When it comes to movies being based on comic books, it’s always been a hit or miss. We’ve been graced with great comic book movies like Spider Man and Iron Man. On the other hand, there were total catastrophes like the last 2 entries of the X-Men franchise, X-Men: The Last Stand and Wolverine Origins.
Like many people, I hated both moies and felt very let down on where the franchise was taken. At times, I thought how is it possible Marvel can make such awesome movies like Iron Man yet have absolute duds like Wolverine Origins? Since they’re both Marvel movies, couldn’t Wolverine at least be somewhat decent? In all honesty, when I look at Wolverine and Storm, I don’t see the characters, I see some dude with bushy sideburns and Halle Berry. When I read that there was going to be a reboot slash prequel to the X-Men franchise, I was not the least bit excited. I hated The Last Stand in the theaters and I waited for a burnt copy of Wolverine to drop before I seen it. Many months went by with news of First Class. I didn’t really give it the time of day until I read that the movie was getting rather positive reviews by the fans. It was only under those circumstances that I had a slight bit of optimism for this movie.
I told Anabelle I wanted to see it and being as gung ho as she is, she obliged. For certain movies, I go based on who the lead actor/actress is. In First Class’ case though, I went for the exact opposite reason, I didn’t know anyone in the cast other than the guy from Wanted (James McAvoy). To me, that was crucial. It was a chance to see fresh faces to these characters. On the other hand, it was a bit weird seeing a Professor X with hair and a young Mystique; not to mention a villain I’ve never heard of in Sebastian Shaw. All in all though, I really liked it. I thought everyone did a damn good job.
One thing about reboots, if you were able to see the earlier X-Men movies, a lot of things end up falling into place. You get a better understanding on why certain characters became villains, and why a lot of them are the way they are. In the way of the storyline, I thought the director did a really good job. Of course there were a few flaws as there are in every movie, but I thought the story was told rather well. In my opinion, X-Men First Class made more sense than X2, X3, and Origins combined. First Class to me had a rawer with the characters and the special weren’t too over the top; there wasn’t anything new that any of these characters had or did that hasn’t been seen before. And it’s because of this that I applaud this movie. Also, because the number of X-Men were streamed down to about 7 characters or so, it was a lot easier appreciating everyone and their talents. It also made the movie a lot easier to follow. I’ve been reading many mixed reviews on First Class but I honestly do feel that it’s a good movie. There were several articles that I’ve read that Fox, the production company, really made it difficult for this movie to be made. In these articles, the director had a mere 10 months to shoot it in (most movies have at least a year), they had a near no-name cast, many script rewrites, and having to improvise scenes and storyboards to make this movie. Even with knowing these aspects, I thought X-Men First Class was a great movie and I’m sure you will to.
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