After two weak entries in the X-Men film franchise (the juvenile
X3, and the unimpressive
X-Men Origins: Wolverine), I was pretty leery going into
X-Men: First Class. Yellow uniforms? Magneto’s helmet? Eurgh. Has there ever been a 5th movie in a series that was actually decent? Now there’s at least one;
X-Men: First Class is an intelligent, exciting, stylized addition to the X-Men film franchise, and almost supplants
X2 as the best X-Men movie.
X-Men: First Class takes place in the swingin’, Commie hatin’ 60s and chronicles the friendship and conflict between Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), a telepathic university professor and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender), a metal-kinetic Nazi hunter. I could watch “Magneto vs Nazis” all day, but the real villain of the film is the enigmatic Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), mutant mastermind.
