end of Wolverine he loses all previous memories and Professor X arrives to save the rescued kids after he takes the bullet so no concerns there.

In First Class there is lifelong association between Raven (Mystique) and Charles X, something quite left out in the other 3 movies and whats good is that a number of characters of "older" age get their early beginnings fully explained, namely Beast & Mystique.  We also meet a few other mutants and the one that passed me by was a brilliant performance by Jason Flyming as Azazel - I would never have guessed!

The story is quite drawn out - its good, don't get me wrong but the movie itself is extremely wordy.  The action scenes are brilliantly done but as most of the movie is about self discovery and training they are staggered few and far between.

Kevin Bacon as the nasty Mr Shaw is quite spine chilling as the Nazi Dr and then later in the movie, reinvented as a dastardly warlord commands quite an on screen presence with his own band of Mutants setting up the scene nicely for Magneto to take over - after a few old grudges are laid to rest.

I was hoping for a bit more action, a few more battles and  bad guys with powers that would rock the multiplex and although there are there (in part) this movie is more an explanation to the battle lines being drawn between good and evil and it does so with script rather than punch.

That does not mean its not a good movie, if like me you are easily drawn into all Marvel & DC movies then as an X-Men fan you cant afford to miss it.  it does what it sets out to do brilliantly and you really get the feeling of where Eric & Charles are coming from and their aspirations behind their own definitions of whats right and wrong.  Like Batman reinvention with a darker, more mysterious and less jovial Batman taking to the screens this could easily set up for a new batch of X-Men remakes but the others are not that bad and a bit more continuity should have been thought through to make it really fit nicely in with 1,2 & 3.

That aside though - look out for Hugh Jackmans cameo and chuckle along as the rest of us did.

First Class?  Well, maybe not on the action stakes but if you want to know how the Beast became a blue hairball, Why Mystique chose not to cover up, how she came to side with Magneto and most importantly how Cerebro was conceived then this answers all your questions.

for Fans its a must and there is still another 40ish years to cover between this and X-Men 1 if they choose to do another prequel sequel?  if that makes sense.

See this if..............................................you want all your questions answered!