X-Men: First Class
20th Century Fox
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Written by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn
Story by Sheldon Turner, Bryan Singer
Starring James McAvoy (Charles Xavier), Michael Fassbender (Erik Lehnsherr, Magneto), Rose Byrne (Moira MacTaggert), January Jones (Emma Frost), Jennifer Lawrence (Raven, Mystique), Oliver Platt (himself), Kevin Bacon (Sebastian Shaw), Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy, Beast)
Kevin Bacon sizzles as
It's all about the coin.
In one of X-Men: First Class's most compelling and inspired scenes, young Erik Lehnsherr is tasked with moving a coin and a bell. Though the bell will crumple like a loose wad of tinfoil by scene's end, the coin remains with him throughout his life. That is, until he finally decides to move it of his own accord, under no duress save for his own need to assert true control over his life. But in that moment, the turning point of his childhood, he is unable to perform the magnetic manipulation. This costs him his mother's life. The boy rages, opening the floodgates to his extraordinary power. Nazi soldiers collapse at the vice-like compression of their own helmets. We're left with a broken little boy and the man who made him that way. A coin passes hands.
The movie is at its sharpest when tracing the journey of that coin. Its flip-side is the title logo. It links us to the next stage in Erik's life, as a man reclining in a hotel, positively (and negatively?) adept now with his influence over metals. Passing a coin between his fingers doesn't require rage, though maybe the sleight of hand comes most fluently as he studies photographs of Nazis and their post-war sanctuaries. Later, in one of the most satisfying moments of poetic justice and comeuppance this side of My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die! that coin seals more than one man's fate. Tell me you didn't grin when Erik said, "I'm going to count to three." This didn't inspire a bout of laughter in my audience. No. It called forth dry, low chuckles from the darkest recesses of filmgoers' thoracic cavities. I'd say it was creepy, but I did it too.
Magneto makes the wrong moral choices. Which is a good way of saying he does what we want to do. The hero would let Shaw live, would do his best to secure him, bring him to (legal) justice. But that's not what Magneto's for. That's Chuck's thing. Erik is the Malcolm X in the fairly accurate if somewhat tired analogy to their relationship, their place in this revolution against oppression. To state the obvious, Charles is MLK. And he's good at that. And his being that is crucial to this whole dynamic. Because they're the coin too. Opposite sides, ya know?
Years ago we were told of some X-Men prequels slated to re-right the franchise. Origins, they were called. There'd be one for Wolverine, one for the young X-Men ensemble, and one for Magneto. For many of us, it was this Magneto Origin that seemed most enticing. Not only was Ian McKellan's Magneto the best realized character in the X-Men movies, he remains one of, if not the strongest villain in a Marvel adaptation (the only true contender right now is Loki). And as interesting as he was in those films, the character's early history is where the real juice sloshes in wait.
So it shouldn't have been such a big surprise when the plug was pulled on Magneto's solo movie.
But wouldn't you know, we got our cake and can eat it anyway. For as much as X-Men: First Class is about those initial gifted youngsters, this is even more the story of Erik Lehnsherr and his ascension to, well, terror.
If you hadn't guessed already, I'm like a huge Magneto fan. This is also important to note because it's likely that your level of interest in Magneto and his troubled friendship with Charles Xavier is directly proportionate to your capacity to enjoy this film and even to look past some of its flaws.
Let's get the Cuban Missile Crisis out of the way first (which I'm sure is something JFK said verbatim in his underwear at some point in November of '62). This is kind of a really broad idea. Kevin Bacon's deliciously evil Sebastian Shaw is bent on inciting WWIII. Coupled with the Hellfire Club's flamboyant grotto bunny aesthetic and some really campy map graphics, Shaw feels more like a Bond villain than previous Marvel antagonists. Like its (terrific) iteration of Beast, the movie sometimes grapples with its identity. Is this an allegory for civil rights struggles or a swinging 60s adventure romp? The balance is mostly struck, but there's something about Emma Frost exiting a plush office and into the still luxurious command center of a submarine–replete with sonar blips and echoes–that cries for everybody to go In Like Flint.
Let's talk about Emma Frost for a bit. While the movie has a weirdly elegant solution for her…let's call it lounge wear…hers is one of the weaker depictions on screen. She looks like Emma Frost. She exhibits a kind of frostiness (or maybe it's just apathy). But the cold is not coupled with calculated. Mod catsuit aside, she is not Emma Peel either. January Jones' blank delivery does not suggest the strategist of the comics, and at no point do we feels she's several steps ahead of those around her. The character is positioned like a potential Lady MacBeth, but against Shaw, she reads like Jill Masterson from Goldfinger (no body paint, but she can turn all diamondy).
Shaw himself is a charismatic and interesting villain in his role as Doctor Frankenstein (as Erik refers to him in one of the terrific scenes we'll all be citing when comparing the movie to Inglorious Basterds). If there's one other object which serves as a kind of talisman like the coin, it's that helmet. We know what it represents, and the idea that this very important object in Magneto's life comes from Shaw is a little stroke of brilliance. Some references to the comics can feel like blatant fanservice (there's exactly one too many allusions to Xavier's impending baldness), but stuff like this has real dramatic irony and weight.
Another moment like that comes with Xavier's injury. It was a moment that caught me completely by surprise. I realized instantly that I'd never read anything about the cause of the character's paralysis. I talked to Ron as soon as I got home because I wanted to make sure this was an invention of the filmmakers. As far as I can tell, the comics offer a handful of contradictory background stories (an alien in the Himalayas? The Korean war?) Regardless, the choice here to connect the accident with Magneto at precisely that moment…it's verging on perfect.
