I have always been a fan of the X-Men. The original trilogy was not amazing, but it was entertaining and captivating. The comics are usually not as good as Avengers or Thunderbolts, but I still read them.
Sadly, for the fifth installment in the X-Men film series, Fox picked the man worst suited for the job. As a result, the origin story for the most popular comic book super-team is a mess.
Matthew Vaughn is a self-proclaimed fanboy of pretty much every comic book ever written. Sadly, he has too little a grasp of what makes the stories so good, so every time he tries to adapt one of them he ends up ruining a good story. Originally contracted for X-Men: The Last Stand, he left after Fox ordered him to change his plan. Taking the helm of Kick-Ass, Vaughn attempted to change a dark comedy about current society into a straightforward superhero comedy. The result was a mildly entertaining but convoluted and utterly pointless train-wreck. Now, back in the X-Men universe as both writer and director, Vaughn once again gives us a picture that has a lot of interesting ideas pasted together into something that in no way makes a satisfying story.
To give Vaughn and the three other writers (Jane Goldman of Kick-Ass and the duo behind Thor) credit, they have not been given much to work with. The movie had to be a prequel, meaning that most of the interesting characters have already been used up. Gavin Hood's Wolverine Origins proved that it is possible to make a character driven back-story off of the X-Men comics, but Vaughn wants to have a team even bigger than the one shown in the original trilogy. Foolishly passing over the most obscure X-Men, Vaughn and his team choose fairly well-established comic-book mutants. Unfortunately, these characters make no sense in the kind of story First Class is supposed to tell, so the movie effectively changes them into completely different characters. This makes anyone who was a fan of the comics sorely disappointed. Just because someone renames Eat Pray Love "Wonder Woman Origins" doesn't mean fans of Wonder Woman are not going to figure out they have been played.
Worse, the first four films have used up the characters with interesting powers. In First Class, almost all of the mutants, be they hero or villain, have abilities which do not involve any physical contact with their opponent. As a result, while the original X-Men gives us super-strong, regenerative tough-guys who can exchange punches for hours, First Class's battle sequences are just people grimacing and grunting as the other characters tell us they are using a "psychic blast" or "force punch." The occasional CGI lightning bolt does not suffice for regular fist-to-face fight sequences, so despite being loaded with so-called "action," the end result is mildly boring. Even if the mutants are only wearing underwear.
The visual aspect is not helped by Vaughn's obsession with slowly revolving the camera continuously or a refusal to use 3-D.
The story, set in the early 60s, centers around Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender), who is to become totalitarian world-conqueror Magneto, and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), who is to become Martin Luther King Jr-esque Professor X, leading a team of young mutants (of which there are far too many to list) against evil mutant Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and his team of mutants (of which there are far too many to list) in a world that does not accept the new species due to their differences (of which there are far to many to list). Fassbender and McAvoy both do a good job, but the best performance comes from Caleb Laundry Jones (the brother in The Last Exorcism) as an awkward, charming mutant student. The saddest is poor January Jones, who was not told that visual effects would cause her to be a living diamond, and thus models her acting around one: rigid, stiff, transparent, and glaringly obvious.
The story allows for some interesting character development and themes, but it does not hang together right. Why doesn't Erik have a German accent? Why do Nazis let an American scientist experiment in their concentration camp? Why when there is a mutant with the power of mind control does any conflict occur when he could just force everyone to resolve the situation? Why does everyone say Mystique's body is ugly when it looks exactly like a normal naked Jennifer Lawrence just with blue skin?
Binge drinking is portrayed as a fun pastime. This cannot be ignored. This attitude towards such reckless behavior is unhealthy, even in a movie.
Lastly, there is the ridiculous retconning of history. Did you know JFK and J. Edgar Hoover covered up mutants existence and even allowed their extinction? Neither did I! It may seem trivial to complain about something so absurd, but it also shows a genuine lack of trust for society or the government. If we, as Americans, pretend, even hypothetically, that the courage of America in the Cuban Missile Crisis was really due to prejudice, hate, and a corrupt government, we are accepting a belief that we should not strive to respect and honor our society. First Class champions an anarchistic approach to crime fighting because the authorities are evil. It seems to me that this is the same type of arrogance that leads the series's villains to disregard all laws in order to create a society based on the beliefs of a few. If we refuse to accept the rules set forth by a nation elected by the whole people, we are putting us and those who are like us above the code everyone else follows.
First Class has much more in common with the beliefs of "ends justify the means" Magneto than it does with the law abiding heroes originally portrayed in the comics. And that is only one of the many mutations First Class brings to the story. I don't think anyone should accept them as the positive evolution of mankind.
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