Stilanerd’s Retrospective: X-Men: First Class (2011)

How what began as another prequel movie turned into the first installment of a new trilogy and gave Fox’s X-Men franchise a second chance.

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As explained during our previous X-Men movie retrospective, 20th Century Fox originally wanted to do a series of prequel films after the original X-Men trilogy. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) was the first of these, and there were plans underway for an X-Men Origins: Magneto. Unfortunately, nobody liked X-Men Origins, which meant Magneto, already in development hell, couldn’t go ahead, which also meant bad news for Fox.

Why, you might ask? According to their original agreement with Marvel, Fox would keep full creative control over the X-Men film and television rights so long as they kept making X-Men movies by certain dates. If Fox didn’t have an X-Men movie by the summer of 2011, then the rights would revert back to Marvel. In other words, X-Men Origins could’ve resulted in a Marvel Studios produced X-Men movie much, much earlier. That is, if it hadn’t been for a limited comic book series entitled X-Men: First Class.

Credit: 20th Century Fox

What X-Men: First Class has leagues above the other movies is style. Rather than just approach it as another superhero flick, director Matthew Vaughn treats First Class as if it were a spy thriller.

See, once upon a time, the original X-Men comic series by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had been cancelled due to low sales and only existed in reprints of earlier stories. It wasn’t until Len Wein and Dave Cockrum’s Giant-Sized X-Men No. 1 that Marvel’s Merry Mutants underwent a makeover with a whole new team roster, paving the way for their eventual superstardom. That still left a narrative gap, however. So in 2006, writer Jeff Parker and illustrator by Roger Cruz created the First Class comic as a direct sequel to the original X-Men series, leading up to the events Giant-Sized X-Men No. 1.

Simon Kinberg, the producer behind the X-Men movies, got himself a copy of First Class and essentially went, “Why don’t we make this into our next X-Men movie?” What this really meant was, “Why don’t we make Magneto into a full-on X-Men prequel and call it X-Men: First Class?”

Thus, the plot for Magneto, in which a young Erik Lensherr travelled the world hunting down Nazi war criminals, became folded into a story of how a young Professor Charles Xavier founded the X-Men. Since Mystique was also a fan favorite, the movie would act as her origin story, too. As the X-Men debuted in the 1960’s, the movie would also be set during that time, specifically during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And even though the original “First Class” consisted of Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, and Iceman in the comics, the “First Class” for this movie would be Professor X, Magneto, Mystique, Beast, Havok, Banshee, Angel Salvadore, and Darwin instead.

Credit: 20th Century Fox

First Class certainly made Jennifer Lawrence into a star. Here, she takes Mystique beyond the adolescent eye candy from the first trilogy and makes her into a true figure of female empowerment.

What’s also clear, especially after rewatching the earlier movies, is that while X-Men: First Class (2011) presents itself as a prequel, there are clear inconsistencies with the original trilogy. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Raven Darkholme/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) are foster siblings, and she’s in love with Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult)? Hank also built Cerebro instead of Charles, and Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) designed Magneto’s (Michael Fassbender) iconic helmet? Charles is paralyzed by the movie’s end even though he walks during flashbacks from Last Stand and X-Men Origins? And how is Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) as Scottish medical researcher in Last Stand but an American CIA agent in First Class?

You’d think comic book fans would be up in arms about all of this, considering how stingy we are when it comes to staying true to the source material. Yet when they saw the finished product in theatres, fans not only loved it, they embraced it. Almost a decade after its release, there are some even rank First Class as the best in the franchise, even higher than X2.

What First Class has leagues above the other movies is style. Rather than just approach it as another superhero flick, director Matthew Vaughn treats First Class as if it were a spy thriller. With the exception of the mutants and the real-world geopolitical history backdrop, First Class’ plot comes right out of a James Bond movie. Sebastian Shaw even seems like a Bond villain, with Emma Frost (January Jones) as his femme fatale second-in-command. Montages are done with a combination of wipes, multi-dynamic image techniques, and non-sequential narratives like The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Even Henry Jackman’s musical score has a 1960’s mod feel to it.

Great performances are another reason First Class was also well received. We mustn’t forget these are supposed to be younger versions of characters from the other movies, meaning the actors are under a lot of pressure, particularly when two of them, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, are Shakespearean trained. Yet both McAvoy and Fassbender as the younger Professor X and Magneto respectively show they’re more than equal to the task, breathing new life and deepening these characters in ways the first trilogy never did.

