You Must See “X-Men: First Class”

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

You simply have to. If you have nothing to do this weekend, go see it. If you have something else to do, cancel it and go see “X-Men: First Class” instead.

Fairly spoiler-free comments follow…

First of all, I’m not sure that it’s technically a sequel. The opening scene is basically a redo of the opening scene of “X-Men,” depicting a frantic young Erik Lehnsherr trying to get to his parents as they’re bring dragged off to a concentration camp. We then continue the action from that scene, so when you think about it, the previous three films are actually a sequel to this one. In comics, if you do a story that’s set between panels in a previous issue but doesn’t rewrite what happened next, that’s not a prequel. If it were, then half of Roy Thomas’ career is writing prequels. No, it’s a continuity implant.

Second, the last time I saw a superhero film that felt this incredibly epic, this sense of a grand tale being played out against a vast canvas, it was the first hour of “Superman: The Movie.” I swear to God, part of me almost wishes that this movie HAD been the first one. Fortunately enough, at no point does Ned Beatty show up to send the second half off the rails.

Third, it’s superbly cast. James McAvoy as Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik have as crackling a chemistry between the two of them as those two British guys–I forget their names–did in the preceding films. (As a side note, I have no idea if he’d be interested, but if Matt Smith ever wants out, McAvoy would be a superb Doctor Who.) The rest of the young cast is also excellent, particularly Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique who at one point briefly makes herself look older and morphs into Rebecca Romijn. That is one of two cameos in the film, the other being Hugh Jackman as Wolverine who gloriously gets to employ the supposedly free one-time use of the word “f*ck” that a PG-13 film gets before it gets kicked up to R (although there have been some that have used it multiple times and stayed PG-13.)

Played out against the frightening times of the Cuban Missile Crisis, “X-M:FC,” in addition to having the aforementioned epic sweep, also contains a sense of wonder. Despite decades and decades worth of X-history that we’ve already seen played out in comics and, to a lesser extent, in the movies, you actually feel as if you’re present at the birth of something new and special and X-traordinary. The story and script by Ashley Miller and five other guys (I just don’t feel like typing all the names) just works on every level and Matthew Vaughn’s direction never flags. And there are moments, including during a climactic showdown between opposing mutant forces, that you will actually gasp. If nothing else, what’s fascinating is that it truly underscores just how difficult it is to take the high road, to be the “better man” than those who oppose you. Because for all of Xavier’s high flown rhetoric, there are certain decisions that Magneto makes that–were it me–I’d have done the same thing. That’s a disconcerting thing to learn about oneself.

PAD

112 comments on “You Must See “X-Men: First Class””

  1. Not to miss the point of the review, but it’s a myth that you can only use the “f” word once in a PG-13 movie. I’ve seen plenty of films where it shows up two or three times. (Gattaca and I, Robot come to mind.)

    All The President’s Men, on the other hand, is a true oddity…

      1. Ishmael, if it’s a myth of just one use of the f-word, the producers of “X-Files: Fight the Future” believed it, because William B. Davis, The Smoking Man, thought there was a line where the Smoking Man should have used it and they said it could only be used once, and it was already used. (Legend had it that Scully was going to say it, but in retrospect, that would have been more a Mulder thing.

      2. @Charles F Waldo

        It’s possible that was true at the time, but it certainly isn’t now. That said, I seem to remember a TV Guide interview about that movie mentioning the cap as either two or three at the time (I believe two). I haven’t seen the film personally, but the comment at this site mentions two uses on-screen in X-Files: Fight the Future:

        http://artsandfaith.com/index.php?showtopic=3097&st=20

  2. Just saw it myself last night, and I couldn’t agree more. I hope a lot more people will give this film a chance, because it definitely deserves it.

    1. I’m with you both on this one. Far too many people, both comics fans and not, have already made their decision regarding this film and that is clearly a shame. I saw it last weekend and could not have been more thrilled with it.

      1. I’m a big X-Men fan, but I won’t be going to see First Class.
        .
        Call me jaded due to X3, the Wolverine travesty, and Fox’s Marvel offerings in general. Not to mention, this is another prequel/reboot (no, I still haven’t seen Star Trek).
        .
        I’m feeling much the same way about the Spider-Man reboot coming out next year after Sony managed to muck up that golden goose.

      2. Your choice, Craig.
        .
        Does you face feel properly spited after you recent surgical procedure?

      3. Your choice, Craig.
        .
        Yes, it IS in fact my choice. Imagine that.
        .
        Once you hand me $10 to see a movie, then you can tell me what to see. Since I don’t see that happening any time soon, feel free to bûggër off.

      4. Craig, if it gives you any frame of reference, I shared your trepidation for precisely the same reasons you did. I went, if for no other reason, than that people tend to ask me what I thought of the latest comic book films and I feel I really need to be current (and even that didn’t get me to go see “Jonah Hex”).
        .
        My feelings about the film don’t come from my being a Marvel guy or a mutant book guy. They’re genuine. I wouldn’t go so far as to say, as Mike insinuated, that you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face because I don’t think you’re skipping it out of mean-spiritedness. I think it’s more, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me repeatedly, what am I, a freaking moron?” In fact I suspect a number of people share your feelings which is why the film isn’t doing better at the box office.
        .
        All I can tell you is, with all sincerity, your concerns are misplaced. This film’s the real deal.
        .
        PAD

  3. As it happens, I actually do have plans to see it Saturday. So I skipped most of your review, for now, as I want to go into it with as few preconceptions as possible.
    .
    Have heard great things, though.

  4. PAD,

    I saw it on Tuesday and I was BLOWN away by how good it is. I have not seen a comic movie that good since The Dark Knight. There was a sense of “wonder” and real life consequences about it that reminded me of TDK. At the very LEAST this x-men’s “Batman Begins”. It may not make alot of money at the box office but i am sure word of mouth will carry it and when it comes out on DVD. Then hopefully X-Men 2 will be a blockbuster similar to the TDK.

