Film Review: X-Men - First Class

After the somewhat disappointing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this film is really showing the origin of the X-Men: after an introduction, that is practically identical to the first scenes of the first X-Men movie, we learn about how the friendship between the young men Charles Xavier (Professor X) and Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) begun. This film pretty much does what it says on the box: it "reboots" the X-Men franchise by introducing younger actors, new characters and therefore provides the opportunity for another few X-Men sequels. Most of the special effects are of the usual high quality, the story is engaging but not without some lengths, and the cast assembles a lot of talent from different generations: The youngest include the wonderful Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone), the lovely Zoë Kravitz (Californication - and yes, she is Lenny Kravitz's and Lisa Bonet's daughter - and I predict she is someone who we will see rather frequently on the big screen), "veteran" actor Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy, A Single Man) and the All-American butch Lucas Till. The 30-40 generation is represented by the leading men, Scotsman James McAvoy (Atonement, Wanted, The Last King of Scotland) and Londoner of German/Irish descent, Michael Fassbender (Band of Brothers, 300, Inglorious Basterds) as well as the voluptuous January Jones (Mad Men, Love Actually, The Boat that Rocked) and the great Rose Byrne (Damages, Knowing, 28 Weeks Later, Sunshine). The 40+ generation finally is led by the brilliant Kevin Bacon and a great support cast including Oliver Platt, Rade Serbedzija, Ray Wise (Twin Peaks) and Michael Ironside. Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass) directed a typical American popcorn movie and, despite the partly British cast, unfortunately failed to re-create the brilliant mix of American production value and pop culture with a quirky English sense of humour that made Kick-Ass such an enjoyable film.

6/10 - Good summer popcorn movie, watch this if you enjoyed X-Men 1-3 or Heroes