X-Men: First Class

[Canelek]

Aside from using fuzzy images from the new movie, and HD images from the older movies, your points are all pretty much valid.

I particularly agree with the head-touching, CANTFEELMYLEEEGGGSSS and SR-71 usage points.

That said, I have no canon to go by, so for the most part it seemed quite entertaining to me, and the younger mutants were not really present or important enough to pay much mind to. After all, the story was written to show how and why Magneto and Prof X became "friends".

If I cared enough about the original content, however, I am sure I would not be as pleased. As it stands, I gave a generous 7/10.

TBH, I think more Magneto and less Prof X would have been better.

[masteen]

I've been an X-men fan since forever, but changes are inevitable when a comic book becomes a movie. First Class wasn't perfect, but it sure as fuck was better than X3 and Wololverine.

[Winnow]

The head touching was super annoying but I'll use it as my avatar for awhile in an effort to make peace.

I'm trying to take the First Class movie by itself and evaluate it but have to compare it to give examples of why it's mediocre.

When watching a movie, I look for interesting characters I want to know more about. I want to leave the movie wanting more and to see what's next.

examaple:

Even in X-Men 3 which is mostly panned, at the end of the movie, there's an excellent scene with Magneto, sitting there in the park playing chess, and the movie ends just as the chess piece may or may not have moved by Magneto using his powers.

In First Class, Magneto unceremoniously breaks out horribly acted Emma Frost and asks her if she's with him.

Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNbXq2RNyC4

(aspect ratio screwed up)

Is there a scene in First Class even remotely as bad ass as this? And that's just one

...consider Nightcrawlers opening White House Scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrVdCkKxty4

...the fight between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mxxvhulr6Q

The most intense scene in First Class is the one stolen from X-Men 1 of Magneto in a concentration camp.

The intensity and actual story from the first two X-Men, including amazing fight scenes showing off mutant abilities as well as great chemistry between characters (minus Halle Berry) just does not exist in First Class. Magneto and Mystique have all sorts of great scenes in the first two....compare that to Emma and Shaw...he makes her get some ice for his drink after a lifeless conversation that takes place sitting down.

Funniest scene in First Class has to do with wolverine who really isn't a part of the movie except for these few seconds and it was enough to take top spot in the humor department:

*spoiler*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOc5NigXTSo

Here's how you introduce a secondary character:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hJ1scpqBG0

Much more interesting than the way they introduced the batch of mutants in First Class that was put to some psychedelic 60's music.

I found First Class to be quite generic in three areas. Plot, Character development and Action. It was lacking in intensity and drama. Action is huge in a comic movie. If there was tons of interesting character development, you could forgive the lack of interesting battles and use of powers but there's none of that either.

[Fairweather Pure]

Oh what the hell, I take a crack at your complaints Winnow.

This is full of spoilers, so read at your own risk!

The two most important characters of First Class were Xavier and Magneto. This is where the movie does it's best. Do the performances of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender compare to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen? I think they absolutely do, but more importantly, they enhance the older versions of themselves with the performances done in First Class. Fassbender in particular was amazing. I could have watched an entire movie about just Magneto going around the world fucking up Nazis. It makes the opening of X-Men 1, when Xavier and Erik talk in the hallways of the meeting about mutants very natural and the banter even more endearing.

Speaking of which, you have a bad habit of leaving out some very awesome scenes in First Class just to try and strengthen your case that it is somehow inferior. An undercover Magneto killing Nazis in the bar was a fantastic scene, easily among the best in the franchise. Extracting fillings as torture? That's great stuff. While you deride the opening scene as a repeat, you conveniently neglect the follow-up scene which the opening scene is essential for setting up. A young Erik being forced to use his powers and watching Kevin Bacon kill his fucking mother. When Magneto goes nuts by crushing Nazi skulls in helmets and destroying the torture room, well, that is an emotional high point for the entire series and it was all within the first 5 minutes of the movie. How about the assault on the CIA compound? Azazel grabbing people then teleporting them high into the air and dropping them was a fantastic use of his power and I know I wasn't the only one chuckling at seeing it used that way. It reminded me of Xmen 2 when Magneto simply pulled all of the pins from the soldiers grenades instead of something obvious. Kill smarter, not harder! Watching the Black King absorb all that fire power then unleash it to destroy the complex was a great scene, as was his killing of Darwin. I actually though the Black King's entire persona was amazing. His confidence and weird set of morals was great to watch.

