X Men First Class: Blu Ray Review
X Men First class
Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent and 20th Century Fox
So once more back into the X Men breach - and a third attempt at an
origins film.
This time though it's from the minds who brought us the truly
wonderful Kick Ass.
James McAvoy stars as Charles Xavier, a gifted young man whose life
is decided by the altruistic path he forges in nurturing mutant
kind and uttering the word "Groovy" as the 1960s progress.
Directly idealogically opposite him is Erik Lehnsherr (a brilliant
Michael Fassbender) whose youth is defined by his tortuous
treatment as a Jew in the Nazi concentration camps at the hands of
Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon).
So Erik sets out to hunt Shaw down and kill him - but when Shaw
threatens to bring the world to its knees via nuclear war, Erik and
Xavier join forces - along with other newly discovered mutants to
try to avert a potential world war three.
X Men First Class is better than some of the more recent entrants
into the franchise but it's no massive progression for the series
to be frank.
It's more a case of the film once again attempting to restart
and reboot the franchise and managing to do so in a somewhat at
times limp way - so fanboys of this particular genre be
aware...
However, there are some truly impressive things within this latest
mutant outing.
Firstly Kevin Bacon's Shaw is startlingly good - Bacon's really
delivered the acting goods here with menace mixed with charm as
well as incredible screen presence. His is the stand out
performance of the film without a shadow of a doubt.
Fassbender and McAvoy also deliver the goods but it's Fassbender
who is the better actor bringing a dash of danger to the future
Magneto as he heads off on his Bond like quest of vengeance;
McAvoy's performance is crippled a little by his character's
penchant for spouting pompous dialogue and putting two fingers to
his forehead every time he uses his telepathy.
Overall, X Men First Class may impress some with its fine acting
but fans of the X genre will be disappointed nothing radical is
done (aside from some great fanboy pleasing cameos); the rest of us
may feel it's time to give the X Men a rest - even though this is
rumoured to be the start of a new trilogy.
Extras: Good solid bunch including deleted and extended scenes,
behind the scenes of the film
Rating: 7/10
