Saturday, June 25, 2011

X-Men First Class Review

In a few words, by far the worst X-Men movie of all, and I've seen Wovlerine Origins and that farce of X-men 3. This one had a very week story with an ending that was so contrived, it was something out of daytime television. The critics praised James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, Professor X and Magneto respectively, but both were tepid, if you ask me. They did have some on-screen chemistry, but it wasn't 'that' sort of movie, so it honestly didn't fit to me.

The basic premise revolves around how the X-men were created and what caused the two 'friends' to go their separate ways. I really think, after seeing yet another beloved comic, and I actually started reading comics because of X-men, this needs to stop. This big screen adaptation thing was a nice try, really it was, but every single great comic is packaged and distilled for mass audiences and the watered down end product is disgusting.

Now, I have read my fair share of X-titles, I even have the original Wolverine series and Giant Size X-men #1 which brings the intro of some key characters into the X-verse, like Wolverine. I even have some older Batman titles, though nowadays, having graphic novel compilations are much more cost effective and easier to handle.

To get back to the point. This movie was decent. It had its moments, even a great line here or there. My poor rephrasing of one is: 'Your power and strength lie between pure anger and serenity.' In a lot of ways, that is true. Aren't we are best, all of us, when we are either really calm, or so infuriated we can only concentrate on one thing. I wish I had time to go off on a tangent about how many great lines are in bad movies, but this isn't the place.

The movie had merit, but as with most superhero movies that derive from a time honoured media, it was all jumbled. There were too many characters, too many storylines and too many moving parts. There were some great 'cameos' from Hugh Jackman and Kevin Bacon as the main baddie. And let me tell you, Bacon really showed some range! I was surprised and impressed. For a matinee, the price wasn't bad, but overall, this might not even be worth a rental.

1 comment:

  1. That bad is it? Wolverine was cheese and Xmen 3 pissed me off, and I've not read that many of the comics (more of the Saturday morning cartoon fan). Guess will be waiting for this one to hit cable before I watch it.

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