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    According to Paul: X-men First Class

    X-men First Class

    The X-men movies can be considered next to “Spiderman” as the renaissance of the comic book movies. This is due to the fact that “X-men” back in 2000 helped re-launch comic book movies after a horrible decade in the 90’s (though “Crow” was really cool). Going into the movie, one must know this: this is the story of Marvel Comics’ version of Martin Luther King Jr., (Charles Xavior), and Malcom X (Magneto). One must also know that the X-men movies rarely follow actual comic-book story lines.

    So now let’s talk about the good things in “X-men First Class.” My first praise is to the portrayals of Charles Xavior and Magneto. Any scene featuring the two characters together is gold. The way they interact is really intriguing because they are both worst enemies and best friends. Because of that, this movie is sort of a human-relationship film as well. Magneto (who is my #1 fictional villain) was just awesome especially in the first half of the movie when he is hunting Nazis was just brilliant. Plus the transition from anti-hero to villain was cool and done well because even though to everyone else he is a villain, he is still a hero in some way.
    Another praise for the movie was the special effects and action scenes. Unlike “X-men Origins Wolverine” (where Wolverines claws looked so fake) the special effects were well-executed except for two people–but we will get to those later. The action was intense. This was where the special effects really shone (the submarine scene was pretty sweet). It was fast, it was hard, and it always kept you on your feet.

    Now let us talk about the villains: The Hellfire Club… and the humans.
    For the Hellfire Club we will only talk about Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost. Sebastian Shaw was pretty good as a main villain. He is ruthless, evil, cunning, he has really cool powers, and is a bit racist (I mean he’s an X-men villain and a Nazi so, it’s understandable). He had all of the good points for a villain and I enjoyed his performance. My only problem with him is that he was portrayed a little to snarky, but that’s it. Emma Frost was portrayed fairly decently (though their were times when the actor couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag) as a good manipulator and a femme fatale. Be sure to see her in the future sequels, people.
    And now for the humans: I include the humans as villains because in the end they become antagonistic by targeting the X-men out of fear for what the mutants might do to them. It definitely shows one of the leading points in the X-men series about persecution and fear for what one does not understand.

    Now it is time to talk about the bad parts. What is bad about this film is the same as all of the other X-men movies: the sub-characters. However, the non-main characters are not as bad in this movie as in the others. My first point: why in the name of Stan Lee did they make Mystique Charles’ sister and an original X-man? In the first few X-men movies, she was awesome (and not because of her choice of clothing). She was great at martial arts, kicked Wolverine’s butt and helped take down Magneto. In this movie while it is good to show the development of her character, did they really have to make her only into a love interest? I mean, come on! That’s all she did, kiss Beast, Magneto, and show angst about her true form. Hopefully in the next movies they make her into a bigger threat. (By the way, the special effects of her morphing are worse than the previous movies.)

    And now for the other teammates: Havok, Banshee, Angel Salvador, Beast (whose beast form looked like the child of Cookie Monster mixed with Chewbacca), and Darwin (who looked stoned). While they weren’t bad, I have to say what everyone else has said: they aren’t the original X-men. The original “First Class” were Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, and Jean Grey. I would have liked to have seen those characters in the movie, but this is a prequel set in the 60’s. It just wouldn’t work. The characters that they did show were pretty good and had some personality. My only problem is that they weren’t the mutants I wanted to see. (By the way, non-white people got ripped off in this movie, didn’t they? Darwin was killed off, and Angel Salvador and Mystique betrayed their team.)

    Aside from my personal criticisms, this movie was a blast. Despite what FOX does to these movies, I had really fun. I give this movie four out of five stars. Do you have an opinion of this movie? Rate and comment below!

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    • J

      Josh SchorleSep 12, 2011 at 8:23 pm

      “One must also know that the X-men movies rarely follow actual comic-book story lines.” This is also true when books are made into movies. Just saying.

      Reply