Summer blockbuster season is here! But will the X-men prequel live up to the hype…?
The last instalment of the X-Men franchise was only a few years ago, so I was thrilled to find out there was more mutant mayhem on the horizon, it’s an exciting prospect for a comic book nerd like myself. Of course X-Men: The Last Stand wasn’t to everyone’s taste, the auteurship and vision that Bryan Singer had brought to the first two X-Men films was somewhat lost in Brett Ratner’s instalment. X-Men: First Class brings yet another director to the fore in the shape of Matthew Vaughn, the man behind Kick-Ass. But has he brought that Kick-Ass brand of exciting post-modernism to the X-Men? Well, the short answer is no.
X-Men: First Class is a prequel that takes us back to the very beginning of X-Men mythology, when Xavier and Magneto first meet, and the X-Men are formed. This is the story of how they became friends, and most importantly how they became enemies. James McAvoy puts in a great performance as Charles Xavier, with just the right amount of gravitas to convince us of his powers, and that he’ll grow up to be Patrick Stewart. Magneto, played here by Michael Fassbender, is also well drawn out, particularly considering Ian McKellen’s amazing portrayal of Erik Lehnsherr in the previous films. Magneto’s Nazi backstory is expanded upon here, and it’s one grounded in enough actual history to make it both engaging and believable. It’s everyone else in the film that’s the problem.
A host of mutants, new to the big screen, are born in front of our very eyes, but what amazing powers do they have? Well, one has wings! One has crazy hula-hoop powers! One has big feet! Yep. I’m not joking. You see there’s a reason these films weren’t made in chronological order. The reason is that this isn’t the best story, and these aren’t the best mutants.
Set in the mid 1960s the films main problem is in its aesthetic. What really jars is the set design, costumes, hair, make-up and overall look. It seems someone doesn’t quite know what the sixties looked like. Some of the sets appear to have been furnished by IKEA; you can almost smell the paint drying. The tone is, in places, nothing more than corny Austin Powers style spy nonsense with glaringly anachronistic blunders all over the place, in fact nothing looks quite right. Combined with boring fight sequences and some well below-par special effects, especially for a film of this genre, you’re left wondering exactly what the $160 million budget was spent on.
Vaughn weaves archive footage of JFK and details about the Cuban Missile Crisis into the film, in what I assume was a bid to cleverly ground superhero fantasy in the realms of reality. It doesn’t work and effectively just makes the antics of our mutant friends look even more preposterous in comparison. The original genius of the X-Men lay in their ability to appeal to the outsider and the minority. ‘Mutant’ became a byword for whatever personal difficulty we as viewers identified with, turning the superheroes into personal heroes for us. Their troubles in being accepted and understood were universal. Sadly this, the most important element, is all but obliterated by clumsy dialogue, a heavy-handed script and a host of two dimensional supporting characters.
Anyone who was hoping that this film would undo the damage caused to the franchise by Ratner’s efforts, or the distinctly lacklustre Wolverine flick will be disappointed. Even someone who’s only casually interested in the franchise will be left feeling short-changed. Hardened comic book fans will be utterly devastated. Wolverine does make an appearance here though, by far the best bit in the whole film. It’s only a few seconds long, but it’s the only truly enjoyable sequence in the two hour trial that is X-Men: First Class.
X-Men: First Class is out now.
Warren Beckett works full time as a powerful wizard, but moonlights as an online journalist. He likes talking in the third person. For frequent updates on how his hair looks follow his Twitter @WarrenBeckett