X-Men: First Class
I'm not really sure what it is about origin stories/prequels that bother me so much. Maybe it's because they are typically too self-reverential, too overly serious, too.. well... full of it. I don't know. Maybe, it's because they are generally boring. It's all about building the mythology. Not that I think mythology is unimportant or anything, it just isn't so important that I'm going to crap my pants over it. Rarely have I enjoyed these movies... Iron Man was boring. Batman Begins was incredibly full of an over-inflated sense of self-worth. Star Wars Episode I was just plain dumb.
So I suppose by this point, it is needless to say that I was not really looking forward to X-Men: First Class. The concept was certainly ripe for overbearing self-referentiality. After all, the very mythology of the X-Men revolves around philosophical differences between the two main protagonists: Magneto and Professor X. The vibe generally has mirrored that of Malcolm X vs. Martin Luther King during the civil war movement (and yes, that might sound ridiculous, but I'm fairly sure that's where Stan Lee's head was when he was plotting the original comic books... well, maybe not the original comic books, but the ideology that grew from there.). So yeah, the potential for this to devolve into an over-bloated philosophy-fest- where every word has such...meaning... was, indeed, high. And you know what? It wasn't horrible. At least in that sense. It did carry a slightly, needlessly serious tone. Self-serious, that is. But there was some genuinely good action too. The problem here really wasn't with the usual prequel pitfalls, it was more just plain sloppy writing/plot and character development. Many of the weighty philosophical issues were presented in the film but they may have actually been addressed too fleetingly. I know that sounds hypocritical, but in this case, it fits. The whole story of Professor X and Magneto revolves around how close their friendship was before real- understandably real- ideological issues pulled them apart. I never got any sense of the true connection between the two characters here. Sure Erik (later Magneto- played with a demagogue's flair by Michael Fassbender) claimed to be Charles' (later Professor X- played in a solid turn by James McAvoy) friend, but they never felt that close. And there really wasn't much ideological sparring going on. It seemed like Erik was tolerating Charles until he could get what he wanted. Actually, most of the relationships in the film seemed rushed and/or jumpy. Maybe the pacing was off. Maybe they were concerned with being too damn boring, I don't know. Really, yeah, I just don't know exactly what it was, but the film seemed to be lacking a degree of depth. I was hoping for more of the type of ideological interplay that was presented in-say- The Dark Knight... though portrayed in a far less caffeinated way. And just wasn't there... or at least in any kind of intriguing way. And actually that's to the movie's detriment.
Add to that the irksome detail of having mutants playing a main role in the Cuban Missile Crisis (just too iconic an event really... this isn't like a whole movie being played as an Onion-esque farce of history like Inglourious Basterds.. this is one detail of the story and it just seemed too inorganic, I guess) and really the best I could feel was that this was an ok-to-pretty-good-at-best movie. I will say that each actor- particularly McAvoy, Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult (as Beast) and Jennifer Lawrence (as Mystique)- played their roles really well. So it had that going for it. But on the whole... sadly... there was just something a little off about the movie. But still a lot better than I had expected.
Grade: B+
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