  5. I’m interested in seeing it…but I don’t know if I’d spend the money to go to the theatre for it. I have two main worries.
    1. I liked the first two X-men movies, but always felt that they started in the middle of the X-men’s storyline. And to a certain extent I was okay with a combination of new and old x-characters in the mix. But now that the movie is on to its 5th sequel it gets too confusing and frustrating for me. I really yearn for the X-men storyline to be told from their beginnings (original X-men and Prof. X) onward. So when I see Angel, Darwin, Havok, Banshee, Mystique and Beast as the original X-Men it just doesn’t work for me and I know that this sort of thing will be further complicated in the future (Is Havok going to be Cyclop’s dad?)
    2. There are many companies that hold the rights to Marvel properties and will continue to make movies with the sole purpose of holding onto those rights. The X-men movies is a clear example of this. In a latest article the question was raised? “There are so many interesting mutants in this movie that there will surely be many spinoffs” or something to that effect. That sort of thing drives me nuts becuase the company doesn’t care able the finished product they just want to churn out as many sequels as possible to hold onto the golden goose. I’ll be very disappointed if this sort of business model drives interesting characters, storylines and ideas into the ground.
    So there’s my ramble.
    j

  6. Hello

    I’m sorr that I’m not commenting on this thread but I would like to ask if you will be writing a book after Fable: The balverine order or if one will be coming out at all. Please answer thanks.

    BC

  7. I’ve seen a few online pundits saying that the opening weekend box-office was disappointing. In my opinion, the opening weekend box-office of a sequel (prequel, inset, whatever), is largely related to the last movie in the series. I’m hoping that word of mouth helps the movie to a strong second weekend. If it has some staying power that could help the series recover.

    1. I’m inclined to only partly agree. We’re also dealing with a kind of “super-hero” saturation this summer, particularly of the Marvel variety: Thor, then X, then Cap (and Conan at the end of summer, though no one remembers its Marvel legacy). And Cap and Thor are getting far-and-away the most marketing push, as they are the flagship for the Avengers franchise (which Marvel has invested huge money in, and besides, as far as I can tell, the current editor of Marvel only likes the Avengers — virtually everything else over there is on autopilot). So, a lackluster opening (in relation to the cost of the film) isn’t a total surprise.
      .
      Still, the deal with opening weekend is that the studio gets 50% of the gross. After 10 days, it drops to something like 20%. So, the vast majority of the money the “movie” makes is done in the first 10 days of release.
      .
      This is why fans of the movie should care: if you want a follow-up in the franchise, the studio (not the theaters, necessarily) needs to see money. The studio makes money up front in the release week, then on Blu-Ray/DVD sales (and to some extent cable).
      .
      I’ve been trying to get to X-M:FC all week, but circumstances have intervened, so I can’t speak intelligently about the film itself. But if the opening box-office is disappointing, then look at foreign grosses. If they’re good, then there might yet be hope for a quality X-franchise without (alas, another) reboot.
      .
      AD

  8. I saw it and loved it, for pretty much all the reasons you mention here. (And McAvoy would be an awesome Doctor!)

    A random question: do you know anything about the novelization of the film? I always buy them, because they often add depth to the characters (and also are often written by fabulous authors such as yourself)…but I’ve not seen one for First Class, or, come to think of it, for Thor.

    1. As near as I can determine, Marvel is out of the novelization business. I think it stems from increased concerns about letting details of the script out. The last two novelizations I wrote, they wouldn’t let me have a copy of it. I had to come into the office with my computer and, in a room, more or less transcribe the script. I was then hired to novelize “Iron Man 2” except I was subsequently told that this time I wouldn’t be allowed to use a computer; only a notepad and pen. I told the publisher they were out of their minds. So they got someone else to do it. Since then there’s been no further novelizations. Not for Thor (except for a junior novelizations that was minus the last twenty minutes of the film), not for “Captain America.”
      .
      PAD

  9. “We then continue the action from that scene, so when you think about it, the previous three films are actually a sequel to this one.”
    .
    Right, and this one was made after those three. That’s called a prequel.
    .
    As for the movie, I didn’t much like it. I thought it was a pointless prequel that did nothing to push forward the themes or mythology of the series, and merely filled in blanks that really didn’t need to be filled in. Aside from the two leads, the acting was poor and none of their characters were developed in the slightest anyway. And for the plot and the villain, they used ’60s Bond movies as their template, which is just strange.
    .
    And I can’t BELIEVE that, in this day and age, they pulled the old “kill the black guy off” routine. Especially a black guy who evolves to survive!
    .
    Marvel films are 0 for 3 with me this year (I didn’t think Thor was any good, either), so I’m hoping Captain America will break this streak.

    3. While I enjoyed the film overall, I was disappointed that Darwin made such a brief appearance (even if he was conspicuously absent from the trailers). Both for the reasons you gave, and because I wanted to see more of how they would interpret his power. Guess I’ll have to satisfy myself with his X-Factor appearances.

      1. Yeah, I thought he was by far the most interesting of Xavier’s recruits, and had the most potential as a character.

  10. I totally agree about the epic feel of this movie. In my humble opinion, this is the best Marvel movie yet (yes, better than Iron Man and Thor).

  12. Where did this choice of characters come from? I’m not familiar with the Ultimate version of X-Men so am wondering if some of the new-to-me people are from there, especially this Angel.

    1. Angel was a Grant Morrison character during his run. I believe Darwin is created Ed Brubaker like four years ago. The other X-men should be well known and none are from the Ultimate universe.

