X-Men - First Class or Ryanair?

Starring : James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Kevin Bacon

In the final act of First Class, Charles Xavier asks his future nemesis Magneto before battle "Are you ready for this?". I'm confident that worldwide audiences will answer his question with a resounding yes. This is what fellow prequel The Phantom Menace should have felt like.

There are a lot of similarities between Menace and this new X-Men offering. The challenge of telling a beginning of a story you already know the ending of but also how to portray iconic heroes and villains without doing a 'Hayden'. In this instance however, the title of the film is very apt indeed.


The film begins with a young boy, Erik, in a German concentration camp during Nazi Germany with an extraordinary gift of controlling metallic objects. After failing to save his mothers life by performing his ability, Erik becomes aware that anger is the emotion that fuels his evolutionary power. The Jewish boy in question has since grown into a man bent on revenge for his captors. Fast forward to the cold war 60's and Xavier has begun to unravel the power of his own mind-bending talent and plans to find the next generation of mutants with the help of a troubled runaway (Mystique) and the Central
Intelligence Agency. Soon Charles (McAvoy) and Eric (Fassbender) are brought together by a common goal, to prevent the villainous Sebastian Shaw (Bacon) from orchestrating World War III between Russia and the United States.

Throughout, the film reeks of vintage James Bond but especially in it's main set piece as it very cleverly suggests mutants were the reason behind the Cuban missile crisis. But ultimately the main selling point is in the performances of Prof X and Magneto. James McAvoy as the young and cocky Charles is solid casting and puts another spoke in the wheels of Professor X's deep and moral guided character. Michael Fassbender, however completely steals the film away from him. Granted, Magneto's character arc is the meatier of the two roles but Fassbender takes Erik from reckless renegade to troubled tutor and ultimately to the human-hating, mega-mutant he eventually becomes without breaking a sweat.

The majority of the supporting cast also prove their worth to the cause. Bacon sizzles as the big bad, Jennifer Lawrence does enough as the captivating Raven/Mystique to warrant credit and Nicolas Hoult does a very fine job as Hank McCoy although fails to fully act later on under his beastly blue make up. As with most large casts, some fail to impress with their limited screen time. January Jones is bland as diamond encrusted Emma Frost and only left me wondering if she took the job simply to stay in the same decade as Betty Draper. Also Seb Shaw's hench-mutants hardly have a line of dialogue between them but it's only a slight negative in a otherwise gleaming creation.

The reason for First Class's success will be down to the double team of director Matthew Vaughn and co-screenwriter Jane Goldman. The minds that brought you Stardust and Kick-Ass have struck gold once more with bold casting choices, delicious dialogue and truly intense showdowns.

This film will stay long in my memory for two reasons. The first would be the time I saw Michael Fassbender as a true acting powerhouse portraying (and hopefully not for the last time) the anger ridden Magneto. The latter is dedicated to the four noisy youths that were seated behind me in my afternoon screening. Consumed with rage I turn and half expect laser beams to leave my eyeballs and pierce their immature skulls but instead hear myself utter some form of threatening and watershed language which I have never performed in my 27 years on this earth. I felt quite pleased with my behaviour but hope my aggressive mutation stops there.

8/10 - Top of the Class

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