{ Movie Monday } X-Men: First Class
Going to try to make this as coherent as possible, because I am still flailing inside from the sheer awesomeness I witnessed Friday night, please do not base my intelligence level on any fangirling that may follow. I guess that the good thing about running a blog and not a professional review site … I have an excuse to squee, decorum be damned ;)
I’ve been waiting on this movie for a long time. I’m a big fan of the other films (even if some are not so great…) and when the cast list was announced, needless to say, I freaked out. James McAvoy as Charles, Michael Fassbender as Erik, Nicholas Hoult as Hank–it is a British TV fangirl’s dream come true. I’ve been following James since I came across him in Shameless, Michael since Hex and Nicholas since Skins (though really the first thing I saw him in was Hugh Grant’s film, About a Boy) and I love how they are becoming more and more appreciated by the public. All three are amazing actors and did not disappoint in X-Men: First Class. I haven’t seen Mad Men or Winter’s Bone, so this was my introduction to January Jones and Jennifer Lawrence but I really liked them (and I’m now maybe even looking forward to The Hunger Games movie now? Still undecided on that due to the casting call that was made for it). Rose Byrne was fantastic as CIA agent Moira MacTaggert. I kept hoping she’d end up a mutant, but no :(
The film opens like the original X-Men: Erik and his family are being rounded up by Nazis and he gets placed into a different group. Distraught and upset, he screams for his mother and reaches his arm out … and bends a metal fence into a tangled mess. This act catches the attention of someone who was watching from a window and this is where we begin learning more. And boy, do we learn a lot. We see the mutants discover they are not alone, we see the bromance between Charles and Erik develop (and oh, what a bromance it is! Excuse me while I swoon here…), we get the first look at Cerebro, we learn what drives Magento to be the misguided villain and which mutants join him, how Beast becomes blue, how Charles ends up in a wheelchair, we meet Emma Frost, Havoc, Angel (Pixie), Darwin, Banshee, young Mystique and Azazel, and soooooo much more. I won’t spoil anything but do keep a lookout for fantastic cameos as well! After seeing the initial cast lists, I didn’t pay much attention to it so seeing Kevin Bacon as the villain, Edi Gathegi as Darwin and Oliver Platt as a mutant-supporting CIA agent was brilliant!
X-Men: First Class is both a sequel and a prequel AND a reboot of the franchise … and should NOT be missed by summer movie goers. Laughs, amazing action, and heartfelt moments abound! 5/5.
Is it too early to want a sequel?! I cannot get enough. I mean, look … *squees*