There were lots more cool scenes, lots of great stuff, but I'm going to focus on the ending. In an earlier scene, Charles challenged Erik to turn the satellite dish. He told Magneto that the ability to truly use your power lies between happiness and anger and helped share the memory from his childhood (a great, great scene IMO). This was a setup for the end of the movie. When he pushed that coin through the Black King's skull, that is exactly what he was feeling ("I agree with you completely. But you killed my mother....--Such a great line!). Magneto went through a transformative emotional journey right there in front of us. He walked out of that sub a new and different man. His power was at it's peak because of where he now was after having finished the task he set out to do. What's amazing is that never once did his goal change. He was always going to kill the Black King and everything that happens or that he participates in is solely done to help him accomplish that goal.

The movie was absolutely full to the brim with subtle and absolutely not-so-subtle things. There was some great humor as well. It deserves to be watched multiple times. Overall, the acting was at times better than anything else in the series. Kevin Bacon was able to convey a very complex character with great skill. For instance, the Black King was pretty much ageless. Just by looking at Bacon he convayed a sense of deep wisdom and determination that really came through without a spoken word. Were there flaws in the movie? Absolutely. I would also point to the weak back up of mutants and lack of background for pretty much all of them, good and bad. But the great outweighs the mediocre by such a large margin that I don't understand why anyone would let those concern them.

One of the biggest flaws in your argument is that you rate Wolverine higher that First Class. Wolverine was just a terrible movie. Any compliant you levy towards First Class can be amplified, multiplied, and directed right back at Wolverine. That movie was a hot mess. I don't even know where to begin...

I stand by my rating of the movie. It is obviously only ranking the Xmen movies among themselves, but as far as comic book movies go, I would still rank First Class in the upper tier.

[Winnow]

One of the biggest flaws in your argument is that you rate Wolverine higher that First Class. Wolverine was just a terrible movie. Any compliant you levy towards First Class can be amplified, multiplied, and directed right back at Wolverine. That movie was a hot mess. I don't even know where to begin...

I watched Wolverine once and this movie won't be re-watched either. It's pretty much crap. I'd rate Wolverine over this movie any day but that's not saying much. Shaw, as portrayed in this movie, was extremely uninteresting and Emma in this movie doesn't even touch on the complexities of Emma Frost in comics.

I'm really not interested in a young Xavier. That's not what his character is about and now he's already paralyzed anyway (if there's a second movie).

X-Men, Second Class: Clusterfuck

Storyline was weak, acting weak, villains weak, use of powers weak. It still feels like the director didn't have a clue about the X-Men and just started tossing in random mutants.

Here's the plot for X-men #1 from 1963:

It all starts with Charles Xavier in his wheelchair inside his mansion. He mentally calls his X-Men to train in the Danger Room. The X-Men are mutants born with abilities that set them apart from normal humans. The original team includes Cyclops (Scott Summers), Beast (Hank McCoy), Iceman (Bobby Drake), and Angel (Warren Worthington III). Suddenly, Professor X tells them to stop because a new student has just arrived: Jean Grey, who will be called Marvel Girl.

Professor X built this school to train mutants to use their powers responsibly. He recognized that more and more mutants were appearing every day and that some mutants believe unlike the X-Men that humanity would never accept them.

The first evil mutant to threaten humanity was named Magneto. He made his presence known to the world by sabotaging several top secret US missile tests before demanding the surrender of a military base to him. He was able to take the military base and hold off the army with a magnetic force field. When the X-men arrive, Cyclops destroys Magneto's force field.

With incredible teamwork, the X-Men manage to defeat Magneto. Angel, Iceman, Beast and Jean destroy four missiles, and when Magneto sends a burning tank toward them, Iceman makes an ice-shelter and Cyclops digs a hole with his optic blasts and they escape. They were able to hold Magneto off until he fled the scene. The X-Men were victorious in their first adventure. This teamwork shown by X-Men was very impressive for their first mission.

The Danger Room is huge in X-Men lore and we really don't see it in First Class. Notice the team works together to defeat Magneto. Ice Shields, Cyclops using powers to escape, etc. All we see is Magnetos powers in First Class in the big battle and some stupid bumblebee chick fighting Toy's R Us Worst-Flying-power-ever Banshee.

---
This movie was crap. Hardly any notable team work and and the Devil using Nightcrawler's eventual powers doesn't come anywhere how that power is used in the opening scene of X-Men 2.

