In 1963, Charles Xavier starts up a school and later a team, for humans with superhuman abilities. Among them is Erik Lensherr, his best friend... and future archenemy.
Why X-Men: First Class reveals a series in need of a genuine mutation
Dream-team casting and quality FX make this the summer blockbuster to beat.
X-Men may not take your breath away - director Matthew Vaughn is a kinetic director but he lacks personality and still can't handle emotional beats - but it has enormous pulp watchability. It also wins bonus points for not bothering to shoot in 3D.
As one movie franchise sinks (see Hangover II), another soars with this rip-roaringly enjoyable action prequel that comes with the superpower of keeping us glued to the screen for two-plus hours.
All you’d expect from an X-Men film (or spin-off, or prequel), but not all you’d hope for. It smacks of rush and compromise, but there’s thankfully enough to make you feel optimistic about the series’ future once more.
Vaughn moves his story through so many entertaining gear changes that at times this feels like a Bond movie, especially with its funky 1960s interiors, Bacon’s silkily evil villain and Fassbender’s debonair, stealthy, proto-Bond presence. This typifies a film that honours its source while feeling decidedly fresh, and adheres to the dramatic theme of the series, of the persecuted outsider, while not taking itself too seriously.
Vaughn showed in Kick-Ass he could kick posterior, action-wise, and here he spends everything in the piggy bank to spectacular effect.
Second class at best.
If there is to be yet another X-Men movie in the future – though I have to say that now might be the time to call it quits – then a solo effort with Fassbender's super-nasty Magneto would be the way to go.
There are moments when X-Men: First Class becomes darker and nastier than its galumphingly silly story really merits.
Not "First Class", but it's OK.
The large cast as a whole is strong, and though the introductions to them all makes for a slightly confusing start, once the movie gets going there’s a real verve to it, and an added emotional heft that helps proceedings build nicely.
Well worth a middling second.
A winning combination of a rollicking fantasy blockbuster and a deeply compelling character drama.
In what is shaping up to be a mediocre summer of sequels, X-Men: First Class at least strives to live up to the promise of its title.
It's as absurd a piece of alternative history as Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, but much less fun.
Eventually, X-Men: First Class goes the way of all superhero films, and the groovy espionage is buried under an avalanche of unconvincing computer-generated action. But before that it marries a shrewd sense of humour with sharper-than-usual handling of the mutants-as-persecuted-minority theme.
The action sequences are well-staged throughout, while the performances by the leads are particularly good, and the humour in general is pitched just right. It’s good enough to make you want more.
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General release. Check local listings for show times.
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