  13. I thought it was a good movie, not great, but definitely exceeded expectations. The general premise, plot and structure of the movie worked really well, but the some of the character choices felt off. The members of the first class at times felt like they were chosen to fulfill a plotpoint like the Banshee and the sonar thing (maybe I’m a bit harsh on that). It was nice to have someone other than Magneto as the villain so it was cool to have the Hellfire club, but Shaw’s intense interest in genetics felt more like something Mr. Sinister would be involved with. I liked how we started back at WWII in the concentration camp because with X-men it was a powerful scene that said whoa a comic book movie can deal with serious and relevant issues. I find that I enjoy this movie the most if I ignore the other 3 x-men movies plus the wolverine movie because the continuity amongst them is shot to hëll and back. Everything from the building of cerebro, characters ages and nationalities shift even Magneto’s helmut. I think if we call this a reboot and start from there we’re okay. I can’t wait to see what the next movie will cover and if we get a new batch of students.

    1. “even Magneto’s helmut”
      .
      Really? You had a problem with the fact that someone wore two different helmets over a few decades?

      1. well it’s not really a problem and I don’t discount the possibility of their being several helmuts, but Magneto made it a point that he specifically designed it to block Prof X (X-Men) and in First Class it was a Russian design for Shaw. Maybe I’m reading too much into it…maybe.

        Other examples: Cerebro was built by Beast and in X-Men it was build by Prof X with help from Magneto.

        Emma Frost was younger in the Wolverine around 1970-80s and is an older character in First Class (1960s).

        Hank McCoy appeared in X2 in a cameo minus the blue fur.

        MacTaggert appeared to be the same age in X3 and wasn’t American as she was in First Class.

        Do those details matter – it can. It doesn’t distract from First Class being a good movie, but it can when looking at all of the movies together. That’s just me.

      2. The way I remember it is that Magneto said the helmet would protect him from Charles, but he didn’t say it was built specifically for that purpose.

  14. I thought this was a decent movie, but far from epic. (Full review: http://thearmchaircritic.blogspot.com/2011/06/x-men-first-class.html ) The main flaw is, like the past film, by including such a large cast most characters get almost no attention, and some get none.

    I did find it interesting that, after a discussion about revising continuity here, X-MEN FIRST CLASS took great pains to preserve the chronological continuity of the movies. The only characters who appeared in X-MEN 1-3 either could have ages from the 1960s to today (Professor X, Magneto, Beast) or had explanations of why they age slowly (Mystique, Wolverine). Heck, you can even argue that many characters of the folks in X-MEN: FIRST CLASS could be the parents of the X-MEN characters: Havok (with the uncontrolled energy rings) could have a son like Cyclops (with the uncontrolled energy eyes), and it’s not hard to see Nightcrawler as the son of Mystique (blue skin) and Azazel (with a prehensile tail and teleporting).

    MILD SPOILER:

    Two things disappointed me about this. First, the X-Men have been a representative of minorities (first race, then sexuality) for a long time — but that was completely ignored in the 1960s. We had more about American-Russian tension than racial tension in America. Maybe this wasn’t a big factor because Xavier was from England, but I think seeing how the majority treated the (raical) minority should have been shown, either as a potential source of hope — or of fear.

    Second, I found it more than a little creepy that Erik, a Holocaust survivor, largely wound up embracing the Nazi beliefs about a master race. Shaw states his belief in genetic superiority (only thinking “blonde hair, blue eyes” was thinking too small), and at the end Erik tells Shaw he agreed with everything Shaw said about mutant superiority, and is really (only?) killing him because Shaw killed his mother. Granted, Erik doesn’t suggest concentration camps or casually slaughtering humans; but he seems to have total contempt for humans, he has no problem killing humans, and he abandons Mystique (who had been with him since the 1960s) the (literal) minute she loses her mutant identity.

      2. Azazel I thought was an odd choice unless it was to provide some setup for Nightcrawler later on (via X2), but they don’t do much with the character. Or he was a useful character to use because of the dynamic action scenes he could provide.

    2. I’ve always seen that as the core of Magneto’s tragic character: he’s so fixated on “Never Again” that he doesn’t even realize he’s appropriating Nazi rhetoric and methodology.

  16. I enjoyed this film a lot more than the Wolverine movie. Despite the several continuity problems, it’s not just a good prequel, but functions as a good movie, even if it didn’t have the big-star or popular-character hooks of the first movies.

    1. I agree it was a solid plot and a perfect way to introduce and give reason for the X-Men to exist. I can’t wait to see what they will do for the next one. I still would prefer if they would use this movie as a clean cut from the previous movies especially after the lackluster Wolverine and the terrible X3.

  17. This is one of those times that I wish I was an artist. I’d love to draw a cartoon of the Beast standing there at an airport check-in counter being told that he has to pay $30 per bag and, by the way, they only have middle seats left. And the title is “X-Men: Coach Class.”
    .
    PAD

  18. I’d also like to add a comment I saw in one review (and wish that I’d come up with it by myself) that Michael Fassbender would someday make a good James Bond.

    Oh, and about Emma Frost having been younger but is now older than Wolverine? It’s been well-established that Logan ages slowly, so it’s very possible that Emma is now physically older.

    1. I think your misreading the point. It’s not that Emma is younger than Wolverine, it’s that Emma was younger in the Wolverine movie which was set in the 80’s than she is in this movie set in the 60’s. Ie she’s aging backwards.

      1. Different earths.
        .
        I mean, why not? If current Marvel continuity allows for variances on different earths, why not the Marvel movies?

        So this one was set in movie Earth 2011.
        .
        PAD

      2. Beyond having the same power, I’m not sure they actually refer to her as Emma Frost in Wolverine….Kayla just calls her ‘my sister’.
        So while I’m sure it was intended that she be Emma in Wolverine, there’s nothing in the text that means she HAS to be…thus freeing the character to appear in First Class

      3. Oh, and PAD’s ‘different earths’ is very likely to come into play to explain the different continuities once the Deadpool movie comes out….we know that it ignores the Wolverine version (well, apart from a playful dig).