In my praise of Fassbender's (sometimes Irish, I'll concede) Magneto, I'm perhaps doing a disservice to his counterpart James McAvoy. There's no channeling Patrick Stewart, which is a very good thing. Because this is an Xavier we very rarely get to see. This is Xavier macking on co-eds. He actually has a line. The best part is that it works only sometimes. McAvoy is dashing, but he's able to channel a kind of mousiness here without coming off like a complete dweeb. Xavier is not a ladies man, but you can see him appealing to the right girl. In his interaction with Erik and with his new recruits, we see the sage teacher he'll become. Raven and Erik were his first failures and we see exactly why that happened. He's a good man, but there was a level of arrogance he needed to exorcise.
It's not possible to leave the theater without wanting to give Nicholas Hoult's Hank McCoy a hug. Along with Caleb Landry Jones' turn as Banshee, he was one of the bright lights amidst a relatively shallow cast of younger mutants. Aside from a pair of terrific montages–a recruitment sequence (with a pleasant surprise cameo) and a training sequence–the First Class didn't get many opportunities to shine. They're often overshadowed by Azazel's ongoing riff on Nightcrawler's legendary Oval Office siege from X2. And Azazel may have outdone him by adding altitude to his Splinter Cell moves.
X-Men: First Class might not match up with a viewer's sense of continuity, especially with regard to a timeline (though they did tidy work of shoehorning all this into the movie franchise setup). I'm not crystal clear on Havok's relationship to Cyclops for instance. But that's not keeping me up at night. What's important is that it streamlines so many big ideas into a surprisingly elegant package. I wasn't sure if the Mystique we met (creepily? adorably?) in the first act would reasonably evolve into the character we find in the initial trilogy. But it kind of worked. I don't know if I can say the same for Angel exactly, but they set down the right pipe to establish Raven's decision. They even made Magneto's call to revolution look messy, but still attractive to the right kind of mutant. I'm conflicted on the romantic component to Mystique and Magneto's relationship. The original films made a really good argument for gay older gentleman and lifelong female companion.
This is honestly what the Star Wars prequels aspired to do, and this one did it in a smaller, cleaner dose.
This is not as satisfying as a Marvel Studios film, though it's probably better than Iron Man II. But it's up there with X2. A few years ago that meant more than it does now. But it's still pretty good company. Despite a few patches of weaker characterization and some jarring moments of camp, the movie won me over with inventive solutions for adaptation, Jedi-level displays of power, and a terrific revenge saga (Uncanny X-Force #9, take note: Magneto does not need a hired gun).
And oh that coin…
4 Stars
(Out of 5)
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
At times, this Charles seemed a bit too Obi-Wan for me. I wanted to see him struggling a bit to gain mastery over his powers, which happened only once, as far as I can tell.
I was pleasently suprised to see the sexism of the period portrayed (though I worried that my audeince was laughing wwith the sexism instad of at, the sexisim.
@DaveCarr I guess the idea is that some mutants have to struggle for mastery of their powers and that is among their chief concerns. Xavier has mastery, but that’s not enough to save the day. His arc didn’t involve developing his powers (Though Cerebro is an upgrade). His journey was about actually listening to the people closest to him.He can read minds, but he can’t always read people.
Well met. Also,it occurs to me that I enjoy that this wasn’t a Marvel Studious Films. Gave it a differnt falvvor. I don’t knoe if there will be a danger of a linear montony with the same brain trust invovlved in these flms, but there might be a danger of that happening. I’m less interested in origin stories as such and more interested in taking theseelements and putting then in differt contexts.
Of course X-3 Happened, so it’s adouble edged sord. Anyway. nice review
Personally, I think there was two too many references to his baldness and there was a few other on the nose bits that made me hold in a slight grimace (the future mystique cameo, the naming convention…). But it got a lot of laughs in my theater, so I will gingerly place said cheekiness into the “I’m not the only one they’re trying to please” category and get over it.
Otherwise my criticisms would mirror yours, shallow emma and shallow mutant youngins. I don’t want to say it dragged, but from the finding mutant montage until going to Russia was largely a step down in quality from the rest of the movie (though I did enjoy Xavier in a mentor role, really made clear where his passions lie and mades his future life’s work seem so natural.)
That said every other part of the movie I was rapt with attention. I thoroughly disagree that it wasn’t up to Marvel level, it was beyond. Nolan’s Gotham changed the idea of a “good comic book movie” into one that is truly compelling outside of the realm of superheros, one that can contend with a great movie in any genre. I think this film fell just short of that honor in total, and achieved it thoroughly in certain moments. Anytime the score started to fade into Erik’s theme my body involuntarily tensed. Argentina was reminiscent of the chills I felt being introduced to Hans Landa. When you first realizes what each rocking thud noise at the CIA center represents. Xavier’s face as he deals with both the decision of his friend to take final revenge as well as the fact that he has no choice but to be a part of it. It was beautiful and utterly heartbreaking storytelling.
@itsbecca Erik’s theme was indeed very cool.
I didn’t mind the first baldness reference (Cerebro) because it was kind of clever. Agreed that the naming session was uncomfortably on-the-nose. When she named Charles and Erik I physically winced.
I think we’re on the same page. This was Magneto’s film. And whenever other plots overlapped with his, they only benefitted.
@PaulMontgomery Agreed, it truly was and, as someone who sleeps hugging a copy of Magneto Testament instead of a teddy bear, I was very happy for it.
I’m not going to read this in detail, because I don’t want to be spoiled, but if Paul liked, I’m gonna go see it.
