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X-Men: First Class
By: Hells Sniper
Super Member
First off. There may be Spoilers Ahead. Spoilers are marked by Italic text and warnings.
Pre-view Thoughts
I am a big fan of X-Men and love to see new movies coming out. The trailer looked great, and I didn't know too much about the movie when I walked in the theater. This was good because this movie, you didn't need to know much to delve into it.
The previous X-Men movies were great, I enjoyed watching them and they had great aspects. Although I never divulged as deep into the X-Men series as I have with Star Wars, or Halo, it is still something that catches my interest and something I enjoy to see still kicking.
Table of Contents Characters - Some Spoilers Story Cinematics/Set Design/Screenplay - Music
Errors - Spoilers Summary
Characters
There were many main characters in this film, some introduced in the beginning, and some towards the middle. This is just a brief description of what each character is, and their power. If you want to know nothing about the characters, or what their powers are, or their goal in the movie, SKIP THIS SECTION NOW.
Real Name - X-Men Name - Actor/Actress
1. Charles Francis Xavier - Professor X - (James McAvoy)
---Professor X, the man behind X-Men, his power is telepathy, and the movie expands on how he controls and uses the power throughout the film. They did a great job with Professor X.
2. Erik Lehnsherr - Magneto - (Michael Fassbender)
---Erik, that is who X-Men: First Class focuses on. Not Magneto, but the building up to Magneto. Why Erick became Magneto, how he became Magneto. I thought they did a very great job on his character development.
2a. This film also helped build the friendship and eventual downfall of Professor X and Magneto. I thought they did a wonderful job on these techniques, each one helping each other in some way or another.
3. Sebastian Shaw - (Kevin Bacon)
---The main antagonist of this film. Sebastian Shaw, he pretty much wants to start WWIII. There is a twist with this character, which I feel is too good to even write down, so I'll let you find out on your own. If you want to know, PM me.
4. Raven - Mystique - (Jennifer Lawrence)
This movie did an ok job on introducing this character. How she became friends with Professor X and eventually the mutants. However, one thing it didn't expand on, was how and why she became what she was. I honestly thought they were going to focus on that aspect, but sadly, I saw nothing of the sort. Not once, did they mention her backstory, which was upsetting to me. One other thing was the fact that when they left off with her in the film, she still seemed a nice, happy, mutant. However, in the other X-Men films...she seems hateful.
5. Emma Frost - (January Jones)
Sebastian's right hand in the movie. She was developed well, including how she came about to be with Magneto. Also, January Jones looked incredibly hot in this movie, like...honestly. I'd see it again just for the clips of her.
6. Hank McCoy - The Beast - (Nicholas Hoult) SPOILERS.
Beast, probably one of the characters they definitely focused on. Originally, Hank McCoy had only feet that he could attach to anything and hang from pretty much. After an experiment to fix his feet, he became the beast. With super strength, invulnerability, and intelligence. The Beast is awesome.
7. Sean Cassidy - Banshee - (Caleb Landry Jones)
Banshee, sonic and sonar screams is what you would call his power. He's pretty awesome to say the least. Banshee wasn't very developed as much as the others.
8. Lucas Summers - Havok - (Lucas Til)
Havok, he can shoot out this laser beam thing from his chest. Havok wasn't very developed as much as the others.
8/10 - Raven was not explored enough, as well as a few other characters.
Story
The story of First Class is pretty simple. The film covers the beginning of the school for mutants, how each mutant became who they were in the first film. How did Professor X end up in a wheelchair? Who is Magneto? All these questions are answered in X-Men: First Class. The first team of X-Men and how they saved the world from sure destruction.
10/10 - The story was solid, I saw nothing wrong with it.
Cinematics/Set Design
The way they shot the film, from camera angles to shadowing and effects were spectacular. They will captured everything, actor's expressions, action scenes, etc. I could not take my eyes off the screen. The cinematics were gorgeous, and the CGI'ed stuff, you hardly saw as CGI. It blended together, and it was great.
The set design was nice, it really felt like a 1960's America or Russia. The sets constantly changed as well, they were in new places, and there wasn't much repitition. I adored that about this film, it brought you to new places and explored the background of the academy and where the First Class stayed. They definitely had a good director, because the cinematics were wonderful.
10/10 - Wonderful cinematics.
Screenplay
The screenplay was wonderful. They balanced the action, comedy, and overall scheme of things. There were serious parts, funny parts, inspirational parts, every scene had a different feel, but it blended together. For some reason, everything linked together, everything bonded. That's hard to come by these days, and the screenplay just seemed to flow.
10/10 - SOLID.
Music
The music was good, however, there were times where I hardly even noticed the music. At the fights and intense parts of the film, the music definitely helped make it, but other than those parts..the music just wasn't there for me. There was obviously music for most, if not all the scenes, but I felt as if the music disappeared half the movie and came back only for the important things. Music is a big thing in movies, and it's upsetting it wasn't full there for me.
7/10 - The music wasn't "always" there for me.
Errors
This will not be in the final score, considering, if people are reading this review and have not seen the movie, I will not weaken it's score for no reason to them.
SPOILERS.
There was one error I found in the movie, however. And this is a BIG spoiler, so I would say not to read this if you are planning on seeing the movie.
At the end of the movie, Magneto is attacked the US and Russian fleet with their weapons, a CIA agent fired her weapon at him. The weapons richochet off his helmet, and one of the richochets hits Professor X in the spinal cord. Thus, causing him to become paralyzed. Although, during X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Professor X is walking at the end of that movie. And since Wolverine comes after First Class, it is an error.
Now, I talked to my brother and he said that since Wolverine didn't do well, the story was messed up, and people didn't like it, they would disregard it entirely. This makes sense, but at the same time, it is kind of upsetting they would disregard an entire movie.
7/10 - This was the only error I found, and it has to weaken it's score.
END SPOILER.
Summary
Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It developed characters, had a great balance of comedy, action, romance, and overall plot. The movie even made me sit up at points and listen and watch intently. The film had a great balance, and personally, I think it is a fine addition to the X-Men saga. The writers, directors, and everyone on the team did a wonderful job of making a great movie.
9/10
OVERALL SCORE
Characters........................................................8/10
Story................................................................10/10
Cinematics/Set Design..................................10/10
Screenplay.......................................................10/10
Music..................................................................7/10
Summary............................................................9/10
Total Score......................................................54/60 or 9/10
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X-Men: First Class - Movie Review
06-04-2011
Linear Mode
