kanna-chan's cafe

Hey guys, kanna here. So...I know I promised a review of X-Men: First Class before Days of Future Past was released. Unfortunately, I filmed it, but I couldn't get iMovie to cooperate for the editing and some other things got in the way. To make up for it, here are a series of written reviews of the X-Men movies. We'll be going in order of continuity (to the best of my ability; Last Stand kind of screwed things up), ignoring the spin-offs, and leading right up to Days of Future Past.

Let's get started with X-Men: First Class!

This is probably one of my favorite X-Men movies. Granted, X-Men and X2: X-Men United were great and X-Men: The Last Stand is a guilty pleasure, but this is one of my FAVORITES. There is so much awesomeness in this movie, that I actually consider it a little underrated.

Let's go over the cast. We have James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Lucas Till, and Kevin Bacon.

Kevin Bacon.

Kevin freaking Bacon.

Excuse me while I go get my Footloose CD. In the meantime, I give you this clip of Kevin Bacon entering the Jimmy Fallon show.


*ahem*

Okay, enough of me going absolutely nuts over Kevin Bacon. The role he plays in this movie was one that I didn't really like. Not because he didn't do a good job, but because of who he played. But we'll get to that later.

Our movie opens up in a concentration camp in Poland, in the year 1944, where we see a little boy being separated from his mother. We later discover that this boy is, in fact, Erik Lensherr (Magneto) as a child (young Erik Lensherr played by Bill Milner). Just as the gate is about to close to completely separate him from his mother, he metal-bends it open as he screams for his mom. We then get the first shot of the villain of the movie, Klaus Schmidt (played by KEVIN FREAKING BACON). He's just sitting up in his office drinking tea and watching the scene unfold from his window. Because that's what all villains with a sick mind and a sinister plan do.

This is actually where my problem with Kevin Bacon's character comes into play. Why? Well, I'm Jewish. And Kevin Bacon's character in this movie is a Nazi. I think you can do the math. Don't get me wrong; Kevin Bacon did a great job in the role, and I actually like how he portrays Schmidt, as well as the fact that the Nazi references are an EXTREMELY small part of the movie. I would have preferred no Nazi references at all, but given this bit took place during WWII, I don't think it could have been avoided. I'm fairly sure that while Kevin Bacon is not Jewish, he is not an anti-Semite. I just don't like the fact that he had to play a Nazi. All right? There. I am not bashing Kevin Bacon in any way. I'm just saying I don't like that he had to play a Nazi. All right? Is everyone happy? Good.

After that, we cut to Westchester County, New York, where we see young Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher), who has already discovered his telepathic powers and learned how to control them to some degree. He meets young Raven (Morgan Lily), a shape-shifter whose real form is a blue skinned girl with short red hair (sound familiar?). Charles invites her to live with him as his foster sister. And his parents are totally okay with it...I think. I guess Charles just mind-controls them off-screen or something. That's what the audience is left to assume before it goes to the next scene (see paragraph below).

We then cut back to the concentration camp, where we see young Erik standing in Schmidt's office. There's a bit of dialog in German exchanged between the two, and I am SERIOUSLY thankful for the invention of subtitles during this bit. Anyway, we get a well-written scene that...well...

We then fast-forward 18 years to the year 1962 and see Charles (James McAvoy), Erik (Michael Fassbender), and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) are now adults. Charles graduates Oxford with a thesis about mutation and a voice-over by Ian McKellan (I'm not joking, it's really him), Raven is still living with Charles, and Erik is out searching for Schmidt. After our game of catch-up, we meet the non-mutant hero of the movie, CIA officer Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne). And, in my opinion...I just can't stand her. I'm not really sure why; I just don't like her.
Anyway, she goes undercover as a stripper in Schmidt's (who is now apparently known as Shaw for some reason that's never really explained in the movie, but whatever) club, the Hellfire Club. She discovers a secret room where she sees Shaw, telepath Emma Frost (January Jones), cyclone-producing Riptide (Álex González), and teleporter Azazel (Jason Flemyng) threatening U.S. Army Colonel Hendry (Glenn Morshower) to deploy nuclear missiles in Turkey so Shaw can start World War III and become the ultimate nuclear bomb. Azazel teleports Hendry to Turkey and he activates the deployment of the missiles. We then get another well-written death scene where Shaw kills Col. Hendry. We also learn a bit more about what it is that Shaw can do, which is absorb energy and manipulate it (although, if you've read the comics, then this isn't too much of a surprise).

We then get a bunch of scenes in the movie that I'm not really a fan of, so I'll just give it to you in the form of bullet-points.

• MACTAGGERT MEETS CHARLES XAVIER AS HE'S GETTING DRUNK POST GRADUATION
• XAVIER, MACTAGGERT, AND RAVEN CONVINCE CIA DIRECTOR MCCONE THAT MUTANTS EXIST AND SHAW IS A THREAT
• CIA AGENT KNOWN SIMPLY AS 'THE MAN IN BLACK' (I KID YOU NOT) SPONSORS THEM AND TAKES THEM TO DIVISION X
• XAVIER AND CIA RESCUE ERIK FROM DROWNING AFTER HE PRETTY MUCH DESTROYS THE YACHT THAT SHAW IS ON AND SHAW ESCAPES

Yeah...these were scenes probably seemed good and well-written to most people, but I was just bored by them. I like to watch stuff more than once, but the more I watched these scenes, the more bored I got (although I did think that the instrumental of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" would have sounded really nice during the bit when Charles tells Erik that he's not alone). Not to mention that that agent was only called 'the man in black' and they didn't even give him a name. Why do you think ALL First Class fanfics refer to the guy as Agent Black?

