What did you think of X-MEN: FIRST CLASS?

SPOILERS:


This is one of those movies that's right in the middle for me and impossible to decide on. One the hand the two lead characters are written great. But the other X-men and villains are disappointing. Just sort of stock characters, and at least two, are copies of older X-men. Beast was disappointing.

He looked like The Grinch from the 2000 film, not a good look. And he makes the same mistake most comic book scientist characters do. They are so smart to invent all this stuff, and know so much, yet they are dumb enough to mutate themselves with some weird experiment that turns them into a monster, without even testing it first. Unconvincing character behavior.

Plus why even introduce new mutants anyway, when they have hardly finished developing or introducing the previous ones yet?

Another disappointment was there were contrived explanations of how characters got from here to there. Like when Magneto sees a picture of a boat on the wall, he automatically knows where Shaw is. I have a pic of my Dad standing next to a plane, but that doesn't mean I know where to find him, nor will he be in one, once I do. Unless I missed something there?

And how is it that the CIA was involved in the beginning? The woman agent goes in to follow those guys, yet she has no idea of what the plot is, that's going on. How did she know to follow them, if there is no explanation to why she is following them originally?

And the 60s was not a convincing 60s at all. It didn't even look like the 60s, and society was hardly showing any 60s like behavior. No I don't mean stereotypical hippy movements or anything like that, but you got women field agents wielding guns, and fake Hollywood 60s things like that. I'm not antifeminist, just unconvinced at the falseness of the Hollywood 60s.

I love the two leads and there plot, and the Shaw villain was good, but everything else was kind of stock stuff, that could have used more depth possibly. Hard one to decide on therefore. Thoughts?
 
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I thought First Class was surprisingly good. I was worried because I really liked the old cast from Xmen and X2. The young cast did a good job and it was nice to have a cameo from Huge Jackman even if it was only for a few seconds.

Here is an interview with Hugh about his cameo in the film. Warning it has a spoiler about his cameo if you have not seen the film yet.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/09/26/hugh-jackman-x-men-first-class-cameo-interview/
 
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It was a fun movie. I've liked all the x-men movies though because I like the xmen universe.

Oh, and the CIA was there following the general. They knew he was doing something corrupt, just not super powers corrupt.

I wasn't alive in the sixties, but I thought it looked really period. There are a lot of famous women spies in history, even WW1 and WW2. It was a high-society side of the sixties, not one represented as often.

And the charachters weren't really copies. They exist in the universe. I think Hazazeal (sp? The teleporter guy) and mystique are actually night crawlers parents in some versions of the comics.

Overall, lots of fun. I think it is a little silly AGAIN arguing historical accuracies of sci fi haha. Rag the plot all you want, to each his own. As far as charachter development, there's not enough time to develop 80 characters in 90-120 minutes. Most side characters in any movie aren't developed much, wether or not they have powers.
 
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Haven't seen it yet, but intend to (almost always enjoy x-men stuff). That there was a Wolverine cameo sort of annoys me, but as a symptom of a larger problem, not as an issue in and of itself (and since they couldn't get Glenn Danzig, Jackman has been doing a great job as Wolverine). In the world of comics, Wolvie is WAY over saturated. He's shoehorned into any and everything. Sometimes appearing on the covers of comics he's NOT ACTUALLY IN.

It would be sorta nice to see something x-men related, that doesn't have anything to do with wolverine and not actually INCLUDE him. I mean, he already got his own movie...AND a sequel in the works! Can't he keep his claws out of everything else ;)
 
It would be sorta nice to see something x-men related, that doesn't have anything to do with wolverine and not actually INCLUDE him. I mean, he already got his own movie...AND a sequel in the works! Can't he keep his claws out of everything else ;)

He really isn't in this movie and it has nothing to do with him. It's quite literally 3 seconds just giving a nod that it's the same universe.
 
Yeah, that's what I had heard, Paul. Again, not problematic on its' own (and kinda neat), just rubbing something that's annoyed me for the past 20 years of reading comics ;)

...so long as he doesn't show up in the Deadpool movie if/when that happens.... ;)
 
Yea it was real good. That scene when Xavier helps Erik channel his pain to move the satellite dish almost made me cry man.
 
You know what's weird. Most of my favorite comic book movies, a lot of book fans hate. Such as the 2003 Hulk and Daredevil, saying they deviate from the comics too much. I love the 3rd X-men movie as well. And a lot of comic book movies I dislike such as, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, and the first Spider-man, are all true to the comics, and the fans love them. It seems a lot of comic books are just weak, and lack depth, therefore, cause a lot of the movies that are true, have less depth, than the ones that are not.

This isn't true with EVERY comic book movie of course. But it seems that comic books are the one type of novel where more of the time, the movie is actually better than the book, cause they add more depth. Not always the case, but a lot more compared to movies based off novels.
 
I loved several cinematic nods in the movie. There were several subtle and overt James Bond references, like Erik's clothes in several scenes (from Dr. No and Goldfinger). The basic bad guy style from Sean Connery Bond films, etc.

Then the entire set recreation from DR. STRANGELOVE, was amazing and in color for the WAR ROOM.

Overall, this was my favorite X-men next to X2 and the original one. My sole complaint is in the lack of continuity between the 5 films. They have mucked with 3 different actresses as Kitty Pryde, when and how Wolverine became Weapon X, the Beast and the ages of everyone are completely mucked up.

That's with the MOVIE continuity not even considering the comics. You can't really make comparisons between the comic book medium and film. They can't be reconciled, so why bother?
 
I didn't see a lot of those nods and I guess I should have been looking harder. As far as James Bond, so many movies have done that I felt they were making nods to the 60s, rather than Bond specifically. This is my third favorite. My most favorite were 3 and 2. I know a lot of fans hate 3, but I loved how it all wrapped up, and thought it did it well. Not great, but good. I actually hated the first X-men cause it hardly had any plot. They took so long to introduce everything that after, the climax came too soon, and you feel like there should be more of a middle of plot in between. It was only 104 minutes and with an introduction to get out of the way first, they should have made it longer, so they had more time for middle plot.

Even though First Class is hard for me to decide on for it's weaknesses, as well as strengths, I would still probably say it's the best comic book movie this year.
 
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It had some good things and it had some realy bad things.

Bad things
The German Speaking was horible.
The effects looked a bit cheap

Good Things
The Story
Character development
Hugh Jackman
 
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