X-Men First Class
X-CELLENT:
X-Men: First Class boasts a core cast that any film company would
drool over if they were putting together the most high minded of
top-drawer dramas.
Any
comic book derived film that chooses to co-opt the Nazi purge of the
Warsaw Ghetto, the Cuban missile crisis and the American civil rights
movement into its plot line better have the smarts to do so
intelligently, respectfully, and with intentions nobler than just
throwing on a little faux-historical window dressing to impress the
geeks.
X Men:
First Class somehow gets away with all that – just – by being a
seriously quality bit of film-making, populated with a really
outstanding cast, and propelled forward by a script that is possibly
the best thought through this genre has ever had to work with.
Tasked
with getting his viewers through acres of back story, all to create a
credible creation myth for a trilogy of films, and a pack of
characters who simply refuse to admit their own terminal silliness
and go away, director Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass, Layer Cake) has
assembled a virtual arthouse super group of acting talent.
James
McAvoy is a likeable shoe-in as the young Professor Xavier, downing a
yard glass and chatting up the birds in a 1960s London pub, but
Michael Fassbender (Hunger) and Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) are
far more adventurous casting, and they reward Vaughn with a brace of
performances that are compelling and – towards the end at least –
genuinely poignant.
As
adversary to these three, Kevin Bacon finally gets to play the
Bond-ian super villain that he has surely wanted to be for his entire
career, and responds by dialling in a Josef Mengele inspired mutant
that is – in its more human moments – actually quite disturbing.
Throw
into the mix January Jones (Mad Men), Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man)
and the deeply-wonderful-at-all-times Oliver Platt, and you have a
core cast that any film company would drool over if they were putting
together the most high minded of top drawer dramas.
Which
is all well and good, and just the sort of thing that ageing film
critics get all excited about. But a comic book movie has got a
serious and unforgiving audience to please.
These
are established characters, with a massive fan base, and they have
been doing their thing in the comics and on screen for decades. Any
adaptation has to find a fine line between updating the personalities
and motifs of a flogged out brand, and not alienating or insulting
that brand's primary audience.
So,
setting most of the film in 1962 was a stroke of genius.
The
writers have free-reign to create these familiar characters from the
ground up, the very cool early-Bondish design is refreshingly
unfamiliar in this genre, and, as an added bonus, Emma Frost's mini
skirt and white boots ensemble looks a lot less silly here than it
will in the 21st century.
X Men:
First Class is just a damned good film. The set pieces are
appropriately epic and well staged, the cinematography – from John
Mathieson (Gladiator, Robin Hood) – is gorgeous, the design and
look of the thing are perfect, and that cast is a dream.
This is
the best franchise reboot since 2009's Star Trek, and probably the
best sociopaths-in-spandex movie since Batman Begins. Loved it.