X-Men: First Class

I wasn't to sure what to expect as I was going into this movie. Having watched all 4 of the previous ones I wasn't harboring much hope for this one. X-Men and X-Men: United where decent flicks, I had some issues with thew but overall I enjoyed them. X-Men last stand was a mess of incoherent plot points, and the total destruction of what Brain singer had established in the first 2 movies. Then along comes Wolverine which when I first saw it in the theater I was sure some of the special effects where unfinished. The scene in the bathroom when he's getting used to his new shiny razor sharp claws seems awfully artificial. Almost as if the visual effects crew stopped adding texture and reflections to the claws half way through animating them. The Blue-Ray DVD I won seemed to somewhat improve the look for some of these special effects but not really too much.

Anyway I went in not expecting much.

SPOILERS Beyond this point

The movie opens with a recreation of the opening of the first X-Men movie where a young Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a Magneto, is struggling with Nazi soldiers to get to his mother. His powers manifest due to the strain, and he bends down a steel gate.

This was a nice connection to the earlier films, it cements their attempt at making this movie part of the other X-Men films, this is also where the problems begin, and most reviews will likely start nitpicking at the movie for it.

The movie moves on to show how Xavier becomes a Professor of Genetics, and how in between the factual and historic Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960's there brews a war between humans and Mutants. The movie tells us that the puppeteer behind the crisis is Sebastian Shaw a very powerful mutant who is attempting to eradicate the human race by means of a nuclear war, assuming that mutants will survive because of their genetic mutation because they are in fact "Children of the Atom".

Charles befriends Erik as he saves him from drowning while attempting to chase down Shaw's submarine.

They are recruited by the CIA to stop Shaw from creating a nuclear holocaust and they take it upon themselves to also recruit several mutants: Banshee, Angel Salvatore, Alex Summers, Darwin, and Xavier's adoptive sister Raven, a.k.a Mystique.

This is the only part I disliked. There's no precedence for this, and there's no reason why they couldn't have just recruited her with the rest. but now they need to turn her relationship with Xavier into a pivotal point in her existence.

Anyway, Shaw's forces destroy the CIA base and kill all CIA after which Shaw shows up to get Xavier who is away on a mission following Shaw's right hand woman Emma Frost. Frost is the low point of the film, played by January Jones, her role is reduced to eye candy by parading herself in a bra and panties most of the movie which loses much of its appeal when you see her emotional range is that of a lump of carbon. Yes she's hot, but that's the extent of her acting abilities sadly.

Meanwhile in the destroyed CIA base, Shaw manages to convince Angel Salvatore to join him. Darwin attempts a ruse to destroy Shaw only to be fed an energy ball by Shaw that causes him to die an explosive death.

Xavier offers his lavish castle in New York and they begin training. While in training Hank McCoy becomes involved with Mystique and begins work on a serum that will fix their physical mutations but leaves their actual abilities untouched. Mystique rejects the serum, and McCoy tests it on himself turning into the blue furred feline Beast we all know.

The team gets ready to face off against Shaw in the Atlantic ocean in an attempt to stop the launching of missiles by both the U.S.A and the U.S.S.R. Shaw having encountered telepaths before has a special helmet designed to block his mind from them.

As the final confrontation nears Magneto manages to remove the helmet so Charles can immobilize Shaw. Magneto then seizes the opportunity and kills Shaw in retaliation for having killed his mother in Poland during the NAZI raids.

Outside on the beach Magneto and Charles get into a fight after he uses his powers to stop the missiles the US and Russian forces had fired at them in an effort to wipe out the mutants, and sends them back at them. Charles wrestles with him and breaks his focus on the missiles causing them to fall in to the ocean or crash against each other nullifying the threat. McTaggert shoots at Magneto only for him to deflect the bullet and hit Charles in the back.

SPOILERS END HERE

As I said before, I had my reservations going into this movie, but was however pleasantly surprised by it. The movie is quite good, leagues better than any of the previous ones, and the integration of a real historical event into the mythos grounds the movie in realism and makes for an interesting backdrop to the mutant super hero story line. However their attempt at tying the movie to the other four might leave some unhappy, as it makes for more inconsistencies than actual tie-ins. If you can get passed that, and enjoy the plentiful nods at the other movies including the cameos by Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romjin in their respective roles the movie offers a very good entry into the X-Men cinematic universe.

All in all I'd say 4 out 5 reels if you don't mind the inconsistencies it generates with the other movies.