I think Xavier was crippled when his brother became the Juggernaut. The temple in Korea collapsed on both the Juggernaut, and Xavier. Professor X had his spine crushed, and Juggernaut took years to dig himself out. It’s interesting that Marvel really did not coordinate with Fox on this movie. There are lots of Captain America and Thor toys at Wal-Mart and Target, but nothing for the X-Men. Unless you are a major X-fan, you won’t even recognize some of the mutants in this movie. Azazel? Angel? Certainly, this is not the X-Men movie that Marvel would have made, but I’m looking forward to seeing it tomorrow.
Good observation about the Emma Frost/Jill Masterson parallels, one of the movie’s many, many homages to Goldfinger. Eric’s bringing the bar of Nazi gold to Switzerland and the scene where he’s in a Sean Connery-esque black wetsuit swimming to Shaw’s ship made me stop and go “wait. This is just Goldfinger!” It helped a lot in making this feel like a ’60s movie, but they did it more times than they really needed to.
That said, I enjoyed the first two-thirds of the movie a lot. It got a little bogged down in the bombastically scored final action sequence, but you’re right about the scene where Xavier’s shot being really impactful and surprising. In general, I gave it a solid B+.
Could this movie be considered a soft reboot along the lines of the J.J.Abrahams Star Trek?
@RahUniQue If it had been billed as such, some of my problems with it would have been reduced, but it was said to be a prequel.
@Limitless I noted your comment in the other thread about this not matching up with the previous movies. What glaring contradictions did you notice? Nothing stood out to me (admittedly it’s been a while since I watched them.)
@PaulMontgomery Its been a while, but there were a few things. For example, Xavier, in the first movie, if I’m remembering correctly, had no knowledge of Wolverine, yet in this movie he found him with Cerebero and went to recruit him. He has a fairly distinct look, Wolverine does, so I just have doubts that Xavier wouldn’t have remembered him. Also, if Xavier and Raven essentially grew up together like they did, there would have been, or should have been, at least a passing mention of it in the earlier films.
Then there were things that, I’ll admit, are comic related that just…didn’t really sit right. Like having Havok in this movie, even though he’s Scott’s YOUNGER brother. A little thing like that doesn’t bug me to the extreme except for the simple fact of…why change it at all?
I realize its nitpicky, but when it comes to continuity I’m like that. To me, its more worthwhile and impressive, from a storyline aspect, to work your unique brand of magic through the framework of the story given to you rather than just not worrying about how things may or may not match up.
As a prequel, there were plenty of interesting ways they could have taken it that would still have worked in the history the movies had already established without asking us to take any leaps of faith or turn a blind eye.
Thats not to say I didn’t enjoy the movie. I did. It was just fairly average, and after the very lofty reviews that I let get my hopes up, and got me to ignore my previous trepidation, the fall was further than I would have liked.
@Limitless I think some of these can be explained away pretty easily. I don’t recall what Xavier and Raven/Mystique’s interaction was like in the earlier films if they even crossed paths at all. I’ll have to revisit. For now I’d just say it’s simply a sore subject and their time apart is longer than the time they spent together, even if it was for those pivotal years. Either way, it’s a concept that’s so interesting it was worth doing even if it requires some suspension of disbelief/manual continuity adjustment on the viewer’s part when looking at older movies.
As for Logan…Let’s say he doesn’t read faces clearly in Cerebro, it was a busy and eventful trip, and he never did see the guy’s face in person.
It doesn’t lose us any sleep if Havok is Cyclops’ uncle or cousin.
I don’t think any of these things outweigh the inventive choices or the solutions that DO make it work in the scheme of things.
Things that didn’t gel with the established trilogy:
In X3 Erik and Xavier go to meet Jean for the first time – Xavier is bald and can walk. Erik and Xavier are on very friendly terms.
It was said that Xavier and Erik built Cerebro in one of the trilogy. It was maybe mentioned that Beast helped but certainly it was never said he built it all by himself.
The aforementioned ‘didn’t know Logan’ bit of business. (that doesn’t bother me any though)
There were more than myself and (mostly) my little sister noted on the way out of the theatre. Most of it doesn’t bother me.
Part of me wants them to get Singer to make his X3 and forget the other one ever happened after they finish this trilogy but I somehow don’t think that’s a sellable proposition.
This is going to annoy some but I just did some googling. The 5 Reichspfennig coin that Magneto uses as a weapon was made from an aluminium-bronze annoy – which is not magnetic.
I did this because I have never come across currency that is not non-magnetic.
Also, Paul, i want you to answer this seriously, please. What motivates Erik to hate mankind (and mankind only) when a mutent murdered his mother and tortured him in the concentration camp? When does he get the idea that mutent kind is so totally superior in that situation?
Magneto’s powers are not just ferro-magnetic.
Re: parts of first class not lining up with the other x-men films.
As much as I liked x-men and x2, I’d be perfectly happy if they let First Class serve as the beginning of a new continuity.
The batman franchise was rebooted (and surely will be again post-Nolan). The spider-man and superman franchises are being rebooted, why not forget about the mis-steps of x3 and wolverine and let the good work of Bryan Singer and company stand on their own while a new continuity is established?
The Hollywood climate is so much more super-hero friendly than it was in 2000 (thanks to x-men) that I think a series of period x-men films that don’t have to line up with previously established continuity would be a heck of a lot of fun! We could have 1980s Mohawk Storm and Dazzler! Eh? Yes? Haha
@Edward
Even though Shaw killed Erik’s mother, I think we can presume that he does not believe Shaw is responsible for the rise of nazism or the persecution of the Jews – that was all human. And it’s also safe to presume that Erik had other family that were killed by humans in manners more typical for Auschwitz.
