Sunday, June 05, 2011

X-Men: First Class

Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class is so good, it's easy to overlook the inconsistencies with the legendary comic book series, and the problems that occur with continuity.

And there are lots of those issues: Mystique was never a childhood friend of Professor X; most of the students recruited for the team were not part of the original team in the 1960s; Sebastian Shaw, played wonderfully by Kevin Bacon, seems to be a composite of several comic book characters, and . . .

Well, you get the picture. There are lots of issues in this film that might bug some comic book geeks, and even annoy others.

But not me.

The X-Men storyline has always been about social issues. Those
-isms that create a lot of stress and strife, and the problematic nature of relationships. It's my opinion that the greatest aspect of X-Men was the complicated relationship between Professor X and Magneto: two strong, brilliant leaders who desire the same outcome, but hold perspectives on how to achieve it.


With a running time of more than 2 hours, Vaughn's movie runs long. But it's a necessary length, designed to allow the relationship between Xavier and Magneto to develop. The audience comes to appreciate their love and respect for each other, making the rift that occurs at the conclusion powerful.



This X-Men prequel lives up to the hype generated. It's also a worthy member of the X-Men movie franchise, the only comic book movie series that's never disappointed comic books geeks. Like me.

2 comments:

Ian Casselberry said...

What I enjoyed most from this one was the sense of fun that's been lacking in the other X-Men films. (Don't get me wrong; I loved the first two.)

That's not to say that the story doesn't contain any drama or suspense. But there was appreciation for lighter moments or just a funny line.

And I think this fits in well with the other movies rather seamlessly. Does it follow the comics' continuity? No, but the X-Men comics are hopelessly cluttered and complicated now. The movies' continuity is much simpler to follow, and still stays true to these characters.

I'm already waiting for the next one.

primalscreamx said...

Didn't disappoint? Nah, I hated the third film and didn't love Wolverine. Still, this looks right and the X-men are one of the worst books for screaming continuity problems created by loopy writers who should know better. The things they've done to my beloved Nightcrawler over the years...
I can live with the adjustments. Blame Cable or Bishop or X-man or maybe Kittie Pride from the future or Nimrod or... you may be seeing a pattern here.
I'm looking forward to seeing the film.