      4. The character in Wolverine was never identified as Emma Frost. Could be a daughter?

    2. I can deal with the minor continuity glitches. I cant justify stressing about them. really.
      .
      Some of them can easily be explained, anyway.
      .
      Non-furry Hank in X-men 2? Image inducer.
      Emma’s age? Telepathically making you see her as young and hot.
      One review I enjoyed made an interesting continuity point, though. He said, “You know that scene in X-men 2 where Magneto and the Professor go the Jean Grey’s House? Yeah, probably not going to happen…”
      er I
      .
      Darwin’s fate was just inexcusable, though. Of course, they can always bring him back with a weird explanation of how his power saved him.
      .

      1. yeah… emma’s age discrepancy also bothers me. but it’s also been confirmed in some publications that the diamond girl in wolverine is NOT emma. so let’s just say it’s diamond lil…

  19. As it happens, just saw it tonight.

    Usually in a comic movie, when they mess with well-established canon, you either find yourself cringing, or at best saying, “well, I’ll give them that one.” In this movie, I just found myself saying, “wow.” The ways that they monkeyed with things just made so much sense, and made the character dynamics so much more complex and interesting.

    Still think Thor was a more entertaining movie, but (except for Loki) this was a far more interesting one.

  21. I’ll be going to see it for Michael Fassbender. I liked him a lot in “300” and “Inglourious Bášŧërdš.” I’m also anxious to get a better look at the submarine that Magneto levitates out of the water (assuming it’s he who does it) to see if they got reasonably close in selection and detail.

  22. It is a good movie overall, but has some embarrashing moments that lower too much the final result.
    And the girl with wings… sorry, but I was not able to stand her.
    I give it 7 stars out of 10. Good film, far from X-Men 2 and Spidey 2, but loooong way above X3 and Wolverine.

  23. I loved it, but I also agree with the Armchair Critic that characterization was somewhat lacking for everyone except Magneto, Xavier and Mystique: why was Alex in prison? What exactly prompted Angel’s change of heart? How does Hank adjust to his new form so quickly? Who are Azazel and Riptide? (Did they even have lines?)

    I’m also slightly troubled by the fact that of the four female characters in the movie, three end up with Magneto and one is mindwiped and left to fend for herself. Coming out of a series in which the team was led by a woman for over twenty years? It’s rather egregious.

    1. Well, to take a whack at my perception of the answers:
      .
      1) I assumed Alex was in prison for serious property damage.
      .
      2) Angel’s turn actually didn’t surprise me, aside from the fact that she was already established as a villain in the comics. The actress played it subtly, but she seemed to be having the strongest reactions when the agents were giving them crap. Plus she’d spent her adult life with men basically objectifying her. They sure seemed to be playing her as feeling like she had the least reason for allegiance to humanity’s interests.
      .
      3) Considering he was snarling and seemed ready to kill some of his team mates, I wouldn’t say Hank was fully adjusted.
      .
      4) Yeah, they could have done more with them. Azazel spoke a few times and was clearly Russian which helped with some other plot aspects. Riptide…hëll, I’m not even sure they mentioned his name. The actor’s Spanish; maybe English isn’t his strong suit.
      .
      5) In terms of females, I guess they were kind of hamstrung: Angel is an established comic villain, Mystique we knew what was going to happen, Emma was a villain from the get-go, and Moira’s fate was pretty much a plot necessity. It wouldn’t have made sense for Xavier to send her back to be grilled by the CIA with that information in her head when he had the easy alternative. Why put her in that position? On the upside, when they did the Cerebro sweep, they seemed to be mostly zooming in on females (Storm, most conspicuously). Plus one could argue that people of color fared far worse: there was only one black guy in the whole film and he died even though his whole power is not dying. So that’s one hundred percent egregiousness.
      .
      PAD

      1. Darwin’s death was indeed problematic, though I liked the idea that the only way you could kill him would be to push his adaptive capabilities past their limits.

        What really bothered me about Moira wasn’t that Xavier mindwiped her, but that he basically sent her back to the CIA to be humiliated and possibly fired. She doesn’t get any credit for her part in bringing Shaw down; she’s just held up as an example of “why women don’t belong in the CIA”. I kept expecting some last-minute twist for her, and it didn’t happen.

      2. A friend pointed out that from this movie you can’t trust women they are most likely going to be a villain.

        It was a shame in how they treated Darwin, but maybe he didn’t really die and his adaptive abilities will allow his body to reform after a long time…maybe.

      3. Darwin’s death was indeed problematic, though I liked the idea that the only way you could kill him would be to push his adaptive capabilities past their limits.
        .
        Except theoretically his powers don’t really have limits. That’s kind of the point OF his powers. What I’d like to see is a subsequent film where Darwin comes back and basically he’s evolved to something that is barely recognizable as anything human.
        .
        What really bothered me about Moira wasn’t that Xavier mindwiped her, but that he basically sent her back to the CIA to be humiliated and possibly fired.
        .
        Yeah, their treatment of her kind of sucked. You get the feeling that if it had been, say, Oliver Platt, they would have just cursed out those dámņëd mutants rather than treating him like he was some sort of failure. But realistically, what was Xavier’s alternative? If he mind wipes her, humiliation and possibly being fired. He doesn’t mind wipe her and she refuses to talk, they grill her, they shoot her up with sodium pentathol, they probably charge her with treason, and she does jail time. It was a suck ášš situation no matter what.
        .
        PAD

      4. I was a little appalled that the only black guy bites it (and so early in the film). But two things: He goes out as the only one to step forward as a hero. And though I’m not familiar with the character in the comic, according to Wackipedia, he does seeming die at one point in the comics after his powers are tested to their limits, but actually comes back (in typically convoluted X-Men style) as an energy being. So, if there’s a sequel to this film, it’s possible the character will return, ala Phoenix. I certainly hope so, if only to balance the scales.

  24. I really enjoyed the movie, putting it just a notch below X2, but one possibly major continuity glitch was pointed out to me recently by a friend: how is Xavier paralyzed and split with Magneto in First Class, but older, walking, and allied with Magneto in the prologue to X3 when they meet the young Jean Grey? I think this comes, along with other glitches, in the effort to reboot the series but also connect it enough to the previous films so as to keep (or attempt to keep) that audience.