But yeah, I’m not so sure where his ideas of mutant superiority come from just yet. But when you realize you can pick up a nuclear submarine, how do you not feel at least a little superior, you know?
I liked it, lots. They have written a better origin story than the comics. They are not a bible ya know. Able writers did what comic all comic writers attempt to do, tell a good story with the material given. And this my fellow fans, was an awesome story!
@stuclach Well, do yourself a favor and come back and read Paul’s excellent review after you see the movie. He’s quite sharp. iFanboy rules!
Everyone in this movie is just a mere degree away from Kevin Bacon! The movie was pretty awesome too
@KenOchalek yes, humans were involved with the death of his mother and the holocaust but mutents obviously played a role as well. It doesn’t make that Erik would only hate mankind and think mutentkind are the bee’s knees.
@edward There is a conversation between Erik and Shaw toward the end of the movie that specifically states why Erik should think this way, and he essentially agrees. There’s also the fact that Erik is smart enough to understand that mutants didn’t round up his family and neighbors and haul them off in the first place, and he would have had a horrible young life whether he was a mutant or not. Shaw might have been Erik’s main target, but he was hardly the only one.
@1aurien Beat me to it.
Brilliant review Paul. I’ve seen the movie, and pretty much agree on everything you’ve said. Well done!
yeah…. ok…. but it seems to me like the actual events shown in the film should have more weight than a conversation tack onto the end.
What about the coin though. who wants a no prize to explain that one
@Edward
Shaw was setting Erik up the whole time. He knew the coin was non-magnetic. Shaw’s intention was to kill Erik’s mother to make him emotional enough to use his powers.
At some point during the next 20 years, Erik realized he’d been punked and as part of his revenge plans, he fashioned a replica coin from magnetic metals.
BOOM.
And didn’t the coin Erik had in the camp end up having an X-Men First Class logo on one side of it anyway? How do we explain that? (I know, sorry, I couldn’t help it!)
@edward I think he just doesn’t like oppression. We’re also fuzzy on his relationship with Shaw. Erik seems to believe he’s the only mutant in the world right up until he confronts Shaw on the boat and Emma turns into a diamond. For most of his life he doesn’t view Shaw as either human or mutant because he doesn’t understand mutants to be a race. So I just look at it as, the world’s against me all of the time. It’s his pathology. And as much as he hates Shaw, the guy still has a hold over him beyond the grave. Erik doesn’t have a vendetta anymore and since that’s all he knows, he needs a new unjust entity to rage against. He choses humanity.
@KenOchalek That gets a Paul Prize.
They shoulw make a regular X-Men move set in 1978 now.
@edward I’m not sure how you got the impression that it was tacked on. It speaks the message Erik had softly been preaching through virtually half the movie up to that point, and was the final push Erik needed to become Magneto. The missiles were basically the final excuse Erik needed to go on the offensive with humans in general. This stuff didn’t just materialize in the closing moments without any setup.
@1aurien I’ll be honest. i may have mentally checked out by that point
Great review paul.
This movie was soooo much fun. I went in with a grumpy, aprehensive attitude and came out like a smiling Tom Katers at the end. It was just fun for what it was and I enjoyed the whole ride.
Great performances, set pieces, and pacing all around.
Boy howdy! I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would! It’s all subjective, of course, but I think any continuity miss matches are pretty minor and could be no-prized away pretty easily. I really hope Michael Fassbender becomes a big star. He was easily my favorite part in this movie. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Kevin Bacon’s Bond villain portrayal.
@ edward I wondered the same thing about the coin. Honestly, I thought that the “test” at the beginning was going to take the path that he couldn’t do anything to the coin even if he had mastered his powers at that point. Still, it was a cool visual whenever it popped up.
@KenOchalek Exactly! This is why i said this could be a soft reboot. Yes they refer to the Singer movies in the advertisements to get the non-fanboy movie watchers relating to it. Now that they enjoyed this, shoot it into it’s on ” soft ” continuity. Do you think John Q. Public is debating whether or not Xavier recognizes Logan? Or what Summers brother was on the team first? No, they are not. The films are their own animal, with their OWN continuity. Us as fans get so wrapped up in comparing the films to the comics, instead of enjoying them as their own separate entities. I just want good movies. And good comics. Ken, your idea of separate period movies is a fanDAMNtastic idea. I would love…LOVE to see 80s Dazzler & mo-hawked Storm. Make it so!
I didn’t enjoy it 🙁
Oh yeah, I’d forgotten the Beast race. Did I miss something or was he suddenly moving at near-Quicksilver level speed. Awful effects for that bit too.
That movie was fantastic. The brief Wolverine/Logan/Hugh Jackman cameo/interaction with a young Chuck and Erik was worth the price of admission alone. The Rebecca Romijn cameo was pretty cool too.
Bumping spoiler.
@edward I got the impression that everything in Magneto’s life led him to believe that humanity will persecute anyone that is viewed as different. Even if he had known that Shaw was a mutant or that other mutants existed prior to meeting Xavier, which I’m pretty sure he didn’t, that wouldn’t have changed the fact that humans were behind the holocaust. Once he meets Xavier, I don’t think he makes a distinction that “mutants = good” and “humans = evil.” He knows mutants are capable of evil. He just knows that humans will still persecute mutantkind because they’re different, but this time he’s going to make sure his kind fights back.
I actually liked the Ultimate version of Xavier’s paralysis being caused by Magneto.
