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Movie review: Freshness of youth is very becoming to 'X-Men' movie series
Jun 02, 2011 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
What's the best way to inject some juice into what could be just another tired sequel?
Apparently, it's yanking the characters back to when they were young, with hormones and potential powers racing through their systems like so much Red Bull. It worked for the Star Trek reboot, and it works even better for X-Men: First Class, the fifth installment in an "X-Men" saga that looked as if it might have seen better days. But First Class -- with its solid acting from a strong cast, nimble action scenes, subtle sense of humor and a genuine sense of the young X-Men's palpable unease of being outside the norm -- may actually be the best of the bunch.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick Ass), First Class has a darkness to it, especially in its first half, that acts as a counterbalance to what might be expected in a superhero movie. But then, in the end, it doesn't scrimp on the high-tech showdowns either.
It begins in 1940s Poland, where a 12-year-old Erik Lensherr, imprisoned in a concentration camp, is forced to watch his mother be murdered by the man in charge, Sebastian (Kevin Bacon, at his warped best). Turns out Sebastian knows the kid has a special power that allows him to move objects with his mind and he wants to use those powers for evil, of course. Flash-forward to the early '60s and, as an adult, Erik (Michael Fassbender, Inglourious Basterds, Fish Tank) has revenge on his mind.
But he can't go it alone and soon discovers there are others like him, young people with odd powers who are just discovering they are not like everybody else. The good ones have allied with Charles Xavier (James McAvoy, Atonement, The Last King of Scotland) and they include Raven (Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone) and Hank (Nicholas Hoult, Skins, A Single Man). Meanwhile, others have turned to the other side, working with Sebastian, who has a pretty cool ability all his own. His most notable accomplice is Emma Frost (January Jones, Mad Men), who can read minds and turn into an impenetrable diamond monster. But even without that last capability, she's almost brittle enough to cut glass.
Of course, First Class offers the usual comic-book standoff between good and evil. And it has to set in motion the characters that we see later in the comic books and movies. But within this rather predictable universe, it plays with history -- the franchise's as well as the world's. It also raises questions about identity and fitting in that get to the heart of what the original comic book was about in the first place.
And while it might seem strange that, aside from the prospects of a big pay day, so many actors with such stellar art-house resumes would sign on for a film like this, everyone seems to be having a good time without camping it up. If the rest of the comic-book films coming the next couple of months are anywhere near as good, this could be a better summer at the multiplex than some are predicting.
Cary Darling, 817-390-7571
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go to http://www.dfw.com. Copyright (c) 2011, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
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