    Of course, we could always have the Shi’ar show up between First Class & X3 to heal Xavier as they do in the comics!

    1. Or we could just ignore X-Men 3. That… actually works for me. 😉

      1. See? See? Now the whole idea of a telepath being able to wipe something from your mind doesn’t seem so bad now, does it? “Boy, Diana, wasn’t X3 terrible?” “I…don’t remember that at all.” “I thought you went to see it?” “I did, but it’s funny…I remember heading for the theater, and then there was this bald guy right outside it, and suddenly I was at a Starbucks finishing a latte. The rest is a blank.”
        .
        PAD

      3. Peter: See? See? Now the whole idea of a telepath being able to wipe something from your mind doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?
        Luigi Novi: Well, it does for me, since I thoroughly enjoyed X-Men United.
        .
        I’ll keep all my synapses and neurons and all their electrochemical activity as-is, thank you very much. 🙂

  25. Only HALF of Roy Thomas’ career is writing continuity implants? …. I suppose I missed most of his avengers stuff, but it feels like a lot more than that. Of course A*S continues to be the GREATEST THING EVER WRITTEN, DAMMIT!!
    .
    Errr.. other than stuff written by PAD, of course.
    .
    I think it’s arguable, though, that this could be defined as a prequel, as the part they spin off from the first X-book was a very small segment, and basically biographical background. It’s like saying in Star Wars: “Darth Vader was born. Therefore, everything that we now tell you happened after Vader was born is not a prequel, but a continuity implant”.
    .
    However, I think this is splitting hairs pretty finely, all in all. Whether it should be called a sequel or not? Ye gods, I hope no one’s wasting time arguing about that.

    1. “It’s like saying in Star Wars: “Darth Vader was born. Therefore, everything that we now tell you happened after Vader was born is not a prequel, but a continuity implant”.”
      .
      No, it’s not. There’s no scene in “Star Wars IV: New Hope” showing the birth of Vader. The first time we see him he’s an adult walking into the ship looking for the Princess.
      .
      PAD

  26. I think you can go crazy trying to reconcile the continuity glitches between ‘First Class,’ the three X-Men movies and Wolverine. It doesn’t particularly bother me that there’s a diamond girl in Wolverine: I’m not sure she’s identified by name, or is she? It does bug me a little bit that we see Xavier walking in X3, but then again, it bothers me that Storm completely loses her African dialect between X1 and X3. As I say, you can go crazy, so the best thing to do is just enjoy the film you’re watching and try not to worry about tons of extraneous- and often contradictory- continuity.

    1. According to the trivia on IMDB, the creators of the film are completely ignoring X3 and Wolverine.
      .
      Perfect way to completely confuse most viewers.

  27. I had given up on this movie, I never even saw Wolverine. But after all the word-of-mouth, I think I’ll go see it.

  28. I’m still wondering how Moira could be in her twenties in this movie, and only in her thirties (check the actress on imdb) some 40 years later, especially when Xavier and Magneto have aged so much more. The only possible explanation is that the Moira of X3 is the daughter of the First Class Moira.
    Also, if Storm was, as she appears, perhaps 6 in 1962, that would have put her in her mid-40s by the time of the first X-Men movie, quite a bit older than Halle Berry was or the character was supposed to be.
    And, I believe the Diamond Girl in X-Men Origins was actually referred to as “Emma.”

    1. She used the same anti-ageing cream that Cyclops used, as he was a teen in the 70’s in Wolverine, and only in his mid-20’s 20 years later in X1.

      And as for Storm, I guess they really wanted to work a white haired little girl in there somewhere, as she’s also in a deleted scene from Wolverine.

  29. I don’t think FIRST CLASS a prequel. I believe the intention, possibly even when they started shooting, was that FIRST CLASS would adhere to the continuity of at least X-MEN and X2. The cameos from Jackman and Romijn and the recreation of X-MEN’s opening scene suggest so. But Vaughn and Goldman had to rewrite the film as they were shooting due to the tight schedule, and that’s probably where the continuity discrepancies began to develop beyond some liberties.

    Beast building Cerebro instead of Magneto and Xavier, Xavier losing his mobility in 1962 when LAST STAND showed up on his feet during the early 90s, Storm and Cyclops being shown as kids in the Cerebro scan when they shouldn’t have even been born in the 60’s — all this makes FIRST CLASS an alternate take on the movie continuity rather than a prequel.

    I think that’s cool, though. I didn’t really like where the X-MEN universe went in THE LAST STAND and I’d be glad to see a new version of the X-Men that keeps the stronger material and discards the lesser stuff (like that horrible WOLVERINE movie).

  30. In a way, this is like Superman Returns.
    The first two movies happened and are referenced.
    The last two movies didn’t.

    1. The same is true with all of the Godzilla movies, they have multiple continuities but all have the same point of origin with the original movie.

  31. I dug this movie quite a lot. What sticks with me a week later is the sloowwwww tracking shot of the coin and the cut back to Xavier reacting to the slooowww tracking shot of the coin. And it’s just played out with music but, ye Gods!

    As for Darwin getting bumped off, yes, surprise surprise the only black guy in the film bites it but I would think that it would be a way to bump him off. However, I was expecting a Dues Ex Darwin to come back. Hëll, even after it happened I wasn’t even sure he was dead. As for the roster of mutants, they’re kinda down to the C-listers by the point once you take out Xavier / Mysitque / Magneto / Beast. Didn’t mind in the slightest, but I think the weakest part of the movie was the minor mutants and their well-worn X-Men cliche of “Nobody understands us!”