So with you on January Jones. She looked beautiful of course, and her acting was…fine? It just wasn’t charismatic, intense, compelling, any of the things we would want it to be to match the image of Emma Frost we all have in our minds. She was more a tool and less a wielder of tools, which is just wrong for the character.
Overall, I couldn’t have been happier with the movie. It falls as imperfectly into continuity as all things in comics, which as usual makes me want to say to nitpickers, Dude, get over it. It improved on continuity in certain areas (you mentioned the paralysis; I’m also going with the complicated relationship Mystique has to both Charles and Erik), and in other areas, continuity just doesn’t fucking matter. Do I care whether more than one mutant has ever borne a certain code name? No more than I care whether certain mutants have similar (or identical) power sets. If the story is told well, and this really is!, all’s fair.
@LucasEwalt I have always believed magneto’s characterisation has firmly fallen into the “humans = evil” category. that’s his shtick
Thinking more about the Magneto/Mystique relationship, I *wish* they had avoided that kiss. There’s a level of subtext floating around between her and both men here (and between Magneto & both of the others, here as in the first film). But having Erik & Raven actually kiss privileges the male/female subtext in a way I found annoying — if only because it’s very easy to imagine Charles and Erik sharing a similar tentative kiss, but we know that Hollywood & comic book politics would never allow it onscreen. I don’t think what happens here should be taken as a definitive statement on Mags’ sexual orientation (and a male/male kiss wouldn’t be either) but it does tilt the balance in a way that feels unfair.
@ohcaroline My rooommate said “is the comic that homoerotically charged between Prof X and Magneto?” When he’s trying to move the dish they get pretty damn close and that moment is a lot more intimate and penetrative than a simple kiss to make Mystique stop freaking out.
just read about the earlier scribe, Jamie Moss, being upset he did not receive a credit- him and Singer went to a triburnal and lost but Singer says he he had more to do with the story than those given credit
After sleeping on it, I definitely want more Magneto: Nazi Hunter, even if it is just in the comics.
@Andrew Easily the most interesting part of the movie. They needed more Xavier and Magneto together also I thought.
I fugging loved this movie.
I saw this with all my friends at midnight, and I thought it was okay.
I loved Magneto so much that if the whole film was him seeking revenge it could possibly be my favorite film of all time. I would have liked the film to focus more on Xavier and Magneto, but at least I got what I did i suppose.
I loved Darwin and never saw him in a comic to bad they killed the single black guy off immediately how cliche. Angel was super lame in my opinion, I felt she was to ridiculous even for me taste. Blue beast is stupid on film.
My biggest complaint is not getting more Magneto, and also why pick such lame characters? I think making this a prequel instead of a reboot really hurt them from using cooler characters. Kevin Bacon did good but I still kept thinking it’s Kevin bacon and his two henchmen I’m confident said nothing.
Also I would like to add Banshee was totally awesome.
The silhouette shot of blue beast was hilarious, I was expecting Michael J. Fox to start playing basketball before the big mission. Cross over movie.
I’m not saying I disagree with the criticisms about Darwin. However, does this mean you can’t kill black people in films any more because people will say it’s a cliche and call you a racist? Surely affording a black character more chance of survival is treating someone different based on skin colour…and isn’t that supposed to be wrong?
Surely NOT being racist means he should be as liable to be killed as a white person. I bet that for every film where a black guy dies first there’s probably a dozen where a white guy does.
Honestly, implying there’s some race-hate subtext in a film which IS ABOUT EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE strikes me as a little daft.
What about that likeable CIA dude that died just before him? He’d probably had as much screentime. What about the many white soldiers dropped out of the sky by Azazel in the same attack? I don’t buy it, sorry.
When I said I don’t disagree with the criticism – the “slavery” line was lacking in subtlety, yes. It was a bit on the nose and was probably a poor choice by Vaughn.
But the numerous people who have taken actual “offence” that he died – both here and on every other site I read, totally beguiles me. They spent the first hour hammering home the message “It doesn’t matter what’s outside, judge people by what’s inside.” and then a black guy dies and that is all people see?
All I thought when he died was “shit, no, I liked him”. Which was kind of the point. It was also necessary for the story that he died. Xavier only allowed the youngsters to put themselves in danger because their friend died, thus proving they were already in danger even in the most secure location, and because he understood that it had become something they needed to do. Aha! But should it have been the black guy who died? Should they have re-cast him as white? Have Banshee or Havok (actual bona-fide X-Men) die before they have seen action? Raven? Well..no, the continuity obsessed would not have survived that one. Maybe Angel, but then she was not white either.
This whole thing is dumb!
well…fanboy catering ruined another perfectly good idea and ultimately a movie.
all the stuffing of mutant fandom into a plot that wasn’t designed to support it left me a little depressed.
What was the point of all those mutants? Angel S., Darwin & Riptide (even Havok) could have been excised from the story and no one would have noticed.
I will just second (or third or fourth is it now) the code-naming scene, Xavier bald jokes and **spoiler** even lump the Logan & Rebecca Romijn cameos into the defense of my position( we just couldn’t have 1 X-men film without Wolverine, god forbid lest we upset all of fandom.)
Emma Frost/J. Jones…this disappointment has previously been commented into the digital ground.
and Moira MacTaggert getting naked at the drop of a hat (okay shouldn’t really complain about that one)
ultimately when I watched the movie I kept thinking “oh that reminds me ‘Boys from Brazil’ was a great movie” or “OSS 117 was such a fun movie” and so on and so on.
If I’m paying $12.50 I just want a good movie. Not something that wants to remind me of what I read years ago.
but otherwise loved the movie…this really could’ve been the best comic book movie yet.
Can’t wait for the Watergate scene in the sequel.