-----

A real X-Men First Class would have Angel, Beast, Cyclops and Marvel Girl (That's Phoenix people), going up against against the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

Check the original covers:

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/uncanny-x-men

You've got Magneto and his kids (Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver), Toad, and Mastermind. Other notable early villains are the Blob, Juggernaut and then the Sentinels kick in around issue 14.

Scarlet Witch is hot. She's batshit insane now but was a cool character back in the day. The X-Men even go head to head against the Avengers in issue #9. Scarlet Witch later goes on to hook up with Vision, which would make a for a great X-men/Avengers crossover movie involving Ultron as the villain. Even in the 1960's Scarlet Witch was an Adult and Magneto's kid. I hate hate hate what they did to the timeline and ages in First Class.

If you're going to make Emma a villain, Scarlet Witch fits right in as a villain as well before she heads over to the Avengers.

<--- Fuck yeah! Weak!

The rare times I see professor X touching his head, he's doing it with both hands so the single hand to the side of the head pose is also bullshit.

[Fairweather Pure]

Since you're a slave to the comics I'm honestly surprised you've enjoyed any of the X-men movies (or any other comic book movie for that matter).

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Oh what the hell, I take a crack at your complaints Winnow.

This is full of spoilers, so read at your own risk!

The two most important characters of First Class were Xavier and Magneto. This is where the movie does it's best. Do the performances of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender compare to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen? I think they absolutely do, but more importantly, they enhance the older versions of themselves with the performances done in First Class. Fassbender in particular was amazing. I could have watched an entire movie about just Magneto going around the world fucking up Nazis. It makes the opening of X-Men 1, when Xavier and Erik talk in the hallways of the meeting about mutants very natural and the banter even more endearing.

Speaking of which, you have a bad habit of leaving out some very awesome scenes in First Class just to try and strengthen your case that it is somehow inferior. An undercover Magneto killing Nazis in the bar was a fantastic scene, easily among the best in the franchise. Extracting fillings as torture? That's great stuff. While you deride the opening scene as a repeat, you conveniently neglect the follow-up scene which the opening scene is essential for setting up. A young Erik being forced to use his powers and watching Kevin Bacon kill his fucking mother. When Magneto goes nuts by crushing Nazi skulls in helmets and destroying the torture room, well, that is an emotional high point for the entire series and it was all within the first 5 minutes of the movie. How about the assault on the CIA compound? Azazel grabbing people then teleporting them high into the air and dropping them was a fantastic use of his power and I know I wasn't the only one chuckling at seeing it used that way. It reminded me of Xmen 2 when Magneto simply pulled all of the pins from the soldiers grenades instead of something obvious. Kill smarter, not harder! Watching the Black King absorb all that fire power then unleash it to destroy the complex was a great scene, as was his killing of Darwin. I actually though the Black King's entire persona was amazing. His confidence and weird set of morals was great to watch.

There were lots more cool scenes, lots of great stuff, but I'm going to focus on the ending. In an earlier scene, Charles challenged Erik to turn the satellite dish. He told Magneto that the ability to truly use your power lies between happiness and anger and helped share the memory from his childhood (a great, great scene IMO). This was a setup for the end of the movie. When he pushed that coin through the Black King's skull, that is exactly what he was feeling ("I agree with you completely. But you killed my mother....--Such a great line!). Magneto went through a transformative emotional journey right there in front of us. He walked out of that sub a new and different man. His power was at it's peak because of where he now was after having finished the task he set out to do. What's amazing is that never once did his goal change. He was always going to kill the Black King and everything that happens or that he participates in is solely done to help him accomplish that goal.

The movie was absolutely full to the brim with subtle and absolutely not-so-subtle things. There was some great humor as well. It deserves to be watched multiple times. Overall, the acting was at times better than anything else in the series. Kevin Bacon was able to convey a very complex character with great skill. For instance, the Black King was pretty much ageless. Just by looking at Bacon he convayed a sense of deep wisdom and determination that really came through without a spoken word. Were there flaws in the movie? Absolutely. I would also point to the weak back up of mutants and lack of background for pretty much all of them, good and bad. But the great outweighs the mediocre by such a large margin that I don't understand why anyone would let those concern them.

One of the biggest flaws in your argument is that you rate Wolverine higher that First Class. Wolverine was just a terrible movie. Any compliant you levy towards First Class can be amplified, multiplied, and directed right back at Wolverine. That movie was a hot mess. I don't even know where to begin...

I stand by my rating of the movie. It is obviously only ranking the Xmen movies among themselves, but as far as comic book movies go, I would still rank First Class in the upper tier.