Anyway, upon arrival at Division X, they meet another mutant by the name of Hank McCoy. This is another well-written scene, because it actually includes a (kind of) modern-day reference. What reference is that? Well, here's the scene, and tell me if you can guess what it is.


Yep. That's right. It's the "don't ask, don't tell" reference. Now, if you're not entirely sure as to what that is, here's the short-version. "Don't ask, don't tell" was the U.S. policy on members of the LGBT community serving in the military. It allowed closeted members of the LGBT community to serve in the military, while those who were openly members of the LGBT community were not allowed to serve. This policy was announced by former U.S. President Bill Clinton in the year 1993 and repealed in the year 2011 by current U.S. President Barack Obama.

Hank McCoy also built Cerebro, which uses Charles's telepathy to locate other mutants, and we get a montage of recruitment scenes, where we see the recruitment of Angel Savadore, Armando Munoz, Sean Cassidy, and Alex Summers. We also get THE BEST SCENE IN THE ENTIRE MOVIE.

Seriously, it's the best scene in the whole movie. Why? Well...


Now, I'm not going to spoil the movie completely for you, because if you've seen the X-Men movies and/or read the comics, then you're probably aware of how this ends. If you haven't seen the movies or read the comics and just don't want to bother with either, then...talk to someone else to fill you in.

And now...we're going to rate the film!

DRUM ROLL

10 OUT OF 10

Seriously, this film was incredible. The acting was FANTASTIC, it was well-written...heck, we even got an uncredited cameo from the original Mystique (who should be in Days of Future Past), Rebecca Romijin! Wolverine's one-liners are always the best, and they showed Erik's evolution into Magneto in a way that was actually better than the comics. Magneto in this movie was more human than he was in the books, and I think that that was why people liked him so much, even though he is often seen as "the bad guy."

This movie set up an AMAZING transition for Days of Future Past. They even got BRYAN SINGER, the director of the first two X-Men movies, to come back to direct it. Days of Future Past is supposed to tie up all the loose ends that the original three (and Origins, but we don't talk about that one) left. Although, if you saw the new Wolverine movie that was released last summer and stayed after the credits, then you probably saw a very interesting scene from Days of Future Past. There were a lot of other bits of the movie shown after other Marvel movies, like Spiderman 2 (which I didn't see, because I don't like Spiderman).

This epic-ness has JUST hit US and UK theaters, and it will...or has hit Canadian theaters on...weird, they don't give a release date. Um, I'm pretty sure Marvel has nothing against Canadians. I mean, Wolverine is supposed to be Canadian. So...what gives, Marvel? What gives?

Well, while I go question what the deal was with them not giving a release date for Canada but giving release dates for at least FORTY other countries, please stay tuned for the next review, which will be of X-Men!

All right, guys! Signing off for now!

UPDATE: I finally realized why I don't like Moira MacTaggert! Get ready for this...

She contributes NOTHING. Literally, nothing. I mean, there are people who probably will say, "Oh, she's a woman in the CIA, it shows feminism..." Okay, fine. I'll give you that. Points for girl power! Yay!

Let's look at the storyline of First Class as a whole. She's literally Charles Xavier's love interest, nothing more. I guess the fact that she isn't a mutant and is doing all this stuff with the mutants should make her character interesting, but...it doesn't. Does it help that she's the one who (indirectly) causes him to end up in the wheelchair? Nope. Just makes me hate her more.

In the comics, she wasn't even in the CIA! She was a geneticist and an expert in mutant affairs. She had this SUPER interesting character arc. And guess what? SHE DIDN'T PUT CHARLES XAVIER IN THE WHEELCHAIR IN THE COMICS (I mean, he did end up in the wheelchair, but she didn't do it)!

UPDATE: I forgot something. I don't usually update posts unless something is either constantly changing or if I forgot something that I meant to put up. Anyway, here's the ultimate reason why I can't stand Moira MacTaggert:

She. Is. An. IDIOT.

Seriously. That might be an understatement, but whatever. Why is she an idiot?

You know that scene during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the movie where Erik takes control of a bunch of missiles and tries to send them back to the American and Russian ships? Well, after that, Charles goes in for the tackle and tackles Erik to the ground as he tries to wrestle this helmet that blocks his telepathy off of Erik's head. Moira grabs her gun, starts shooting, and this is where I get REALLY angry at her.

Why?

ERIK'S FREAKING CODENAME IS MAGNETO! AS IN MAGNET WITH AN O AT THE END! MAGNET, AS IN THAT THING THAT ATTRACTS METAL! THE GUY CONTROLS METAL! THAT'S WHAT YOUR GUN IS MADE OUT OF YOU IDIOT! WHY ARE YOU SHOOTING METAL BULLETS AT A GUY WHO CAN CONTROL FREAKING METAL?! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, THE GUY CONTROLLED A BUNCH OF MISSILES! WHAT MADE YOU THINK HE COULDN'T CONTROL A FEW BULLETS OR, OH, I DON'T KNOW, THE GUN IN GENERAL?!

OK. Now I'm done.