(j.o.c. credits=started reading X-men as a mere pup at issue #201 left in the mid 90’s for indy comics came back aboard for Morrison’s New X-men. just to avoid that criticism)
I just think it’s lame when they only put in one black guy and kill him off mostly because I thought he was a lot cooler than the other characters.
That being said I was mostly saying it jokingly as they point it out in either the scary movie or scream films can’t remember which.
Also as far as the slavery line focusing on him I think that was intentionally to show what other black citizens were going through in the US and had gone through and unlike the white characters knew what it meant to have your personal liberties withheld from you. It’s also partly what sparked him into action against Shaw and I felt myself cheering that he didn’t just stand by or change sides like the others. It just sucked that a character I liked died right away all stupid remarks about race being meaningful aside.
@boosebaster I don’t think anyone here is accusing them of actual racism. One can be offended or even amused ironically by something without it being genuine “I hate blacks” racism. I seriously doubt anyone in the main crew felt that way at all. That’s not really the point.
@jokingofcourse I would agree that the young mutants weren’t developed as well as Magneto and Xavier, but I think they serve a vital purpose in helping Xavier become the mentor he was destined to be. Those training sequences with him, learning to become a team, to channel their gifts for good, rather than self-destructing- all of this has value. Superficially speaking, yes, they helped a great deal in the big battle at the end of the movie, but you can’t remove every young mutant from the film and have the same story. It doesn’t work. And I frankly enjoyed them a lot more in the third act than I did most of the young X-Men in X3.
If I remember correctly, comic Darwin was born a black person, before he turned bright pink. Probably would’ve been more of an uproar if they’d had him played by a white guy.
And you could argue that he didn’t have to die, but you’d be wrong. Darwin is a terrible character. Like an even lamer Superman. (Just my opinion, of course, and I mean no insult to those who do like the character. As long as they realize they are incorrect in doing so. 🙂 )
i thought darwin’s mutent power was his huge gross man boobs. and that studio must have been awfully cold in a lot of shots too
It just only now dawned on me where I’ve seen Darwin before. He’s the Terrence Trent Darby vampire in Twilight. And, yes, pretty all the Rifftrax jokes about him were centered on his man boobs.
Also, just now noticed “Oliver Platt (himself)”. Well played.
@ohcaroline It might be me, but I didn’t read any romantic interation in between those two at all in that scene.
actually, Armando “Darwin” Munoz is most likely hispanic. so they clearly turned him into a black person so they could kill him first.
He’s half African, half Hispanic. “Blaxican” if you speak Turk.
I enjoyed the movie, I don’t really care too much about continuity and such in movies. And people complaining about Logan, seriously? he was in for like five seconds.
my only complaint about the Logan scene was the second camera shot made it entirely too long.
@1aurien yes, you are correct…and you’ll notice for that reason banshee (the young mutant with scenes where he had something to do ) was conspicuously left off of my list.
i agree that many things that seem underworked or hokey in the film are necessary, for all the logical problems of “the cure”…its necessary to set up the division between those who can assimilate and those who cannot (feel free to read as blacks assimilating into white culture or gays assimilating into straight or whatever reference you care to shoehorn in) a conflict richly and better mined in other mainstream movies.
also…i thought we spoke not the name of X3 round here…
oh and for me Logan in movie (even for 5 seconds)=symptom of fanboy catering = my main issue with the film, as they were pointless distractions from the otherwise compelling storylines. Take any fanboy nod on their own and one may forgive, however the accumulation is not so easy to ignore.
@ohcaroline – I thought it was fairly obvious in the previous films that Magneto and Mystique had a sexual relationship, so I didn’t find the kiss out of character for either. As for Charles and Erik, why is it that when two males get within arm’s length of one another someone must insinuate that they are gay?
Other thoughts…
With Emma Frost and Shaw’s sub, the movie was dangerously close to veering into James Bond/Austin Powers silliness. Good thing McAvoy and Fassbender had the gravitas to keep things under control.
I love January Jones in Mad Men, but her Emma Frost had zero charisma.
How cool would it be to have Zoe Saldana play a young Storm if this movie does well enough to get a sequel?
@ultimatehoratio
I’m pretty sure we did see a young storm in this movie. It was very quick, but I thought I saw a young girl with dark skin and white hair pop up in the astral plane during Xavier’s first use of Cerebro.
I found this movie greatly enjoyable. As an older fan, it was for me it the best movie involving comic book characters I have ever seen.I felt confidant that I could take anyone who did not know of the X-Men mythos, sit them down and they would enjoy it, and want more! It almost seemed more like a science fiction movie as opposed to a comic book one, and the inclusion of the Cuban Missle Crisis seemed unique and daring for a film maker to touch.
I just got back from seeing this film, and I had a great time with it. I’m familiar with the X-men but not really a reader, so none of the changes bothered me in the least. I thought the action was good, even if the scope seemed restrained until the end. Magneto was a ruthless bastard – LOVED IT. Fassbender was great, multi-dimensional, and charming. McAvoy made the Prof. X role his own. Jones was gorgeous but dull. the young supporting characters were good, but of course we didn’t get as much background as we’d like. Check it out!
@itsbecca @resurrectionflan All I’m saying is, I can’t wait until Raven gets Erik alone and is all, “You want me JUST LIKE I AM right?” and he’s “Yeah. . .so. . .any chance you can look like Chuck?”
