X-Men: First Class

It's not supposed to be this way. Conventional wisdom suggests that a film franchise on its fifth entry (and a prequel, no less) should not be smarter, let alone better, than most of the films that came before it in the series. And yet, X-Men: First Class is just that. It's not only the best X-Men movie to come along in quite a while, it's also as smart and as thrilling as a summer blockbuster can get.

And yes, it manages to do all this, while also being a prequel - Something that almost always ends up boring me, since we already know the future of the characters up on the screen, so it's rather hard for the filmmakers to create any genuine tension. Does First Class manage to completely avoid that trap? Not entirely. But, for once, I didn't really care. The movie is engaging, thanks to director and co-writer Matthew Vaughn's (Kick-Ass) bold and unusual decision to blend superhero action and special effects, with historical tension, by setting the story during the Kennedy-era Cuban Missile Crisis. There's even a touch of James Bond, given the 60s era theme, and the fact that the mutant heroes in this one are secretly working for the government, trying to stop the plans of a maniacal super villain who wants to increase tensions between the US and Russia to the point of war, and plots his schemes from a secret submarine base, complete with a lovely femme fatale named Emma Frost (January Jones from TV's Mad Men) at his side. If it sounds ridiculous, that's because it probably is. It also works a lot better than you would expect.

But what we've really come for is the story of a young Charles Xavier (played here with plenty of charm by James McAvoy), future leader of the heroic X-Men, and Erik Lehnsherr (a steely Michael Fassbender), who viewers of the earlier films (and the comics that inspired them) will know as the future arch nemesis of the X-Men and "the master of magnetism", Magneto. The film starts off during World War II, with the two as children leading very different lives. Erik is suffering in a Nazi prison camp, while Charles lives a life of privilege in a massive manor house. While Erik discovers the full extent of his abilities to control and manipulate metallic objects by fighting back against his cruel oppressors, Charles (who has the ability to read and manipulate minds) discovers that he is not alone when a blue-skinned, shape-shifting mutant girl breaks into his home, looking for food. He takes her under his wing, and the two begin a long working relationship to understand their own powers. The shape-shifter is known as Raven (Jennifer Lawrence from Winter's Bone), but fans will know her better as Mystique.

Flash forward some twenty years, and we find Erik is on quest for vengeance, tracking down the surviving Nazis that tortured him. In particular, he is looking for a man who these days goes by the name of Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a former Nazi scientist and mutant with the ability to control kinetic energy, who was not only Erik's main tormentor back in the prison camp, but also murdered his mother. Shaw is now the leader of a small militant group of fellow mutants, who believe that the human race should be wiped out, and plan to do so by manipulating tensions between the US and Russia, setting the events in motion for a nuclear holocaust. It's these events that bring Charles and Erik together. While Erik tracks Sebastian down out of revenge, Charles and Raven are recruited by Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), a scientist working for the CIA, to find Shaw, and stop him before he starts World War III. She believes that Charles' mental telepathy powers could be useful in tracking down the elusive madman, and wants to start a secret government agency comprised of mutants with special abilities. Fate brings Charles and Erik together, and eventually finds them working side by side, and scouting the globe for young recruits with amazing powers to join their fight.

The tension that drives First Class is the fact that even though Charles and Erik are after the same villain, they are doing so for very different reasons. This brings a certain amount of character drama that I felt the earlier X-Men films were lacking. Whereas the previous films were mostly built around special effects and big action sequences (there's still plenty of that here), this movie takes a more centralized look at the growing, yet increasingly fragile, friendship between the two men, and how their eventual views on the situation at hand turns them into the characters that we know from the earlier films. This movie seems more focused and sure on the characters. Ideas about intolerance and unity, which were only touched on in some of the earlier entries, are fleshed out and given plenty of time to be developed in the screenplay by Vaughn and his three fellow credited screenwriters. The X-Men films have always walked a fine line between intelligence and silly superhero action, but this movie easily handles the formula the best, by allowing the smart ideas at the core of the story and the intriguing historical setting to truly sink in before the action really starts.

But what really impressed me is how genuine everything feels - not a small feat for a movie about mutants trying to stop the Cuban Missile Crisis. The cinematography and set design does a great job of recapturing the 60s feel, especially during scenes set in night clubs and bars. There's an all around polish to the entire production, from the settings, right down to the special effects, which are nothing exactly mind blowing, but still very well done. But, I'd like to talk about a little thing I noticed in the film that I think a lot of people (including critics) will overlook - subtitles. First Class is a globe-trotting adventure, taking us to places like Germany, Russia, and Argentina. To my surprise, whenever the action switches to another country, the actors actually speak the proper language with English subtitles, rather than having everybody speak English, like in most Hollywood blockbusters. It doesn't sound like much, but it really does add a touch of realism, and also shows intelligence on the part of the filmmakers.

Of course, the biggest difficulty of the film comes with the casting, since Vaughn had to successfully recast a long-running film franchise with younger actors. And while McAvoy and Fassbender don't exactly bring to mind being a younger Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan respectively, they do form a genuine bond of brotherhood that grows stronger during the film, only to have the seams reveal as the plot goes on. They both handle their roles with great care, McAvoy coming across as charming and suave (the only misstep the movie makes with his character is giving him a lame running gag about his fear of going bald), and Fassbender bringing the right amount of intensity in his portrayal of his driven character. Also noteworthy is Jennifer Lawrence, whose decision to follow up her Oscar-nominated role in Winter's Bone by playing a shape-shifting blue-skinned mutant may not sound like the best of career moves, but really manages to bring a lot of warmth and humanity to her character, as she finds herself pulled between her respect for Charles, and her eventual feelings about herself and the world around her that eventually leads her down a different path.

X-Men: First Class surprised me in a lot of ways. It's a lot smarter and character-driven than you would expect, but never falls flat in the thrills and action department. This is a movie that not only explores the backgrounds of characters we're familiar with, but also manages to revitalize a franchise that was growing dormant and familiar over time. This is a fresh and exciting comic book film, and with many more to come in the summer, the competition has their work cut out for them. This is not only a great summer entertainment, but great entertainment in general.

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