X-Men: First Class (2011)
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were arch-enemies, they were closest of friends, working together with other mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known.
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26 films that influenced X-Men: First Class
What critics say influenced X-Men: First Class
Now entering its second decade after four movies and three directors, the X-Men series gets a much-needed jolt of energy and vitality from the fifth entry, X-Men: First Class, which, as the title suggests, is a prequel/series reboot in the vein of J.J. Abram’s Star Trek (2009).
With “X-Men: First Class” we get something more akin to J.J. Abrams’s 2009 reinvention of the decades-running “Star Trek” franchise.
Previous comic reboots have benefited from exceptional performances by supporting cast members — Jack Nicholson in 1989's Batman, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, Zachary Quinto in Star Trek.
This isn't a serious franchise reboot on the level of J.J. Abrams' " Star Trek " - it's more of a playful tweaking.
Just as J.J. Abrams succeeded in resuscitating the moribund Star Trek franchise with his 2009 reboot, the new X-Men adventure looks highly likely to give the mutant superheroes a whole new lease of life.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Visuals Themes
That has a little to do with the fact that some of the retro stylings aren't that wobbly, and that production designer Chris Seagers does the great Ken Adam proud, concocting war rooms and submarine interiors and cockpits and hangars that evoke the best work of Ken Adam (He of course designed not just all the Bond films of the '60s, but also " Dr. Strangelove ," which is not inadvertently evoked in this film's rewriting of the Cuban Missile Crisis as a battle between good and evil mutants.).
Channelling the aesthetics of the Sixties spy thriller, down to the dancing dolly birds and Dr Strangelove war rooms, antagonists plotting global war from the white leather recliners of a submarine that detaches from a yacht in a display of pure Bond excess, X-Men: First Class is having a great deal of fun without entering the Austin Powers -like realm of absolute, irredeemable silliness.
Familiar characters are given new, younger faces while various histories and interrelationships are fleshed out against a backdrop of 1960s mod styles (courtesy of James Bond) and Cold War tensions (courtesy of Dr. Strangelove).
For an origin film like "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009) and a prequel to "X-Men" (2000), "X-2" (2003), and "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006), "X-Men: First Class" is surprisingly brisk.
After a noisy, cluttered third sequel (2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand ) and a dreadful spin-off (2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine ), the X-Men superhero series was looking pretty worn, and a prequel featuring an entirely new cast seemed like the wrong way to set things right.
That sociopolitical dynamic had been largely lacking from the last two X-Men films, which included Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), and its re-emergence in First Class helps bolster its character arcs and the action sequences, which Vaughn orchestrates with a sense of both grandeur and coherence.
The globe-trotting plot, breathlessly skipping around from Switzerland to England to Russia to New York to Las Vegas to Miami to Argentina to Cuba, reminds of a classic James Bond effort, while the scenes portraying the recruitment of the team shares the hip energy of a crime caper along the lines of 2001's " Ocean's Eleven ."
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Charles discovers his first recruit right in the lab when he and Raven meet scientist Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult, "A Single Man"), a brilliant kid with feet that look more like an ape's hands and whose obsession with hiding his mutancy makes for a romantic bond for Raven.
Channelling the aesthetics of the Sixties spy thriller, down to the dancing dolly birds and Dr Strangelove war rooms, antagonists plotting global war from the white leather recliners of a submarine that detaches from a yacht in a display of pure Bond excess, X-Men: First Class is having a great deal of fun without entering the Austin Powers -like realm of absolute, irredeemable silliness.
When we're not being strangled by symphonic foreboding, we're being tickled by tunes and fashions from an "Austin Powers" movie.
SIGHTS: The retro look the film captures comes off a little too much like an Austin Powers flick.
“X-Men: First Class” has already drawn numerous comparisons to other films in the Marvel canon but the work that it actually echoes is Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins.”
But inescapably, a reboot was in the works and like Batman Begins proved, prequels are hot properties.
These scenes reminded me of Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” and Fassbender makes one sharp super agent carrying out a violent personal mission.
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For an origin film like "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009) and a prequel to "X-Men" (2000), "X-2" (2003), and "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006), "X-Men: First Class" is surprisingly brisk.
After a noisy, cluttered third sequel (2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand ) and a dreadful spin-off (2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine ), the X-Men superhero series was looking pretty worn, and a prequel featuring an entirely new cast seemed like the wrong way to set things right.
So it is to some degree of relief that not only has "X-Men: First Class" turned out to be a sexy, zippy, entertaining thrill ride that kicks new life into the franchise, negating the previous two "X"-stallments – Brett Ratner's ghastly "X3: The Last Stand" from 2006 and Gavin Hood's unfathomably even-worse spin-off "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" from 2009.
Previous comic reboots have benefited from exceptional performances by supporting cast members — Jack Nicholson in 1989's Batman, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, Zachary Quinto in Star Trek.