    But that’s more than made up for with the villains and the heart of the movie is the relationship between Magneto and Xavier. I dug how McAvoy was doing a slight Patrick Stewart impression, but he was a bit more carefree. And he kept doing the hand-to-the-temple thing as kind of a show off manner, and he spent the first 20 minutes of the film showing off his powers (“want to see another magic trick? Get in the car”) and trying to score with chicks. Fassbender wasn’t doing an Ian McKellen impression at all, but he had the tone of the character right. One of my favourite things was the portrayal of Mags as a man of few words, considering he is one of the more talky bad-guys in the Marvel stable (and in the X-Men movies where he spends most of his screentime monologing). Which is what makes his big “I got my helmet now and I shalt rant about the humans and move BIG FRIGGIN MISSILES with my magnetism powers because I rock” moment work so well. We *know* that guy is in there, but it takes his time for him to emerge.

    I hope this flick has some legs, I would love to see more Retro X-Men. Of course, if it doesn’t make as much bank as the other flicks (adjusted for inflation) people will say “Hah! you can’t do a retro 60s superhero movie!” and never get something as neat as this again.

    1. So basically we’ve got a mutant title with C-list characters like Darwin, no Wolverine (except for about ten seconds), and even though many people feel it is superior in content to several other X-titles featuring the A-list characters, it seems to be underperforming financially.
      .
      I can relate.
      .
      PAD

      1. ,
        $73,894,349 by yesterday’s box office. That’s not bad for the first week. The thing had a lot going against it thanks to fan overreaction to every still and bit of news that came out. I’m thinking we see a slightly better second weekend performance than the typical these days second week drop off thanks to good word of mouth.
        .
        Or the franchise is screwed. One or the other.

      2. I’ve really started to think that fan overreaction, and indeed fan support or lack thereof in general, is way overrated in terms of how much impact it has on the box office. Let’s remember that at this point, as near as anyone can determine, there’s a few hundred thousand people reading comics. That’s it. That means the comics fans bring in a few million at most. The vast, vast vast majority of film goers, I believe, not only don’t give a crap about the reactions of fans but actually think fans are kind of strange.
        .
        When you say “X-Men” to them, they don’t think about the comics. The first thing that pops into their heads is the theme song from the old cartoon series. Most movie goers had their sole exposure to comics characters through animated programs. If you don’t believe, ask random people, and even kids, that are wearing t-shirts or clothing with Marvel characters on them whether they read the comics. Most of the time, the answer’s no.
        .
        Too many films that fans have loved have tanked and too many that they’ve hated have made huge amounts of money for me to think there’s any worthwhile correlation.
        .
        PAD

      3. .
        “I’ve really started to think that fan overreaction, and indeed fan support or lack thereof in general, is way overrated in terms of how much impact it has on the box office. Let’s remember that at this point, as near as anyone can determine, there’s a few hundred thousand people reading comics. That’s it. “
        .
        Yeah, but I’m not talking about exclusively comic book fans here. I’m talking about fans of superhero films here.
        .
        There were any number of forums that I saw people who had little or no clue about what was in the comics or in the general history of the characters who were complaining about the film based on stills and the first trailer. The guys playing Professor X and Magneto would never live up to the roles, the character’s outfits looked low budget compared to the first films, Jones would ruin the film with her wooden acting, Hugh wasn’t in this film as Wolverine and he’s what made the other films watchable, etc., etc., etc…
        .
        We’re seeing the same thing with Spider-Man now. I know people who have never read more than a few issues of Spider-Man (and that was a long time ago) who were big fans of the last three films (well, maybe not the third) who are knocking the new film based on the look of the stills coming out and the concept in general.
        .
        As you know full well as you’ve pointed out fan overreaction on the part of Trek fans before; it ain’t just comic book fans that act this way. Every group of fans has a large chunk in their group that sees the worst in anything new or different coming down the puike that means change to what they’re a fan of.

      4. “Jones would ruin the film with her wooden acting”
        .
        They were right to be be worried about that one.

      5. .
        Okay, I was wrong. The second weekend drop-off in earnings is in line with a movie not making a big splash. Word of mouth ain’t saving it.
        .
        The franchise is screwed.

      6. I still think Fox is going to go ahead and make Wolverine and Deadpool since they’re (kinda) deep in development. After that? Any guess. Maybe they’d ring the X-4 bell, or go for yet another reboot, anything to keep the property from going back into Disney/Marvel fans.

  32. Hi, first post. SPOILERS BE HERE
    Loved the movie.As you said, it was epic. Kevin Bacon was awesome, as so was Fassbender. What I did not like were three little things: the random inclusions of Azazel, one of the worst X Men villains ever, and of two of the worst X people ever: Angel, and Darwin.
    How could Azazel not be replaced by, say, The Vanisher (really, an old dude being led by younger people), or replaced by a more formidable enemy (say, Omega Red or Black Tom or even a young version of Sabretooth, as the Azazel character was only muscle, and the transporting part could have been written out), I don`t understand. Maybe the writers wanted a character no one would have cared it it was reinvented.
    As for Darwin and Angel, they could have easily been replaced by Bishop, Cannonball, Frenzy, Pixie or Sunfire. Neither of those are my faves, but they are better characters
    Ideally, Banshee would have been his older world weary self, and Havok (to keep more coherence) would have been replaced by some other blaster, but that’s just nitpicking.

    1. First off, welcome to the site.
      .
      Second, my assumption was that with the inclusion of Azazel, they were preparing to lay trackwork for the birth of Nightcrawler. I could see in the next film Magneto and Mystique hitting a rocky patch, Mystique winds up banging Azazel just to make Magneto jealous (perhaps disguising herself as Angel if Azazel is having an affair with Angel), subsequently regrets her actions, but winds up preggers. She makes up with Magneto, tells him the baby’s his, until it’s born and…yeah, uhm, the parentage is pretty obvious. Magneto is so furious he kills Azazel in pure rage even though the poor bášŧárd didn’t even realize he’d slept with her. And then as the final crowning touch, the infant bamfs away. They have no idea where he’s gone to, and Magneto just killed the one guy who might have been able to find him.
      .
      Or maybe nothing like that happens.
      .
      I didn’t mind a younger Banshee, but I sure would have liked a more pronounced Irish brogue. I mean, he didn’t have to be the Lucky Charms elf, but…
      .
      PAD

      1. Ðámņ…a Lucky Charms Banshee…that’s going to be stuck in my mind for awhile.

