The last X-Men movie was the first in an apparent line of Origins movies, not sure what is happening there but the most charismatic and elusive character has at least been covered, that being Wolverine. I wasn't so impressed with the last movie, it was too heavy and needed to either be darker and a higher rating or lighter with the same 12a.
Happily I found this latest installment of the X-Men franchise to suit its rating, with the exception of one swear word, and this is down to the direction. Its unsurprising to learn the director of Origins also directed Rendition and Tsotsi, hardly light hearted films. Matthew Vaughn has a history of films that make the most of humour; Stardust, Layer Cake, Kick Ass. He and Jane Goldman have a great working relationship and are very much in tune with each other when it comes to the script and the screen.
I have been anticipating this movie for perhaps even longer than Thor, and after being so very pleased with how that film turned out I was a little apprehensive whether or not Vaughn could compete with Branagh. Empire had given XMFC three stars, I would add a half star on for casting. Any film based on books of any kind will always get the bonus half star from me for the characters living up to expectation, even the Golden Compass with all its flaws remains one of the best cast movies I have ever seen.
The story was originally concieved by Bryan Singer and Sheldon Turner (who wrote Up in the Air). It is set mostly in the early Sixties, but begins with footage any X-Men fan should recognise from the first film of Erik Lehnsherr (aka Magneto) as a boy in a Nazi Death camp, it then cuts to seeing Charles Xavier as a boy in decidedly nicer surroundings (the Mansion) meeting a very young Mystique raiding his fridge.
So we have been set up to know these later heroes and anti-heroes have been this way since childhood, and their experiences will mold who they will become. It suits the film to be set in the sixties as opposed to try and bring it into the present day as Marvel created the X-Men in 1963, a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis around which the film is based. These heroes were born out of the fear of what radioactivity could do to us, we know it causes cancer by mutating the cells so they try and destroy us, but writers like Stan Lee thought what if our cells mutated into something spectacular?
The main villain of the film, Sebastian Shaw, is played with aplomb by Kevin Bacon as a man who will do anything to push his point of view across to the world, and also the object of Erik's mission of revenge against his Nazi captors. He is also very much like the later Magneto, same charisma, similar lackeys, and the same idea that he and his other Mutants are better than the mere mortals and should be running this place not hiding. Shaw also makes the interesting point by saying "we are the children of the atom", the first time in X-Men it has really been said that it is the fault of radioactivity that cells have begun to mutate.
Charles Xavier is played by James McAvoy with arrogance, swagger, intelligence, and heart. You could always tell from Patrick Stewart that there was a rascal hidden inside, and Professor X's youth before being thrown into the world of the CIA and war shows a man with a high IQ and he knew it. His relationship with Erik is one of true friendship, I saw an interview with Matthew Vaughn who had said on casting that he made McAvoy go through a lot of readings until they found Michael Fassbender, when it was apparently clear within minutes they had their X and Magneto. Fassbender plays Erik with intensity, he is after all on a revenge mission, but he is also captivating as a leader and inspires Raven (aka Mystique) to accept who she is.
Jennifer Lawrence shows her worth in a blockbuster, having previously been Oscar nominated for Winters Bone, and shows the crushing hurt that such a mutation could cause, being blue is not easy even if you can change your appearance. Nicholas Hoult is another young actor proving his worth on the big screen time and again, and here he plays Dr Hank McCoy aka Beast with nervous energy, only able to truly be himself once he attempts and fails at a cure.
There are two characters that do not hold very highly in my estimation, one due to script, the other because of prior work. The first is Moira McTaggert who is supposed to be a Scottish geneticist who helps Professor X and was seen briefly in X-Men 3, yet here is an American CIA agent....humph. Okay so it does work within the story, and I don't know how they would have used her otherwise, but it rankles that such an important, albeit background, character has been so fundamentally changed. All power to Rose Byrne though she plays a CIA agent well and the character change means fluidity where there may have been some stilted dialogue or action to introduce her.
The second character is January Jones' Emma Frost, and she does live up to her name. I am almost positive she lives up to expectations from truer fans than I of X-Men but I cannot help but see Betty Draper of Mad Men, the characterisation is too similar, nevertheless I did enjoy her performance and character involvement.
These two are my only gripes, which is impressive in a film that is very important to all fans of this gang of superheroes, it could have disappointed like Wolverine but it impressed like the very first X-Men film. The action scenes are visually spectacular, but do not come at you constantly so you lose the plot which can happen, Transformers is a film that to me fails completely on story because the action is so good and happens so much. The actors fulfil their character requirements and bring an extra dimension too, I never thought I could identify with a blue Mutant but both Hoult and Lawrence brought me into their emotional world and its not disimilar to anybody with body image issues.
The X-Men movies follow a basic pattern, good guys vs bad - a good guy will become disenchanted with being such and swaps to the other side - battle ensues then comes the parting of the ways. Matthew Vaughn has followed this well, and I am glad to see has not bowed to what a studio normally wants of a blockbuster, non stop action with a love story thrown in. He references the later films with cameos for Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn, and respects the vision of Bryan Singer's original story and movies.
Vaughn has impressed me with his Summer Blockbuster first try, I hope if they make any further X-Men films and Bryan Singer does not return to the helm that Vaughn will be the go to guy for the job.
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