Hi gang, Ben here with a review of Matthew Vaughn's cool but very frustrating entry in the X-Men movie franchise.
X-Men: First Class is a good, not great, superhero movie. It works because of some surprisingly deft performances and a larger scope than any of the series’ prior movies. However, it’s weighed down by plodding pacing, a lack of dynamic range, and one of the most truly miserable scores I’ve heard in a long time.
I like the X-Men. I like the idea of a big, freaky superpowered posse going toe-to-toe with other big, freaky superpowered posses. I think mutants as a metaphor for the civil rights movement, as a metaphor for closeted homosexuality, as a metaphor for the positive and negative potential of atomic power is great. I’m flat out in the bag for X-Men. The best parts of X-Men: First Class play straight to my childhood love of this fictional universe. Director Matthew Vaughn is the most successful to date at making a big, splashy X-Men movie, with out of this world action scenes that juggle dozens of characters with unique powers. Half of the fun of X-Men is watching creative dueling combinations between mutants. Watching sound-manipulating Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones) duck and dodge through the air, chased by dragonfly-winged, fireball-spitting Angel (Zoë Kravitz), or watching Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto(Michael Fassbender) team up to take down the energy absorbing, telepathy-resistant Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon, I know, right?)... These are the things that make X-Men comics great, and these are the things that make this movie so much fun to watch. The surrealism of mutant-on-mutant warfare is on full display here.
X-Men: First Class is grounded by two very special performances. James McAvory plays a very different Charles Xavier then we’ve ever seen before. McAvoy’s Xavier is still idealistic and altruistic, but in this younger incarnation, we see the silver spoon clearly sticking out of his mouth. Xavier comes from money. Unlike Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, Xavier has lived a life of luxury. He’s young, charming, and handsome. He uses his telepathy powers to hit on girls. He is lifelong friends with the naturally blue-skinned, morphing-powered Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), but he seems oblivious to her insecurity about her grotesque looks. He even insinuates on several occasions that he too finds her weird looking. When the more “freakish” mutants turn against Prof. X, it’s half his fault for being so insensitive.
Michael Fassbender’s Erik Lehnsherr, on the other hand, is a juggernaut of righteous destiny. Tortured emotionally and physically from childhood, Lehnsherr is on a worldwide, all consuming manhunt for crazed ex-Nazi scientist Sebastian Shaw, the man who murdered his mother in front of his eyes. Fassbender plays Magneto as charismatic, but angry and almost feral at times. We understand his anger, but it’s still frightening. Magneto’s story arc is tragic and triumphant in equal measure. Watching his powers grow over the course of the movie is exciting and engaging.
X-Men: First Class bites off more than it can chew, however. Vaughn's movie attempts to explore no less than the origin stories of Professor X and Magneto, the first outing of mutants to the U.S. government, the initial gathering of mutants and the formation of Xavier’s School, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Magneto and Prof. X’s friendship and eventual falling out, how Prof. X got in the wheelchair, why Beast (Nicholas Hoult) turned blue, and how Magneto became evil. If that sounds like a lot to chew on - especially considering that I left out two dozen characters and subplots - that’s because it is. Vaughn and crew could have cut the plot points in half and come out with a better, more engaging movie. As it is, X-Men: First Class feels like a race to the finish line with Vaughn carrying a checklist in hand. “Did Mystique turn evil? Check. Did we include the origin of Magneto’s telepathy-resistant helmet? Check. Oh shit, we forgot to explain why Xavier is bald!!!”
Matthew Vaughn has become something of a geek icon over the last few years. Though none of his movies have been huge hits, both Stardust and Kick-Ass have attained minor cult status. Both movies are good, and X-Men is good too. But looking at all three, a pattern does start to emerge. Vaughn really struggles with pacing. All of his movies just sort of plod along. There’s no sense of tempo, no sense of loud scenes contrasted with quiet scenes. To be clear, there are quiet scenes in X-Men: First Class – the rec room scene where all of the newly assembled teenage mutants hang out and show off their powers for the first time comes to mind – but these are assembled and edited with the same pacing as the action scenes. The result feels impatient. Vaughn doesn’t leave himself or the audience time to enjoy any single moment in the movie. He’s always in a hurry to get to the next scene.
The movie's impatience and tonal flatline are not deal breakers. The score is. X-Men: First Class takes place in 1962, but it doesn't feel like it. Henry Jackman's entire feature length score sounds like the trailer to a Jerry Bruckheimer movie from the 90's. I admit that I was more perturbed by this than my friends, but it really, really bugged me. Vaughn missed a golden opportunity to homage Bernard Herman or Monty Norman. Imagine if X-Men: First Class had had a score like Michael Giacchino's work on The Incredibles. It would have been spectacular. The score really is the worst part of the movie, and if somehow some terrific composer found the time and money to re-score the movie more appropriately I could see it having a drastic impact on the success of the movie as a whole. To be fair, the entire mise en scène is missing some much needed 60's feeling, but the score is the worst.
X-Men: First Class is getting a lot of hype right now. And I would definitely encourage you to see it. The movie is heaps of fun. But don’t get your expectations sky high, and don’t be surprised if opinions cool as the year rolls by.
-Ben