      2. I didn’t mind a younger Banshee, but I sure would have liked a more pronounced Irish brogue.
        .
        And that’s been another ongoing battle in the X-Men films: bad or complete lack of accents with many of the non-American characters.

    2. Yeah, the inclusion of Angel is just bizarre. She’s a terrible character, she’s only a few years old and to my knowledge is not used anymore (I know she was depowered and ended up in that New Warriors series, but I have no idea if she’s shown up since then), and, well, her name is Angel, and there’s already an Angel. While watching the movie, I couldn’t help thinking, “They’ve never had any of the New Mutants in the movies, and yet they’ve got Angel Salvadore and Darwin!”

  33. I’ll have to go with Peter on this; it makes sense to throw Azazel in just to lay a bit of trick for the sequel. Even if that thread goes nowhere, at least it’s there if needed. And I tend to agree about the ratio of die-hard comic book fans to movie-goers; while it would be nice to have those fans on board, I don’t think the filmmakers lose a huge amount of sleep over it- although there were doubtless some spirited dinner conversation in writer/producer Jane Goldman’s household, as her husband Jonathan Ross is a huge comic book fan.

  34. Fan support can extend beyond just the fan community, though. Quite a few people I know who are NOT comic book fans went to see IRON MAN on my insistent recommendation and were very happy they’d done so. Want to bet they didn’t tell some of their friends? It won’t account for the majority of the box office take, sure, but for more than just the fan base. It adds up.

  35. Some possible spoilers.

    Glad the Angel thing was sorted out in these comments. One big problem I had with it when friends and I went late last night to see the film was what happens to the character. “No way!” But we’d never heard of that character and thought she was a recent character who also has gossamer wings, flies, but teleports instead of throwing up acid bombs. Why rename her? was our take. But knowing there was such a character by that name makes a lot more sense.

    Over all, not a bad film, but it did have problems. Darwin,’s demise, yes. But also I didn’t care for the rewrite of Shaw’s character. Maybe I missed an issue somewhere in the mid 90s when they brought this up, but the origin didn’t work for us. The actor didn’t look right. Not to mention his having often stated he converted kinetic energy, not ANY type of energy, did they rewrite the character in the strip? Too, since when can he do it as an area effect? The wide shot should have struck the people standing near him. Nope, he absorbed that, too? Say what?

    McCoy? From the first he’d been described as the “bombastic Beast” in the comic. Here, he often cames across as hesitant, uncertain. Didn’t work for us.

    Canon: Scott was the first mutant Xavier found. Not his brother. Not in the film?!

    Didn’t buy the bit in Magneto’s origin when he first lashes out seriously and strikes at everybody, except …? We were all going “what are you waiting for? Go on. Finish it!” But, nope. Why? We know it wouldn’t have worked, but Erik couldn’t have known. (Although as I type this I can think of a way he could have done away with the baddie quite easily.

    Spoiler —

    Do the same thing to Shaw he did to the others, wrap metal around his head and squeeze. Not tightly enough to impart sufficient energy to make a difference in Shaw’s strength, but enough to cut off his air. That should do it.)

    End spoiler —

    Finally, I’m nit picking, but I agree with Copernicus on Ain’t-it-cool where one is willing to do some suspension of disbelief for cinematic purposes (yes, as he puts it, Star Destroyers should make a loud rumbling sound as they go past in space) but not when it’s just lazy writing.

    Time is elastic in comics, sure. But here, it’s twisted out of shape. I can buy Xavier having somehow acquired a modified Blackbird for personal use. Only … declassified documents show the first flight wasn’t until the year AFTER the missile crisis. So what are they doing bopping around in one? Yes, I got the bit about “I designed it”, but even so … if you accept this, then technological advancement on the planet should be much faster and Stark-like tech should be commonplace by the time of the earlier movies. Not just in some limited places.

    Too, while the visual aspect of many of the female characters’ garb was most appealing, again, that style of dress wasn’t around until years after that event. The wardrobe designer needs to study fashion history more closely. It was as jarring as the scene in EXCALIBUR when one of the female characters is seen in a 70s summer garden dress. In King Arthur’s time?! Hello?

    We were also puzzled by how the new mutants were bragging about and showing off their powers and then, when the situation crops up where they might be useful, they just stand there. I understand being surprised and ‘blindsided’, but for that long? And the turning didn’t quite work. Yeah, treated badly by people. Fine. But those she throws in with KILL their own kind. Which is worse?

    In spite of the above, it wasn’t a bad film. Just could have been a lot better without those annoying details.

    Emma, for example was portrayed as she should be. The diamond effect was spectacular and she was shown as a dangerous telepath (though I don’t recall her ever being shown to be as powerful as Xavier). Not like the mousy disco ball version in the Wolverine movie.

    Yes, the interaction between Xavier and Erik worked well. Yes, the paranoia of the government types worked well. These were the Red scare years after all, when there was an enemy under every bed.

    Even the fight at the end … some people ridiculed what was happening with the missiles. I disagree. I thought it worked, although, again, some of the missiles shown were not developed until years later. Note to film makers: do your research, people!

  36. Only 1 comment (not really connected to the movie) Why isn’t a character that has gossamer insect-like wings & spits fire NOT called Dragonfly?