+1

Well said Purefeather!

You conveyed pretty much everything that needs to be said regarding FC.

First Class > Xmen 3 > Wolverine.

What McAvoy and Fassbender did was to even improve and enchance the older versions we've already seen.

[Fairweather Pure]

The rare times I see professor X touching his head, he's doing it with both hands so the single hand to the side of the head pose is also bullshit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytCEuuW ... re=related

[Winnow]

That's not canon!

One handed side head maneuver is cyclop's gimmick







Lets check the official bust of Professor X in the Mutant Hall of Fame:



Cleary his go to move is the two handed finger tipped head palm.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Cleary his go to move is the two handed finger tipped head palm.

[Zygar_ Cthulhukin]

Just bought this on Blu-ray and watching it reminded me of just how great a movie it is. The only negative is the casting of Emma Frost. I'm blonde and have nice tits is not what Emma is about....there HAS to be an actress with those AND brains.

EDIT:It's not officially out til Friday, but I got a guy

[kyoukan]

When I was watching this movie I was almost all the way convinced that some Marvel producer got shitfaced and declared he could greenlight an X-men movie with the lamest X-men and the most asinine plot ever and still break $200million at the box office. I mean they really had to go out of their way to find some of those mutants. I still don't know who a quarter of them fucking are, and they certainly were not the first X-men.

Fucking Havok? Really?

[Canelek]

Fassbender was pretty much the only saving point of this film. It could have been so much better with a decent acting ensemble and a better screenplay.

[Boogahz]

Fassbender was pretty much the only saving point of this film. It could have been so much better with a decent acting ensemble and a better screenplay.

Wasn't it rewritten by different teams around 6 times?

[Jice Virago]

Finally got around to watching this while on a flight this weekend. Couple points: (Spoilers ahead)

Casting was uneven, but great where it had to be for the most part. The Xavier/Magneto on screen elements were perfect. I also thought Bacon nailed Shaw perfectly, especially given how uneven the character is represented in the source material. The guy playing beast was horrificly bad in a fairly important role. The eye candy playing Emma Frost was terrible, but they didn't really incorperate much of her backstory into the plot, so I could give that a pass since she was there for the "hey tits!" crowd. The rest of the cast was didn't really matter, since the roles were so minor.

The action sequences were spot on, especially any scene with Magneto just pwning ass. I have no clue what Winnow is complaining about, as the fight scenes all had pretty solid pacing and pretty good wow factor to them. I think he is just pissed because he wanted an Emma Frost movie to rub one out to and she was (at best) a minor side character in this movie.

It sucks that they tied everything up so thoroughly at the end, because I would have liked to seen another movie with more philisophical debate between X and Magneto fighting for the support of the mutants they were training at the academy, but I am guessing they were not confident this movie would do as well as it did. It delivered on the key points, specifically the Magneto and Xavier relationship and the Magneto origin story.

As far as comic book cannon goes, how can anyone argue cannon when the Xmen cannon has been rewritten so many times in so many convaluted ways? Its simply impossible to stay true to source material that does not remain true to itself. The only thing I really did not care for was the complete rewrite of Mystique's origins and turning her into some emo girl, but I guess they didn't want a centuries old bisexual assasin into what was intended to be a PG movie. The wolverine cameo was a nice touch, though.

I liked it better than any movie in the series, except possibly X2.

[Winnow]

I can't believe you liked the fight scenes. They are some of the worst I can recall ever in a Marvel movie. Save for a few decent performances, there is nothing noteworthy except for the bad performances of Emma and the random mutant cast. The plot was bad, the most dramatic scene was Xavier helping Magneto to slightly turn a large satellite dish.

The movie produced no memorable moments and copied the opening of the original X-Men movie. The missile scene was laughable. It was an extremely weak effort compared to X-Men 1 and 2.

[Canelek]

For me, they could have weeded out about 50% of screenplay. They already knew that Fassbender is obviously a titan of an actor surrounded by pups (Banshee dude and the butterfly girl were particularly awful). He is that good. Should have gone 90% Magneto origin and it could have satisfied (to a greater extent) the more critical fans of the source material.

As it is though, again, I liked it better than #3!

And yes, Beast was awful, pretty much like all the other mutants sans Magneto and Shaw (played brilliantly by Bacon).

[Jice Virago]

I can't believe you liked the fight scenes. They are some of the worst I can recall ever in a Marvel movie. Save for a few decent performances, there is nothing noteworthy except for the bad performances of Emma and the random mutant cast. The plot was bad, the most dramatic scene was Xavier helping Magneto to slightly turn a large satellite dish.

