First Class

This afternoon, Sarah (my daughter) and I went to see the X-Men: First Class movie.  It was very good!
The movie is a prequel to the prior three X-Men movies and there is some disruption in the series continuity, but one has to remember (as much as possible) it’s a comic-book adaptation AND it has to make money on its own to justify its own sequels.  Based on what I sat through, a sequel is much in order.
There were some characters I didn’t recognize, but that’s okay because I haven’t followed comics in ages.  In theory, the movie should have been a trip down memory lane for me as I was a X-men follower in the early days (60’s) and continued when they switched to the New X-Men.
The bottom line is the new Magneto actor / character steals the show and his (Michael Fassbender) performance is terrific.
The movie is a good on multiple levels.  First, it is a well written movie so even if you know nothing about the X-Men or haven’t seen the other three movies, you’ll be able to follow this immediately.  It has the requisite excellent special effects; young good looking actors (mostly mutants); and older men (60’s versions of Men-In-Black), mostly military (US and Russian) and CIA (mostly human and not too bright).  It has a few comedic moments – mostly teaching Banshee to fly.  But also a lot of very good, emotional angst moments which capture the essence of being people who don’t quite fit in to everyday society – people who want to be both special and normal (particularly Beast and Mystique).  This is the emotional string which ties the X-Men audience (pre-teens to mid-college age) to the characters.  This movie captures that spirit and that is why it’s the best of the series.
One side note:  it was a tiny bit disappointing to not see Stan Lee in his usual cameo.  So, no, you didn’t blink and miss him…  The cameo by Hugh Jackman almost makes up for no “Stan the Man.”
Highly recommended!!
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