  37. Re: The StarWolf comment.
    When Magneto lashed out, it was uncontrolled. Nothing he dis was done voluntarily, and thus he could not target the other character. He had no control over his manifestation of powers

    1. Trouble is, the way it manifested in some ways (the helmets, for example) made it seem more precise than this.

      Too, occurred to me after writing the first bit. Angel isn’t happy about being objectified by men. Right, so what does she do? Slip on a little leather number from Frederick’s of Genosha that’ll have all the guys drooling? Maybe she doesn’t mind objectifying herself? I loved the first two films. They clearly didn’t spend as much time thinking details out in this one, though.

  38. Overall reaction: loved it! I enjoyed this film way too much to worry about continuity problems with the other films, obvious though they were.

    According to the imdb trivia page the filmmakers consider it a reboot as opposed to a direct prequel, so I guess they felt all the details didn’t need to line up. Still it was nice that they included nods to the other film. I’ve taken the alternate universe approach.

    And the lack of accents was a deliberate choice of the director. (again citing imdb, which I always take with a grain of salt) McAvoy was all set to do a Patrick Stewart impression, and Matthew Vaughn put a stop to it.

    Peter, I was so excited to see a character I know strictly through your work pop-up, then disappointed at his demise. I was hoping for a post-credit sequence where we begin to see him reform himself.

    I would have liked to have seen the genesis for Moira’s research facility.

    I liked that the film was set in the year before the comic debuted, and probably my biggest fan boy moment was finally seeing Magneto in a red and purple outfit that more closely resembled his costume from the comics.

    This is the third film in a row I’ve seen and really liked from Matthew Vaughn (the others being Stardust and Kick Úš. I hope he keeps them coming.

  39. Saw it last night and found it generally entertaining; a solid “B.” Would have been higher, but for some of the same niggling continuity problems, lack of fleshing out of the non-principals, and Darwin issues that some of the others had.

    Did no one else catch the obviously Singer-penned Donner homage, the Kiss to Forget (taken from Superman II)?

    1. “Did no one else catch the obviously Singer-penned Donner homage, the Kiss to Forget (taken from Superman II)?”

      Possibly a homage to Superman II, but not to Donner, as the memory-erasing-kiss, as far as I know, originated in Lester’s version of the film after Donner was fired. In Donner’s conception of the film, Lois’ memory was undone by the earth’s rotation being reversed (as seen in the Donner cut of SII).

  40. One of (many) reasons I liked “X-Men: First Class” – seeing cool cult character actors like James Remar, Ray Wise, and Michael Ironside showing up in bit-parts.

    1. Yeah, when we saw Ray Wise, we thought, “Uh oh. The devil is the Secretary of Defense. We’re screwed now.”
      .
      Jeez, I miss “Reaper.”
      .
      PAD

  41. As an old SR-71 maintenance troop, I was in Reno this past weekend for the Blackbird Reunion (a gathering of former members of the SR-71 community, and the current/former members of the U-2 community). Being the resident comics geek amongst my old SR-71 buddies, I mentioned the SR-71’s appearance in “X-Men: First Class,” and we all had a good laugh at how the “modified” Blackbird in the film had a passenger compartment in the fuselage, complete with rows of passenger windows similar to those found on a commercial airliner. It was funny to us because that area is where much of the SR-71’s fuel is located. Then again, Hank’s one smart mutant, so maybe he installed a flux capacitor and a mini-fusion reactor to somehow power those J-58 engines.

  42. Mini-rant: Now that I’ve seen this, I’m surprised and disappointed so many of you liked this film. I’m certainly no writer but I know enough to say this was really poorly written.

    Mystique just happening to wander into Xavier’s house seemed to be a ridiculous coincidence considering how rare mutants are presented in this film (at this point no one’s seen one or heard of one). Then later, they do it again when (by total coincidence) Xavier is taken to a government lab headed up by Hank McCoy. I was waiting for someone to step out of the shadows and reveal that they had deliberately brought them all together but, no, it was just all happy good luck.

    Overall, I could “feel” the plot writing too much. Things seemed to happen in an unnatural way, not because of a logical sequence to the story, but because the writer(s) needed them to happen. Details were unexplained, characters were badly represented and the dialog was no bad in parts it pulled me out of the film. IMO, it was the second worst installment of the X-Men franchise, only marginally better made than the stinky Wolverine film.

    1. It was the government lab that studied mutations. It’s not a stretch that supergenius Hank McCoy would gravitate to that, given his own background.
      .
      The Mystique thing WAS a huge coincidence. Charles is a telepath, and it would have made a lot more sense if he had sensed her in distress somewhere nearby or something.
      .
      In any case, I loved the movie. I am not the analytical/logical sort when it comes to movies. The emotional notes rang true to me.

  43. I’ve just watched it. It’s my favorite Marvel movie since the first Iron Man. I am by no means a Wolverine hater, and I really dig Hugh Jackman in the role, but it really seems to me that the lack of Wolverine was one of the things that made the film flourish. Xavier and Magneto always seemed like a more natural center to the X-Men mythology than Logan.
    .
    One thing I thought was funny: Charles and Magneto were so gay for each other here, that no one would be surprised if they kissed.

  44. I agree 100%! Finally saw it and it was an incredible film!
    And Jerry? the franchise is not necessarily screwed. A “Green Lantern” sequel has been green lit besides being more disappointing, getting much more negative reviews and suffering a steeper second week drop than “XM:FC”.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/27/green-lantern-2-greenlit
    .
    Also, after a week or so, Bryan Singer was already talking about a sequel.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/27/green-lantern-2-greenlit
    .
    A lot of films have underperformed this summer. Given the glowing reviews and the fact they have everyone under contract at an affordable price, plus DVD and international revenue yet to come, I think a sequel will be green lit.

  45. Saw it today. And I loved it. Continuity issues were not an issue for me. I just enjoyed a very satisfying ride. Yes, I could believe that McAvoy and Fassbender would grow up to be Stewart and McKellen, just as I could believe that Anthony Hopkins was an older version of Guy Williams in Mask of Zorro. And nice to see that John Dykstra is still working. So, althugh not as good as the first two, it’s way better than the third one, and could lead to intersting sequels.

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