X-Men: First Class

In the first film of the summer to tackle pivotal American historical events with a fictional twist (superheroes, giant robots, aliens), X-Men: First Class takes us to the heart of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The second of the Origins storylines, this one shows the beginning of the X-Men, and the evolution of their cause to the backdrop of the sixties.

Director Matthew Vaughn follows up Kick Ass with a foray into Marvel territory, and he does a very nice job. This is probably the best of the X-Men series for a number of reasons, which I will mention later. Vaughn carries the torch of unorthodox director choices by Marvel, but it works in their favor. Each of the films has a distinctly unique flavor, and that keeps it fresh and watchable. Vaughn does a great job of capturing the setting, particularly through the props and the costumes (January Jones makes a great 60's bombshell). It never waivers from its X-Men roots too far though.

The first reason that this is the best film of the franchise is Michael Fassbender. He plays Magneto with a cool attitude, and is just plain fun to watch. Given an opportunity again to use his native German language, he plays Erik Lehnsherr, the scarred, scornful survivor of Nazi death camps beautifully. His counterpart, James McAvoy, who is a wonderful actor in his own right, just didn't seem to fit the character to me, but the interaction between the two was entertaining and genuine.

The second reason is Kevin Bacon in the surprise performance of the blockbuster season thus far. He plays the bad guy, Shaw, with swagger and arrogance, showing the dark side of Bacon that we haven't seen successfully since Sleepers or Murder in the First. He shows off both German and Russian, and is just plain cool. Add another film with a deep cast to the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, it just got easier.

The third reason that this is the best X yet is that it is driven by character development and slow pacing rather than explosions and action, which adds to the credibility, unlike Brett Ratner's orgy of special effects in X3. There is plenty of action, and cool mutant superpower demonstrations, but it is not overdone. Bryan Singer did nicely with the first two, but they jumped into action without much explanation.

A couple of well-placed and timed cameos by Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romjin remind us that there is a whole Marvel connection that all of Hollywood is embracing. There is an excitement around the superhero genre, and audiences are clearly not getting tired anytime soon. As I've said before, Marvel has something special, and they are making this universal connection in a way that has never been done before. The passion shown by everyone involved (except maybe Terrence Howard and Ed Norton) shows a lighter side of action movies that is electric. The culmination of these films next year with the Avengers, which is going to be massive will open up endless possibilities.

People love superheroes. The reboots of Spiderman and Superman, the third Batman, and all of these originals and sequels proves it. Stan Lee had better be a rich man because of all of this, because he has created some amazing stories.

X-Men is a fun ride, and worth the price of admission to see Fassbender and Bacon. January Jones isn't bad to look at either. 8/10.