X-Men: First Class; A First Look

X-Men First Class:

A First Look At What Is Either The Best

X-Men Film Ever, Or A Total Trainwreck

I've been avoiding talking much about this film, after all, as the last decade or so will tell you, the marvel comics based movies that were not made as part of Marvel's shared film universe have just been abysmal; Spiderman 3, both Punisher films, both Hulk films, both Fantastic Four films, Ghost Rider, X-Men: The Last Stand, and that cinematic abortion that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine just to name afew, should give you the idea of what I mean.

Its because of such let downs like this that when I started to read about the making of this new Xmen film, set in the past and telling the story of how the two greatest champions for mutantkind, Magneto and Professor X, grew to be the men they are known as now, how Professor X founded the X-Men and how Magneto founded The Brotherhood, that I started to get alittle leery, in concept the idea would be great, but also, it cancels out X-Men Origins: Magneto basically telling the same story, which I've been looking forward to for many years, which saddened me, but I would be willing to overlook if it was done properly, and well, FOX Studios doesn't really seem to fully understand the whole idea of making a proper X-Men movie, or really a superhero movie in general really. But after seeing some of these still shots, and seeing the trailer, I have to kind of wonder alittle bit if maybe they've really finally discovered how to properly use a property that should, in all fairness, like spiderman, blade, fantastic four and daredevil among others, should just be given back to Marvel Studios to properly integrate into their film universe.

Now, before we go any farther, lets have a look at the trailer shall we?



the film is set in 1962 or so, given the implication of the cuban missile crisis, which makes alot of sense, the first X-Men comic book came out in 1963, so the timeline is right, Magneto and Charles knew each other and founded the X-Men first before their split in ideology causing Magneto to form The Brotherhood, so they got that right as well, and the early uniforms are right too, though I'm not sure how they got an SR-71 Blackbird in 1963, maybe there is some time passing involved, like it starts out in the early 60s then progresses to the late 60s with the school for gifted youngsters founded or something, which would make pretty logical sense honestly, it takes time to build a fortune and a school for mutants, it doesn't just happen overnight. Plus, skipping ahead in time would explain the apperance of the third party in the film, The Hellfire Club, headed by Sebastian Shaw and his prize student Emma Frost, who, if the films follow the way they're supposed to progress, will open her own school to counter Professor X and eventually turn good when all those students die.

My other really big issue is the cast, here look at who are listed as the characters on both sides...

James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier: The leader and founder of the X-Men and one of Magneto's best friends until conflicts of opinion create a rivalry between them and their teams.
* Laurence Belcher as a young Charles Xavier.

Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto: The leader and founder of the Brotherhood of Mutants and one of Professor X's best friends until conflicts of opinion create a rivalry between them and their teams.
* Bill Milner as a young Erik Lehnsherr.

Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw: The leader of a secret society bent on taking over the world called the Hellfire Club.

January Jones as Emma Frost / White Queen: A mutant telepath who can also change her body into diamond form; also a member of the Hellfire Club.

Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert: A scientist and an authority on genetic mutation and love interest of Charles Xavier.

Nicholas Hoult as Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy / Beast: Beast is a former scientist and political activist, who transformed into a frightening looking mutant, but is kind at heart.

Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme / Mystique: A dangerous shapeshifting mutant.
* Morgan Lily as a young Raven Darkholme.

Oliver Platt as "The Man in Black": A character who is not a mutant.

Ray Wise as the United States Secretary of State

Zoë Kravitz as Angel Salvadore: A mutant with insectoid physiology.

Caleb Landry Jones as Sean Cassidy / Banshee: An Irish mutant with the ability of sonic screaming.

Lucas Till as Alex Summers / Havok: A mutant who has the ability to absorb cosmic energy and discharge blasts from the energy.

Edi Gathegi as Armando Muñoz / Darwin: A mutant with the power of "reactive evolution."

Jason Flemyng as Azazel: Nightcrawler's father who has the ability to teleport.

Álex González as Janos Quested / Riptide: A mutant with the ability to spin his body at an incredibly fast rate.

Andy Callaghan as a member of the Hellfire Club.

Tony Rich as Thomas: A mutant with the ability to duplicate other mutant powers within a specific range.

first off, lets get afew notes out of the way... 1.) YES RAY WISE!!! 2.) this character Thomas, is Mimic, I have no idea why no one's calling him Mimic though. 3.) They go out of their way to state Azazel is the father of x-men member Nightcrawler, and with Nightcrawler's mother Mystique as part of the cast as well, its not really hard to figure it won't be long before we see him or there implication of him coming along.

Second, there are some castings that aren't exactly right for the first X-Men, well ok most of them aren't right, Beast is the only one thats right out of them all, because Darwin's whole implication on the team is... subject to cannon, Angel Salvadore shouldn't even be born yet, and Havok was "missing and assumed dead" with his brother Scott, Cyclops, being the leader of the original X-Men team. Though Banshee and Mimic becoming later X-men was correct, so i guess you just gotta go with the flow and accept changes, however odd they maybe.

i will say this though, I am very impressed with the handling of Emma Frost, I was really leery of the whole idea of her as a character in this set in the 60s and all that, given how Emma's become abit of a fanservice character in the last decade or so, I was worried of how they'd dress her, after all, she couldn't walk about in her original outfit of a corset, bikini bottom, thigh high stiletto heel boots and a white cape, I kind of assumed they'd go with her more subdued 1990s turned good look; a corset, leather pants, knee boots and a business jacket. But thankfully, they went with a 1960s Girl On The Motorcycle / Marianne Faithful / Emma Peel in the Avengers look for her, which I feel fits better in a case like this.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, check out some imagery...

 

just think, all this and no wolverine... thankfully. Seriously FOX, don't fuck this up. DO NOT.


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BC