New X-Men: First Class (2011)

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Lawrence

Few things in Hollywood  have made as much sense as the decision to reunite Matthew Vaughn (Director) and Jane Goldman (Screenplay) for the latest Marvel comic endeavour X-men: First Class (2011) following the blustering antics of cult hit Kick Ass, which traversed effortlessly between realms of comic book hero pastiche and spoof mockery.

This latest X-Men project's  first issue however is in its classification which is lost somewhere along the line, officially it is a prequel to Bryan Singer's work when he first brought the story to the big screen over a decade ago with X-Men (2000) and a follow up X2 (2003). Singer who took a back seat for the third installment, the franchise butchering  X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) makes up part of the production team this time around, so there is the lingering presence of the early franchise but equally a distancing combination of new faces and places . The second issue is the script which was rewritten twice due to what essentially is a merger of ideas between a Magneto Origins spin-off (which is how the film started out)  and the remodelling of the X-Men story, and for the first hour of the film there is a clearly evident conflict in what the film wishes to achieve.

At its heart we have a revenge story - Erik Lehnsherr (Fassbender) the would be Magneto is the Holocaust surviving mutant with the ability to manipulate metals, looking to avenge the murder of his mother at the hands of Kevin Bacon’s ubiquitous Sebastian Shaw, a deranged and destructive leader of malevolent mutant gang. Completing the triangular affair is Charles Xavier (McAvoy) a clandestine physic mutant and budding professor, who is hired by the US government to forge a gifted task force. The feelings of vengeance are deflected into obscurity somewhat by the politically driven motives of all involved which is cleverly worked into the narrative through the histrionics of Cold War paranoia and the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

 

All of which means the young X-Men are for relegated to subtext anonymity for long periods, whilst the big boys talk politics or ideologies the adolescents ponder more personal and inflective feelings like identities and acceptance. In one section of the film the unsuspecting heroes are effectively shoved into a room almost as if to buy Vaughn some more time to figure out what to do with them. At this point things feel rather clumsy as we are introduced very quickly to their powers as well as less tangible weakness’, but in a rather unbalanced fashion from unearthing a potential love interest to circus trickery.   

What saves the day in the end is a combination of power house aesthetics,

 which manifests itself in anything from seismic action sequences to gorgeous 60’s nostalgia. And Fassbender’s magnetic (excuse the pun) performance which paints a portrait of man equally at odds with himself and the world, bringing a menacing tenacity to proceedings. 

Still not the finished article for Marvel though, whose big screen adaptations seem intent on having one eye on the future promises instead of making something for the here and now, but interesting enough for comic book lovers and newcomers alike.

7/10