X Men First Class

Dodgy poster, good film.

Tis' the year of comic adaptations all over again. Flashbacks to 2008 are getting more intense as the sheer quantity of films based on my beloved medium launch themselves out the door along side other genre movies that could be cut from the same cloth.

   Actually comic adaptations this year include Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, X-Men: First Class, Cowboys and Aliens, Priest and (sigh) Green Lantern, a film which I personally think will only do well if people are feeling generous this year.

   All of them have one thing in common, none of them look to the here and now, to create a truly grandiose adaptation of the source material. This was evident with Thor. Instead of an Asgardian wonderland full of superheroic shenanigans with a more faithful take on the material that doesn't pander to producers sweating over the need to be safe and try to appeal to as many popcorn consuming, wellfare munchers as possible we got a very bloody good mind you 'safe' superhero movie that looked to set up a franchise.

   There's nothing really wrong with a commercial view to movie making, but the best movies are ones that shun the long term franchise and concentrate on making a truly awe inspiring piece of cinema. It happens in comic adaptations to, look at The Dark Knight, The Crow, Road To Perdition, Ghost World all made with the idea that the film was more important than the action figures you could develop from it.

   The argument that (for example) Thor would look silly if realised in film is moot. Christopher Reeve didn't look silly:

Sadly missed, greatly inspiring.

 Why would Chris Hemsworth look silly in this:

It wasn't THAT far off in the movie, but still...

   So does it happen with X-Men: First Class? Do we get an epic? Do we get the comic adaptation of the X-Men that we've always wanted?

   Very nearly and almost...

   Why? Because studios are still feeding off the old trilogy, despite that this one removes X3 from it's continuity by SPOILER IN INVISO' TEXT (highlight to read): Crippling Xavier and breaking the friendship with Erik, two things clearly at odds with the opening of X3.It still has a cameo and advertising campaign that clearly links it to the first two movies. Now, those first two (and if I'm being honest I quite enjoyed the third one) are excellent films, the second one specifically as it contains my favourite X-Man, the fabulous Nightcrawler as played by Alan Cummings,

Your dad was cool in First Class to!

but they suffered from being far too grounded, too much emphasise on trying to make it all make sense and not 'camp'. There's nothing wrong with that but one of the things about the superhero genre is the introduction of the fantastic into the mundane so that you can show the world what a wonderful and incredible place it can be.  The setting should be normal so the fantastic stands out. The X-Men movies had to play safe because unlike Sam Raimi with the Spider-Man flicks Bryan Singer can't do spectacle; action and intrigue yes, spectacle no.

   X-Men: First Class comes very close to what an X-Men movie should be, it's sixties setting helps this a lot with some of the sexiest, high collar designs and funky styling we've seen since the Austin Powers, Magneto certainly rocks a turtle neck! The 'camp' is allowed to breath a little allowing the setting to ease the viewers mind into the idea that Magneto's helmet is in fact awesome. So what actually let's the film down?

   Chronic misuse of characters seemingly randomly chosen because they haven't been in the other movies, which in itself is another tie in to the existing franchise. There are characters, Beast and Mystique who have story arcs and are there for a genuine reason. Their story is easily something you could accept as 'movie continuity' as opposed to 'comic continuity'. But while Havoc, Banshee, Darwin and Angel all shine when they are on screen they don't get enough time on screen to blind you.

These two make the screen come to life and make the film. James Macavoy (left) as Charles Xavier and Michal Fassbender (right) as Eric Lenshir. 

   X-Men: First Class is a great film but it's let down a lot by not being an honest re-boot of the franchise and embracing it's roots with more gusto. Your average movie goer won't give a hoot and settle into the spectacle that this clearly gives you, a comic reader will wonder why Angel was used and not Angel.

(For the techy stuff go here... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270798/ )