Reboot, ret-con, continuity. These are all words that any comic book would know. In the world of comics all three of these things have to work together to bring in new readers and excite old ones. With some comics having almost 80 years worth of storytelling behind them it can get very confusing to know where things started from and who did what to whom. One of the biggest franchises that uses these terms is the X-Men franchise. With so many characters and titles, trying to keep everything straight can be very difficult. It’s fitting that the first comic book franchise to pull this off on the big screen is the X-Men because they are very good at doing it. And they succeeded quite well with “X-Men: First Class.”
The last two X-Men films, “X3: X-Men United” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” were garbage. They threw out character development and interesting storytelling for big action sequences and crappy special effects. “X-Men: First Class” was made so that Fox could maintain the movie license. The entire movie was conceived and shot within 1 year and to be honest I thought it was destined to fail. But it didn’t. How? By following the three words I first mentioned. Reboot, the entire movie restarted the X-Men movie franchise from the beginning, everything felt fresh and new. Ret-con, by changing how small things happened in the past, viewers were able to take a new view on how things have happened in the movies that have already happened. Continuity, except for a few small differences the movie fits in with the first two X-Men films, it doesn’t fit in at all with the last two, but it’s probably better to pretend that those don’t exist anyways.
“X-Men: First Class” is setup as a period piece. Taking place during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it explores a world were mutants are not yet hated, but actually aren’t yet even known to exist. A good portion of the movie is dedicated to what we in the comic world refer to as “Assembling the Team.” Every once in a while a new issue will come out that is designed to be a jumping on point for readers where a new status quo will be established. In team books this is known as the “Assembling the Team” book. Most of the time it works because it is fresh and exciting. During these issues we get to see small vignettes of each of the team members that let us know why they are here and what they can do without making it feel contrived. This is what the movie did. The actual plot about trying to end the world was probably the weakest point of the movie. It was the character growth and interactions that really powered this movie and that is what made it great. By taking place in the 60’s the movie was able to capitalize on an era that thanks to “Mad Men” is very popular right now which added to my enjoyment of the movie.
On an acting standpoint this film had two breakout performances and one that was just garbage. January Jones has had to play the emotionally dead wife on “Mad Men” for years. Apparently that hasn’t been acting. Her role as Emma Frost here was terrible, the only dark spot on the movie. James Mcavoy as Professor X was fantastic. He added new dimensions to the character that I would never have expected. But it is Michael Fastbender as Magneto that owns this movie, whether it his portrayal as a Nazi Hunter, friend of Professor X or as the leader of the evil mutants he keeps putting on a great show.
This movie really highlighted some of the interesting things that someone can do with a comic book franchise movie. It gets 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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