Topic: X-Men: First Class

[Dragonfire]

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect with X-Men: First Class, but I did want to see the movie. 

The movie is sort of a prequel to the other X-Men movies, though the continuity is messed up.  I've read a few things that says the movie is a reboot and start of a new series that will ignore the previous movies.  Even if that is the case, this movie isn't following things established in the comic books either.  I'm far from an expert on them, but I do know enough to know that stuff has been changed.  Sometimes it is just something little here and there, but other times it is a bigger change. 

Erik receives the most attention, and I do like the way his story develops.  His origin story is really one of the the best origin stories.  He's got a reason to be angry and he is already heading down the path that makes him fully the Magneto of the previous movies..and Charles's enemy.  The two of them are shown meeting and working together, though I don't think their friendship is developed enough.  In the previous movies, Charles and Erik have a complicated relationship, frequently being on opposite sides of an issue, but the friendship still shows through.  Things just move too fast in this movie to set up that depth of a complex relationship between the two.  It is like the writers or the studio or someone decided that certain things had to happen by the end of the movie - including Charles and Erik going their separate ways - while also dealing with other things.  Things are just too rushed to properly deal with the friendship, and that is disappointing.

(click to show/hide)

Anyone that doubts the depth of their friendship needs to remember the scene in X-Men: The Last Stand when Erik sees Charles die...after Erik provoked Jean.  The look on his face shows that he still considered Charles one of his best friends.  From what I have read about the comics, the friendship comes up in different storylines as well..including an alternate time or whatever it was considered when Erik takes over the X-Men after Charles is killed.

Several characters are introduced, with many of them just sort of being there without getting much attention or much to do.  Beast is the only character in the movie who was actually one of the first members of the X-Men in the comics..the other first members are missing from the movie, replaced with a mix of other characters.  I know Havoc and Banshee end up with the X-Men, but not when the team was first forming.  Mystique was never a member of the X-Men..that is the change that is bothering me the most.  I'm sure that was done to add her to the movie since fans - especially men - liked her in the previous movies.  When she is in her natural blue state, she does have basically the same look...blue covered with some kind of scales and no clothes. 

Sebastian Shaw is a villain in the comic books as well.  He's also part of the Hellfire Club along with Emma Frost.  The Hellfire Club in the movie seems to just be a club in Vegas instead of what it was in the comics.  Sebastian is a bit different from how he was in the comics.  He has a few flunkies around that have cool powers, but, as far as I know, they weren't connected with Shaw or the Hellfire club in the comics.  A few other mutant characters pop up that seem a bit out of place with how they are used in the movie.  It is like someone decides to pick characters based on how cool they thought the powers would be..never mind if they actually fit in the setting and the groups they are stuck in. 

The action scenes are entertaining and done well, along with the special effects.  Beast spends most of the movie looking more normal before finally showing his blue, furry form.  In that form, he looks a little off to me..like he should he a little bigger.  The shade of blue seems slightly off too.  The cast do well with their parts and no one is annoying.

I liked the movie overall and think it is worth seeing.  I just find some of the ...character and story choices odd.  I think it would have been better if there had been more of an attempt to tie in with the previous movies.



I did get a review posted on Epinions.

X-Men: First Class

[DJ Doena]

I watched it yesterday. It was an OK movie on its own.

The best scene was certainly

(click to show/hide)

Wolverine's cameo

.

What I didn't like was this whole retcon theme they had going on. Charles not the one having created Cerebro, Magneto not being the one who came up with the helmet. Even Charles' wheelchair "accident" took earlier than what was established in Last Stand (where he could still walk when he met young Jean Grey).

And why are Teleporters always "coloured" and have a devil's tail? Is that a package deal?

Another criticism I have is that they basically took Magneto's whole worldview and prequeled it onto Kevin Bacon's character so that Magneto would basically become copycat.

What I really liked (but predicted) was how Beast became blue. But unfortunately his Beast mask didn't really convince me.


To sum it up: It's watchable, but if you don't you haven't missed anything either.

[Tom]

And why are Teleporters always "coloured" and have a devil's tail? Is that a package deal?

It makes certain sense: The teleporter from the second movie (I forgot the name, but he was played by Alan Cummings) is the child of the teleporter of this movie and Mystique (at least what comic canon says as far as I have read). And if I remember correctly, the one from the second movie was coloured blue. So he got the looks from his father and the colour of his mother

[Achim]

The best scene was certainly

(click to show/hide)

Wolverine's cameo

.

I thought it felt "squeezed in". It does make sense though and basically creates most of the other problems you had with the film

(click to show/hide)

as it actually makes it feel like a prequel, not a reboot.

]What I didn't like was this whole retcon theme they had going on. Charles not the one having created Cerebro, Magneto not being the one who came up with the helmet. Even Charles' wheelchair "accident" took earlier than what was established in Last Stand (where he could still walk when he met young Jean Grey).

Apparently there is a whole bunch oftimeline issues (I listened to a podcast review pointing out several). But personally I didn't feel that the Jean Grey one should count. As I remember, and I might be totally off, they were still friends when they visit young Jean for the first time? In which case it wouldl have happened within the timeline of this film, we just didn't see it.


So, I think it works great as a stand alone film, but as part of the existing franchise it has a few fails. Which is especially sad as Singer worked on it

[Dragonfire]

(click to show/hide)

I did mostly like when Wolverine showed up, but it also felt out of place.  It definitely screws up the timeline that has been established in the previous X-Men movies.  In the Wolverine movie, Emma Frost was one of the young mutants that escapes late in the movie...and is picked up by Charles.  That was supposed to be happening either late 70s or early 80s...yet this one has Emma as an adult nearly 20 years before.

The things that were changed did bug me.  It seems like too much of it was done to rush though stuff and get to the point when Charles and Erik are at odds.  It would have been better if more time had been devoted to the time they were friends...from what I've learned about the comics, I think they were friends for a while before things fell apart between them.  We should have seen them working together longer..developing Cerebro and doing more looking for mutants..stuff like that before they had their falling out.  Once Beast turned Blue, I wasn't too impressed with how he looked.  Something was just a bit off..he was too thin or something.  Beast looked better in Last Stand. 

Nightcrawler was in the second X-Men movie...he teleported and had a tail.  He was blue and at least in the comics, Mystique is his mother.  From what I read after seeing X-Men: First Class, the teleporter in this one - I forgot his name - is Nightcrawler's father.  I know when I first saw him in teh trailer, before I realized he was red, I thought it was Nightcrawler and I was thinking why the hell did they do that.     At least there is a reason why they look sort of the same and  can both teleport.

(click to show/hide)

I was more bothered by Mystique basically being Charles's foster sister.  That's just wrong.  It was bad enough making her one of the first X-Men when she was never an X-Men...but to tie her to Charles that way is just wrong.  I really think she was added to the movie just because the studio knew that men liked seeing her basically naked when she's in her normal blue form.  And why does she have to be naked when she's in the blue form?  How would wearing clothes, like every other mutant - even Beast - be hiding who she is?  A man must have come up with that.