The movie produced no memorable moments and copied the opening of the original X-Men movie. The missile scene was laughable. It was an extremely weak effort compared to X-Men 1 and 2.

So your saying the confrontation between Shaw and Magneto with the coin at the end was in no way memorable? Or Magneto wtfpwning the nazis in the South American bar? Or him rushing the bunker and laying the smack down on the entire Russian base and Frost? Or how about all of the Azazel fight scenes? Meanwhile, X1 had fucking Toad single handedly duffing up half the team? Wolverine and X3 had, well, take your pick of those shitfests. Thats just Xmen movies. Do I really need to play the Spiderman 3, Fantasic 4, Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, or Punisher cards? This movie was _at worst_ in the high middle of the pack of Marvel movies, as far as action was concerned. It was definately among the top as far as character development and dialog.

Yeah, going to have to disagree with you there. Its clear to me, at least, that your primary beef with the movie was not having more Emma Frost spank material (as evidenced by how many of your pinups of her you posted in the comics forum), given how much you have fixated on what was an extremely minor character to the film. There were bitch worthy things about this film, but Emma Frost and the fight scenes were not among them.

[Winnow]

You've got to be nuts. The Nightcrawler opening scene in the White House is so much better than anything in X-men Fist Class. Magneto's interaction with Mystique is awesome. Magneto's escape from his plastic prison is also way beyond anything in First Class. There are so many small scenes with character development in both of the first two X-Men series that don't exist in First class or are lifeless. Wolverine and Cyclops making snide remarks over Jean Grey were actually funny. I don't recall any funny lines from First Class. Wolverine's 5 second cameo was the best part of First Class.

First Class was a snoozer of a movie, providing no desire to rewatch it.

[Jice Virago]

I think I know why you like Wolverine Origins; it had Emma Frost fight scenes in it.

And I said X2 was the best Xmen movie hands down, but Azazel dropping guys from the sky and tail stabbing people was at least as good as anything Nightcrawler did in X2. I would put young Magneto going animal rushdown with his powers on par with old disciplined and years of experience Magneto doing his thing; it is the same character with different amounts of training and experience. And when he got close to his goal at the end of the movie and went into assrape mode on everyone, that was at least on par with the best of what the older Magneto did in the original films. Aside from the strokus interuptus from January Jones's horrid acting, I am having a hard time grasping what you saw in this movie that was any worse than anything in X1, X3, or Wolverine. I mean, I know you have the entertainment preferences of a 13 year old on testosterone overload, but this movie had plenty of near naked chicks and some pretty well paced fight sequences.

[Winnow]

You'll get no argument from me. I'd rather see hot women fighting than fat tubs of shit. As for the X-Men movies, none of them have any females in them that make one movie better than the other.

First Class, along with X-Men 3 are not re-watchable.

[Jice Virago]

By that line of reasoning, you must have thought that Suckerpunch was a good movie then? Or Catwoman, perhaps?

How you can rate Wolverine above this movie, or even X1, just baffles me.

[Boogahz]

The visuals for each setting was my favorite part of Suckerpunch. Still waiting on this Xmen movie from Blockbuster or Netflix, whichever mails it first.

[Winnow]

By that line of reasoning, you must have thought that Suckerpunch was a good movie then? Or Catwoman, perhaps?

How you can rate Wolverine above this movie, or even X1, just baffles me.

Suckerpunch was disappointing. It gave me headache. Catwoman wasn't so hot either. I'm not a fan of Halle Berry. Green Lantern was better than X-Men First Class.

[miir]

Got around to watching this on the weekend.
Wasn't the best X-Men movie but it was far from the worst (Wolverine takes that prize).
The CGI was pretty bad in parts and January Jones was fucking terrible but that didn't detract too much from the overall feel of the movie.
Assbender and Bacon put in excellent performances. The rest were passable.


It was fun but not particularly memorable.

[Fairweather Pure]

A sequel has been announced:


SuperHeroHype has learned that Simon Kinberg is writing the sequel to 20th Century Fox's X-Men: First Class, which has earned over $350 million since opening in theaters this June.

Kinberg produced the first film and was a writer on X-Men: The Last Stand. His other writing credits include Mr. & Mrs Smith, Jumper, Sherlock Holmes and the upcoming This Means War and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. He is a producer on the latter two as well and is a producer on Neill Blomkamp's next, Elysium.