To me, Magneto (especially movie Magneto) is incapable of romance, anyway. What I got from the previous movies and this one is that while she may love him, Magneto isn’t in love with Mystique (or Charles) but what Mystique represents. She’s everything that mutantdom is– exotic, resourceful, beautiful in a completely abnormal way– wrapped in a blue, scaly ball. Anytime he relates to her (or anyone else in the movie), it’s purely on what she is rather than who she is. His lover is mutantdom. Once she’s no longer of that like in X-Men 3, he’s immediately done with her. I don’t think there’s anyone that Magneto truly feels any romance for at least in the movies.
@jokingofcourse You mention Banshee as someone who “had something to do,” and I don’t disagree. I’m just curious what he did that was so much drastically more than the other young mutants in the movie. Sonar? Flying around? I mean, I liked Banshee a lot, but come on.
They were using their abilities to complete the mission and help each other almost the whole time they were together, especially in the third act. The kind of teamwork, and mastery of their abilities that they displayed wouldn’t have been possible without their interaction with each other and with Xavier. There’s no team dynamic when it’s practically just Banshee by himself.
Darwin dies as a personal casualty of the young mutants (which include Banshee), who are motivated to continue on and become pre-X-Men to seek justice for his murder. There’s a scene shortly afterward where these characters specifically say this. Angel is the voice of dissent among them, easily swayed by Shaw’s offer, a direct example of his allure (and why he should be stopped). The movie could obviously have happened without these, but at the cost of some of the substance. Which is again more of a return to form for the franchise.
Honestly, I’d rather have a movie with lots of ideas and lots of character than one that favors explosions and almost no complex emotion at all. As was certainly the case with the last X-related film.
You wanna talk about the uselessness of Riptide, well, okay. He does about as much as Toad did, really. Except I like Riptide’s power more, so… there. >_>;
I’d argue the Logan scene was more mainstream-catering than fanboy-catering. Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of Wolverine is as well known as any in comics, everyone knows who Wolvie is now.
It also worked, it was a good moment in a good film.
Yeah, the Wolverine cameo got the biggest pop from the sold out screening I watvhed. I read one comment here about the length of one of the shots lingering too long — I think that was because the editor recognized that people would still be laughing/cheering at the appearance and great line of dialogue.
Or Hugh Jackman’s contract stipulated a specific amount of screen time.
As a video editor, I prefer to believe it was the former.
@edward I suppose you could say Magneto’s “schtick” certainly is “humans = evil” if he’s being written very one-dimensionally. I always felt when he written at his absolute best, he was much more nuanced and deeper than that. I think his best moments come when his “schtick” is “I must do whatever I can to save my people (mutants) at all costs – even if it means destroying humanity in the process” rather than “kill all humans.”
I really like how they set up Magneto’s misanthropy here. He’s spent about 18 years thinking a human caused him all this suffering was done by a human and his human cronies. He believes rage powers his abilities so he’s purged himself of everything but hate and rage so he can do this thing. He’s spent almost two decades reasoning everything he sees as an excuse to write off people as evil and worthy of his fury. Then, he discovers there are others like him and they’re the only people who have treated like an actual person. And they relate to him almost entirely on shared persecution and their mutant powers. Now, Erik’s hatred of humanity is too deep to stop so quickly so he reasons that mutants– those who are “above” like him– are alright and it’s the “normal” humans who all suck. By the time he realizes Shaw is a mutant as well, its too late. He’s spent the last 18 years justifying his misanthropy and a little thing like the worst human being mutant won’t stop the 18 years of rage now. What about the other 17 when humans didn’t prove they don’t suck? He’s built this philosophy of hate for years, sharpened with his recent discovery of mutant pride and he’s not turning a total 180 now. By the time the fleets fire upon the beach, it’s all the justification he needs to become the new Shaw.
@Tork well done, that’s precisely what I wanted to put into words about Erik yesterday, but could not figure out how to. I will be copying and saving to a notepad to quote if I ever have the debate with someone. (“As the wise Tork once said…”)
Completely agree with you on Magneto being the crux of this movie, it was as if instead of making Magneto’s Origin & First Class into separate movies, they combined the two & just called it First Class in order to have it be more general in origin stories for chracters throughout the filml, but it is quite clear from the shot-for-shot recreation of the first scene from Singer’s first X-Men movie, that this was absolutely Erik’s story of his downward spiral into a radical mutant figure to counteract Xavier’s more peaceful motives. It’s funny how this coin was the one thing that remaind from Erik’s first tragic push into rage to his vengeance being fulfilled so slow & satisfying, because it reminds me of Harvey Dents descent in TDK with his two-faced coin being the object of his life before & after his downfall. I have said this before & I will say it again that X-Men First Class is Marvel’s answer to DC’s The Dark Knight, but after looking at the two films, could their motivations be based on their uses of a coin to show one of the main characters overarching story come to fruition throughout the course of the film? If so that would be mind-blowing!
I really enjoyed the movie, i think it could have benefitted more from a slimmed down cast to make more time for characters to flurish, and I really would have liked erik and charles to have meet sooner in the movie. As a fan that understands the relationship between the two I felt fine coming out of it, but I don’t imagine someone less invested in the characters would have got how close the two were suppose to be.
@1aurien (man i dislike how replies to posters can’t be just right underneath the post)
I think we just have some miscommunication. I enjoyed the film, you enjoyed the film…i just wanted a movie that was like “In the Heat of the Night” but just happens to have mutants…
I don’t think if you look at that or any other historically “great” movie, that you would find in them under-developed or un-necessary characters. if the movie was just to be a fun time I would point (as before) to the film “OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies” which is more Pink Panther-y but does the 60’s racist and sexist sensiblities in a much funnier and smarter way.
