X-Men: First Class

No pressure on X-Men as the first movie to be reviewed on the blog. I'm sure director Matthew Vaughn was thinking about this day when he finished filming.

The first thing to say about this movie is that while you could easily watch it as a stand alone, it's really a good idea to have seen the other movies, or at least the first two, to get the most out of it.

The references to the original films are great, and First Class works hard to help you understand some of the relationships and dynamic in the earlier films. I'm not sure if we can class this as a sequel (or prequel) because the cast in the film is almost entirely different from the other X-Men movies, even if Wolverine does make a cameo.

The cast is absolutely phenomenal. James McAvoy makes a charming and perfectly cringe worthy young Charles Xavier and although I think if his character was based on the older version he later becomes he wouldn't be quite so playful, the role fits perfectly in this film.

Michael Fassbender plays an angry and relentless young Magneto exceptionally well, and I can see how the swagger and arrogance would translate nicely into the Bond role he's being associated with after Daniel Craig hangs up his bow tie.

I'm a Oliver Platt fan so it's nice to see him make an appearance as the 'I'm with the government but I'm on your side' man in the movie. Young British actor Nicholas Hoult, who has just about shed the 'oh he's the one from About a Boy' tag makes a great addition to the X-Men family as genius/mutant Hank McCoy and does a great job of telling the story of Beast.

Overall X-Men: First Class is a wildly entertaining action with a surprisingly well thought out story. The action flows nicely and doesn't feel forced into sections of the film. The cast do a fantastic job of telling the story behind X-Men and I hope it's box office success to date encourages them to expand on this part of the story and make a prequel sequel.

I haven't decided on a rating system yet, but I guess marks out of five is the standard apprach and X-Men: First Class gets a well deserved four stars.

X-Men: First Class: ****

Check out the official trailer on Youtube:



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