McAvoy’s, for example, perfectly radiates Xavier’s intelligence, compassion, and optimism while exposing the root causes for his beliefs of human and mutant co-existence. His Xavier is someone who seeks approval from the status quo, putting on the air of a British academic who, despite his upper class roots, can still drink with the lads and charm the women. As much as he talks about embracing one’s gifts and “groovy” mutations, he’s very quick to make sure they look as “human” as possible.

Credit: 20th Century Fox

Fassbender and

First Class

directly tap into the comics depiction of Magneto as a byronic anti-hero…It’s a performance which both looks and feels sincere, and as we watch Erik’s story unfold, it’s almost impossible not to sympathize with his world view.

Fassbender’s Erik, meanwhile, is someone who, even before his inevitable heel-turn, believes in both mutant superiority and change through violent action. But where McKellen came off as an obvious villain in the original trilogy, Fassbender and First Class directly tap into the comics depiction of Magneto as a Byronic anti-hero. Instead of chewing the scenery, Fassbender keeps himself in check, even while we can see the raw emotion and rage bubbling to the surface. It’s a performance which both looks and feels sincere, and as we watch Erik’s story unfold, it’s almost impossible not to sympathize with his world view.

And when McAvoy and Fassbender are on-screen together, the chemistry is dynamite, often intense and even humorous at times. You can see, particularly in the scene where Xavier and Erik are testing the limits of the latter’s powers, a mutual, brotherly respect between them. During the movie’s climax, when Xavier tries convincing Erik not to destroy the U.S. and Soviet fleets simply because they were just “following orders,” the look that Erik–a holocaust survivor, don’t forget–is one of regret and disappointment towards a friend, not an enemy. No wonder First Class catapulted these working actors into A-list stardom.

First Class certainly made Jennifer Lawrence into a star. Here, she takes Mystique beyond the adolescent eye candy from the first trilogy and makes her into a true figure of female empowerment. Hers is a coming-of-age story about a young woman discovering the beauty within herself, and how, despite having the ability to look like anyone, becomes the character who, in X2, refuses “to disguise herself all the time.” There’s also the fact that Lawrence, despite being only twenty at the time, convincingly projects a maturity well beyond her years.

Likewise, Mystique’s arc makes a great contrast with Hank McCoy’s. Hoult does a believable job raiding Hank’s awkwardness, one that clearly comes from years of hiding what he believes is a “physical deformity.” It’s ironic, then, that his attempts in making himself seem more “normal” is what turns him into the “blue hairball.” Unfortunately, his Beast form, which takes its cues from the character’s feline appearance in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, looks particularly awful.

Credit: 20th Century Fox

X-Men: First Class didn’t just prove the X-Men still had viability, they could potentially be a cinematic universe unto itself apart from Marvel.

The rest of the cast also turns in decent performances, even though none of their characters have a lot of depth. Great as Bacon is in the role of Shaw, and despite the twisted surrogate father relationship he has with Erik, he’s essentially nothing more than a “take over the world” type. Others like Havok (Lucas Till) or Azazel (Jason Fleming) are essentially there for fan service and look cool. And then there are those who seem as though they’ll have bigger roles like Moria, Angel (Zoë Kravitz), or The Man in the Black Suit (Oliver Platt) only to then be pushed off to the sidelines. Then again, the X-Men films never could properly balance with their ensemble casts.

As for the effects, with a few exceptions, they’re a definite improvement from the last films. In some cases–such as when characters are flying–they look surprisingly practical. It also finds some very creative ways to show off Erik’s powers, particularly the moments when he’s hasn’t quite become the “Master of Magnetism.” Even when he finds “the point between rage and serenity” and can lift submarines, it’s his manipulation of small, metallic objects which seem far more impressive. Never has a coin–a callback to the beginning of movie–looked so deadly on-screen, or used so well thanks to some excellent tracking shot edits.

X-Men: First Class didn’t just prove the X-Men still had viability, they could potentially be a cinematic universe unto itself apart from Marvel. It showed that, considering the wealth of source material from the comics, there were plenty of stories to tell with these characters. And although Hugh Jackman makes a hilarious cameo appearance, First Class also showed that one didn’t need Wolverine to make a successful X-Men film. Besides, it wouldn’t be long before everyone’s favorite feral mutant would start redeeming himself on his own.