X-Men: First Class: movie review
Considering how awful the last installment was, I wasn鈥檛 expecting much from the new Marvel Comics-derived 鈥淴-Men鈥� movie. The absence of 3-D glasses this time didn鈥檛 bode well, either 鈥� less diversion from the badness.
The sort of good news is that Matthew Vaughn鈥檚 鈥�X-Men: First Class鈥� is sort of good, at least until it starts taking its mutants-are-a-higher-species stuff too seriously. After some early material set in Auschwitz, the film settles down in 1962. It turns out that the Cuban Missile Crisis was actually fomented by mutants!
Working Auschwitz into this comic-book universe is distasteful, especially when, much later on, the terrorized boy, Erik, who grows up to be Magneto, proclaims 鈥淣ever Again!鈥� (The original 2000 鈥淴-Men鈥� also began in Auschwitz.) Some universes should remain separate, even in fantasy. But at least Erik/Magneto, as played by Michael Fassbender, is, well, magnetic.
Other actors have their moments, too, including James McAvoy鈥檚 telepath Charles, the future Dr. X, and Kevin Bacon鈥檚 concentration camp doctor-turned-mutant guru. He makes most Bond villains look like sissies. (This movie, with its large cast, should greatly enlarge the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon possibilities.)
Jennifer Lawrence, however, who was so lacerating in 鈥淲inter鈥檚 Bone,鈥� is not given much to do except look pretty and worried as she morphs in and out of her blue-skinned, red-haired, yellow-eyed Mystique incarnation. If Lawrence allows herself to morph into just another franchise film hottie, it will be a disaster far more calamitous than anything on view in this film. Grade: B (Rated PG-13 for brief strong language, some sexuality, and a violent image.)