I just hate having to “excuse” (for lack of a better term) large parts of comic book movies. I want a Punisher movie as good as “Taxi Driver” and an Avengers movie as good as “Das Boot” which I know makes me in the large minority. Because when I read great comics (in my head) they are just as good.
Ultimately I had a fun time in the theater just like everyone else…so lets get back to nitpicking about why couldn’t Xavier just have had a normal 60’s wheelchair in the final scenes.
Wait a min- Oliver Platt plays himself??
Yes.
@jokingofcourse Speaking for myself, I found nothing in the movie that needed to be excused. You’ll see in my first post on the movie (wherever that is) that I listed things I didn’t enjoy about it, though I still came away having liked it overall. The things I mentioned in our exchange weren’t excuses, but things I observed on first viewing without looking for them, which contradict some of your negative points in my view.
Buuut I think we’ve exhausted the point now, so we can agree to disagree (or not, I dunno). 🙂
@LucasEwalt One-demonsional has got to be better than randomly motivated
@edward How was Magneto randomly motivated in this movie? He starts killing Nazis to get revenge for the holocaust/murder of his mother and to find Shaw and kill him. Along the way, he finds out he’s part of a new race known as mutants and expects humans to violently persecute them and cause another holocaust. I don’t see how that’s random.
Okay I have one major issue with both the comics and movies. Are the X-Men diseased or evolving? I personally like it much more with the idea they are evolving. I thought X-Men sucked because of this among other reasons. It seems like Magneto is just fighting for dumb bullshit to me then. Are the comics the sameway?
My fiancee, who doesn’t read any X-Men and only watched the previous movies and a little of the ’90’s cartoon, came out of this sympathizing with Magneto. Which is awesome. I need to get her a “Magneto Was Right” tee shirt.
The X-Books are my favorite corner of any comic book universe, and this movie was without a doubt the best they have been translated on the big screen. Sure, other movies did certain things better, but this was the most original story in the most original package that I have seen. So many twists and turns that I truly did not see coming! Xavier’s crippling came as such a shock that I physically recoiled as it happened, even thought I was assuming it would happen by the end of the movie. The cast was charming, except for a few minor wooden or nonexistent adaptations, and there was even a Michael Ironside cameo! That bumps any flick up a couple notches in my book!
@edward It’s very clear, and well understood by everyone (except you it would seem) that Magneto has seen his people identified, counted, rounded up, and subsequently murdered once before, and that he is confident that it will happen again to his newfound “family”, this time perpetrated by a much larger demographic than just Nazis, and that regardless of the actual order-givers’ genetic alignment, the mutant race needed to be guided towards survival instead of extermination. Also, in the film, they make it clear that Magneto was not necessarily positioned against Shaw ideologically, or even morally, just that he wanted revenge against the man who pulled the trigger on his mother. Magneto came to this realization about himself late in the story, but most of us knew it before that. He believed Xavier would see things his way once the missles began to fly, but Xavier didn’t go throught what Magneto did, and if nothing else, we know that it was his time in Poland during WWII that truly made him the man he would become. I agree this was his movie, but his character doesn’t change in this movie the way some protagonists would, he only discovers his own nature. Which is an incredibly compelling and unique choice for a superhero flick.
@halik Seriously?
@edward and @halik To both of you, I’m betting you guys don’t have a whole lotta Jewish friends, huh?
Actually my mothers side is Jewish. I’m not saying Magneto fighting for that is lame I’m saying in X-Men 3 when it is clear their not a n
@ActualButt my girlfriend is jewish. Does that count, numbnuts?
@halik The dispute between disease and evolution is kind of the whole point.
@edward And with a slip of one imflammatory remark all other good discussion points are suddenly invalidated? Sigh.
@PaulMontgomery Isn’t that kind of like a group of people who have herpes uniting to fight against a society that just wants to help? Im not trying to be stupid or a dick I just don’t see how that’s interesting when they know it is indeed a disease. I guess it’s all on personal taste, I just happen to like when the are the next step in evolution.
@itsbecca i think the term “numbnust” isn’t really that inflammatory… on this planet…. in this reality.
@edward haha. Sorry, I meant *his* inflammatory remark meant to you it was justified for you not give an actual response.
@halik *cringe* No, it’s quite different. Herpes is a disease that people contract through their actions or events that happen to them, a mutant is someone who’s genes have changed significantly from the average human and it’s a difference they’ve had prior to even birth. It would be more like people finding a “cure” for, how about, Aspergers syndrome (a high functioning form of autism, that creates some social obstacles, but has also created some of the greatest minds in science) . In other words, something that linked to genetics, but is engrained enough in a person’s identity that they could be very offended if you just walked up to them and said, “You’re not like me, therefore it’s a problem and I’m going to fix you.” Some people see it as a problem, some people see it as an improvement. That’s the issue and it’s really interesting, especially as genetic work get’s more advanced.
No Paul
Oliver Platt plays “the man in black”
He doesn’t make a cameo as Oliver Platt the actor.
That is the only appropriate citation of “himsel” in credits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezvyi2dBZr0
Just had a chance to see this. Pretty enjoyable overall. I thought your review was spot on. I liked all the characters for what they were, except for the characterization of “Angel”. I was just scratching my head at that choice. I didn’t mind so much that it didn’t totally line up with the previous X movie continuity…i just see all of these as their own things…different takes on a a familiar mythology. My only gripe would have been to see more of the 1960s in this movie. More obvious character acknowledgment to the civil rights struggles of the time. I think it would have been valid for the story. To me it seemed to be completely ignored. I understand why the filmmakers didn’t want to go there, but it just seemed disingenuous to the times.
@ericmci It was a joke.