"X-Men: First Class" 1/5 Pitchforks Staring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence Rated: PG – 13 June 3, 2011
Incorporating the storytelling aspect of a “prequel” – a story or movie containing events that precede those of an existing work – seems to almost be common place these days in cinema, particularly when adapting for the big screen the convoluted and near soap opera-like mess that most comic book and super hero storylines are founded upon.
In spite of popular opinion, hindsight does not always come equipped with twenty-twenty vision. The thought that simply adding a “prequel” to any story will somehow bring clairvoyance to the plot at hand (or even those to come) needs to be unmasked as the fallacy it has become. The new film “X-Men: First Class,” which opens Friday, looks to do just that.
In what proved to be a massive waste of time, “X-Men: First Class” attempts to convince the audience that this beloved cast of characters, harking all the way back to the beginning of this alternate branch of reality that Marvel Comics created, is composed of individuals worthy of the big screen. These are real people suffering through real physical and emotional torment, but they’re mutants too. Mutant, yet proud – they need you to understand, and for some, to fear them.
As is the plot – or every plot within these X-Men “movies,” living with the plight, and delight – of mutanthood, while all the while longing to “just fit in” as well. With “X-Men: First Class” we are yet again thrown several different characters going about their day-to-day routine of either how to manipulate young college women (Charles Xavier, of all people), or hunting the Nazi’s that, in a round about way of course, created you (Magneto).
There are two things I know to be true: First, that watching a reputable man, a respected and wise man such as Professor Charles Xavier “run game” as a youth is not entertainment. Sir Patrick Stewart wouldn’t do it, and neither would Captain Picard. They certainly wouldn’t need to rely on their God-given accent to make it work either. And secondly, hunting Nazi’s does make for world-class, grade-A entertainment.
Sadly, while hunting Nazi’s is part of the story at hand, it certainly is not the dominating and prevailing force that it could have been. Michael Fassbender, who plays Erik Lehnsherr, the young, dapper and very hardened man on a mission, who later becomes Magneto, delivers the only worthy performance. Every scene featuring the hell that was young Erik’s life and the obvious effect it had on him, to include the overall and awe-inspiring capabilities of his power, was well received.
However, the rest of the film showcases a “too smart for his own britches” flavor of Charles Xavier, as portrayed by James McAvoy and a handful of other quasi-notable characters from the franchises’ early years.
There is the half-hearted attempt at showing the transition young Raven goes through on her way to becoming Mystique. Though mostly the audience is suppose to find sympathy with how Jennifer Lawrence portrays the difficulty of growing up beautiful, yet blue.
Beast is an absolute abomination, if only by the sake of irony. Showing the “creation” of Beast was nice, but when “it” was finally revealed, the sense that a Care Bear wearing a jumpsuit two-sizes too small had found its way on set was the only obvious conclusion. Though one might try to argue that at least his “Care Bear Stare” power was rage, what was only briefly shown was a mere negligible amount of laughable anger at best.
All of the other “mutants” serve to be mere wall paper. Where the characters are far more interesting, powers included, the audience is forced to listen to McAvoy pontificate the psychological ramifications of everyone else’s actions, and to reassure everyone with how amazing they truly are, on the inside, and that it shouldn’t matter what other people think about you.
Regardless of the message, it was delivered ad nauseam. Too much was dialogue driven, and the moments of super power showcasing were too brief and too few. Understandably every story needs a foundation to build upon with the audience, but this franchise has had that chance more times than most. We get it – now, fight bad guys and get on with it. Re-telling, or telling the audience from a different moment in time how and why everyone got mad at everyone else in the first place has put this franchise on serious thin ice.
Where there are a slew of upcoming X-men related films with future releases lightly set in stone, “X-Men: First Class” comes as close as it can to sucking any and all excitement or even relative interest out of those upcoming films.
Cameos alone were not enough to save this butchering; in fact, (spoiler) Wolverine’s appearance sums it up perfectly – if only they had listened. Even with the addition of Kevin Bacon’s 7-degrees of involvement fails to move this film towards any memorable level of after-thought. This was a mistake, or at the absolute least, a miss altogether.
Reach the reporter jbfortne@asu.edu
