Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Review: Xmen - First Class

Xmen - First Class

Starring   

James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier
Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr / Magneto
Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert
Oliver Platt as Man In Black Suit
Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw
Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme / Mystique
January Jones as  Emma Frost / White Queen
Nicholas Hoult as Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy / Beast
Zoë Kravitz as Angel Salvadore

Running time    132 minutes

First, I got a beef.  I rent most of the films I review and it is becoming clear that in some cost savings maneuver, rental disks are becoming much less feature rich.  I have found in the past several disk that had virtually no extras where as the purchased disk was anything but!  Even the DVD had more entertainment value than the rental disk.  I plan on writing Blockbuster a note and if you enjoy some value added to your disk view, write to your rental agency with a complaint...  I really don’t see it changing, but I know I will borrow disks to get the full viewing experience, I certainly am not going to BUY their butchered versions...nope.

ok...on to the review.

I don’t know what I expected from Xmen First Class, but it certainly was more than provided.  Don’t get me wrong, the movie is competently made, but it was like the whole soul was sucked out.

The premise is simple enough...during WWII the US and Germany began to suspect that there were people with extraordinary capabilities.  Sebastian Shaw played by  Kevin Bacon begins searching for a powerful mutant in Germany and finds Erik Lensherr who later would become Magneto.  The US though a CIA agency find Charles Xavier and the few mutants that Xavier has amassed.  

The main nemesis is Shaw who wants to wipe humanity from the globe Professor Xavier works with his group to hopefully stop Shaw.  The climax is during the Russian / Cuban Missile moment in history. Of course what went on “behind the scenes” was suppose to be the telling moment.     

I won’t give away the ending if you by chance haven’t seen it yet, but it is pretty badly telegraphed.   Truthfully that is my gripe for the whole film!  Even in the most powerful moments, the director never once asks you to suspend belief.  The parts were played well, but almost too low key!  It is as though you are watching a travelogue.  

The one really fun moment was Charles’ first meeting with Wolverine. But the whole scene could have been axed!

Overall?  It’s really not boring, but there is NOTHING NEW HERE and it just is not so much fun as the previous Xmen fare.   Overall without extras to pull it up...a 7  You got nothing better to do...watch the movie......

2 comments:

Dave Tackett said...

I completely agree with you Paul. This was very much a "paint by the numbers" superhero film that took no chances and was far too predictable.

I haven't felt motivated enough to watch the long Children of the Atom Documentary, but the rest of the extras were no more exciting than film (and the blu ray interface was a bit annoying)

At least it wasn't one of the really bad superhero films though (i.e. Daredevil, Catwoman, Ghost Rider, Batman & Robin, etc.)

Beam Me Up said...

Yeah, dead on Dave, what a walk thru Ghost Rider was! Plus not being a daredevil comic fan I was lost for the most part. Very second string SH for sure. But the X-Men have always been first string SHs and to make a ho hum movie is and was a let down for anyone even close to being a fan.