X Men: First Class

Thor struck quite an impressive impact as the first super hero film of the summer, and X men takes a sturdy second swing from the Marvel repertoire. This quite comfortably takes the crown of best X men film to date and it definitely ranks within the top Marvel films.

Probably the most successful element of the film is the casting. James Mcavoy is perfect for the role of Charles Xavier: cool, calculated and charming, he slips into the character with little effort. Magneto mirrors Charles: calculated but brooding and Michael Fassbender reflects this well. This is especially apparent when the two interact and the two ideologies clash, working very well together on screen.

The other relationship highlight is the chemistry between Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and Nicholas Hoult as Beast. The ideologies behind their relationship runs parallel to Erik's and Charles's but taking a more personal, romantic spin on the relevent overarching (why should mutants hide from society) debate within the X Men universe. Unfortunately the rest of the team are, whilst huge amounts of fun to watch, characterless and unexplored. Saying that, the four characters who are well adapted are the only ones that really matter to the series (so far)!

The special effects are wonderful and its great fun watching the powers come to life on screen (I especially enjoy the sinister Azazel zipping around with his teleporting sword trickery!). The final scene especially being a visual extravaganza! However, unlike the previous X men, I felt First Class had more substance to back up the graphical wizardry, with the cold war backdrop providing a more solid foundation for the story. I guess it was to be expected that Matthew Vaughan's directional style was to be swallowed up in such a big franchise with no signs of Kickass shining though. Ultimately it didn't really need it, and Vaughn gives us the best X men to date.

My only real gripe is that it could have paid to have been longer or even spilt into two films. The Magneto/Professor X relationship felt a little rushed and certainly could have been explored more, which may have led to a more emotionally profound conclusion. Still, if you're a fan of the X men or any comic book/ action films this is a must see at the pictures. The time flew by for me and it was just a really cool but well considered super hero movie. Captain America will have to pull a lot out of the bag to match Thor and X men! [A-]

PS. No Stan Lee cameo makes me sad though :(