Director Matthew Vaughn was at one point to be Bryan Singer’s replacement for X-Men: The Last Stand. Then he became absolutely fed up with the asinine producers behind it, and abandoned the project to the demented grasp of…uh, whatsisface (Brett Ratner). We know how that turned out: a mediocre movie at best by its own terms, and a complete travesty to the X-Men series. Vaughn has gone on record to say, in no uncertain terms, that he (Vaughn) could have injected ten times the emotional gravity in what ought to have been the definitive X-Men.
Now Vaughn has his second chance, with X-Men: First Class, and that’s ceased to be hot air! He’s inherited the increasingly dire prospects of the cinematic “X-Men,” and created something which doesn’t’ simply meet Singer’s initial high plateau – Vaughn’s entry arguably exceeds it, nearing Iron Man and The Dark Knight in the superhero pantheon, while splitting their tonal difference.
Conceptually, First Class isn’t necessarily such a promising prospect. It is another godforsaken X-Men prequel, after X-Men Origins: Wolverine demonstrated the complete uselessness of that notion. In fact, First Class shares many of the same likely difficulties of Wolverine: as a prequel, events and arcs are preordained. Furthermore, there’s a notoriously complex cinematic continuity to pay lip service to, for as much as First Class has every right to do like the eventual Amazing Spider-Man and reboot, it’s still of a piece with X-Men, X2, and all the rest…mostly. Amongst nerd arguments, there are certainly timeline discrepancies, though mostly with the latter, Singerless X-Men – and First Class gets the benefit of the doubt for disregarding The Last Stand, frankly.
Again, conceptually, First Class potentially shares some of The Last Stand’s problems too. Basically, it is as overstuffed as an “X-Men” movie could wish to be, not merely trumpeting a ridiculous panoply of supporting mutant characters, but featuring mostly new mutants on top of that, with an unwieldy mess of subplots and motivations to keep straight and make clear. In fact, First Class is by a significant degree the most out-of-control X-Men, featuring not just a new location, but a new continent for damn well every scene of its first half.
Against all these odds, these hindrances barely register – I only pick up on them for having recently re-endured the lesser entries. It is to Vaughn’s inestimable credit, a youthful vigor and energy, that First Class’s hyperactivity is exciting and not tiring. I cannot fully identify just what Vaughn does differently to accomplish this, though no doubt he has a greater genuine enthusiasm for the “X-Man” brand than Ratner or Gavin Hood ever did. It helps to take advantage of the preordained facts of First Class as schemed up by Fox: a period piece detailing how Magneto and Professor X begin the X-Men, in light of mankind’s upcoming struggles against mutanthood. For one thing, First Class isn’t merely set in the 1960s, it embraces this era in precisely the way Wolverine totally refused to. It helps that the ‘60s are infinitely cooler than the ‘70s, especially when filtered through the James Bond, “Mad Men” vibe.
Combine with that the freedom to play up the outdated Stan Lee, Jack Kirby feel of actual period “X-Men” comics – not that I have even a remote knowledge of them, but First Class feels as one pictures Silver Age comics. This is kind of a turning point with superhero movies, I’d wager! Singer’s X-Men is notable for seriously engaging the potentially sillier aspects of the comic medium. For all that, it still pragmatically redesigned the X-Men’s costumes from bright blue-and-yellow to black leather – as was the style at the time – alongside other such half-measures. First Class uses the ‘60s milieu to its advantage, giving us the original costumes in all their cheesy, two-tone glory – unashamedly too! What is silly in initial concept remains so, without apologies, but also without that toxic Batman & Robin above-it-all parody. In fact, Vaughn embraces the very comic-ness of his film so much, he actually gives us the first successful use of in-film panels, as seen in Ang Lee’s Hulk. We’re one step not only from a return to on-screen visual KAPOWS, ala “Batman,” but to the point where they’d actually work.
This is sort of the Iron Man half of First Class’s blood-soaked Nazi coin. As for The Dark Knight, well, First Class isn’t even remotely that dark (far from it – it’s maybe even frothier than Iron Man), but there’s the same degree of wonderful subtext. This is true to the Singer line, and the comics too (naturally). Mutants remain forever a metaphor for “otherness,” a neato sci-fi tool to examine ideas of ethics, segregation, discrimination, and (more usefully) philosophies regarding those issues. The ‘60s offer up a heady deal of loaded topics – civil rights, gender inequality (leading to the film’s one truly awkward moment), the Cold War. Elements like the Cold War are exploited openly to fuel the action plot, while others are mostly just alluded to – but it is the strength of a period piece that filmmakers gain efficient visual shorthand, for subtle hints to old cultural touchstones carry a great deal of weight. Plus, ‘60s fashion is just groovy.
X-Men: First Class is an origin story…kind of. Most origin movies are saddled with the handicap of delaying genuine superheroics – though, flipside, there’s that emotional elation when a hero discovers newfound powers. The X-Men, as a team, carry a different dynamic, letting some powers coming into play right off the bat (for all your Nazi-murdering goodness), while other characters can simultaneously occupy different points of the origin continuum – we get all the advantages at once.
Central to First Class are Magneto and Professor X – though for now we must think of them as Eric (Michael Fassbender, of Inglourious Basterds) and Charles (James McAvoy, of Wanted). Much of Eric’s magnetic emergence is even lifted from the never-to-be X-Men Origins: Magneto, pragmatically reworking Eric’s Holocaust childhood in a new light. But the focus isn’t upon him alone, but on Eric’s new alliance with Charles Xavier, a friendship destined to turn antagonistic. There are a lot of checklist points, prequel Stations of the Cross, to run through – we know Eric and Charles will have a falling out, and not to belabor that inevitability, First Class takes us all the way there. In the meantime, distinguishing icons shall arise – Magneto’s helmet, X’s wheelchair (and throwaway jokes about baldness), their mutual accumulation of mutant recruits. Because again we know a particular clunky helmet has future importance, its introduction in the villain’s possession carries a weight beyond immediate text – and Vaughn doesn’t belabor the point, letting his audience connect the dots as they wish.
It helps First Class that it is not bogged down with casting strictures, as was The Last Stand. No need to lose sight of the fundamental emotional story (which is moved along by a more surface-level tale of villainous Bond-style megalomania). No need to wedge in studio-demanded Wolverine antics, or time-hungry scenes of Storm doing nothing of any value whatsoever. None of that! Vaughn avoids the multitudinous issues with bringing back former actors in known roles – Magneto, X, Mystique, Beast, Emma Frost – especially sparing us the creepy CGI youthenizing of Patrick Stewart yet again. Subtly, this turns old characters into new discoveries, especially with Eric – Fassbender merges his own approach with Ian McKellan’s, doing what MacGregor ought to have accomplished with his Obi Wan. This, as much as anything, gives First Class its bounce, though direct sequels won’t have this advantage.
Charles Xavier is as much of a revelation as Eric Lehnsherr. Eric isn’t a “bad guy,” and his eventual embrace of mutant militantism is intellectually defensible, even if we know it leads to potential omnicide. Charles is likewise not a “good guy,” and far less ascetic then Stewart’s bald monk. With McAvoy, the young Charles is brash – not simply sexually opportunistic, but selfish in his apparent mutant cohabitation idealism. Most damningly, Charles is privileged as mutants go, invisible, wealthy, and dangerously quick to “out” fellow mutants. Neither Charles nor Eric is faultless in the mutant “issue,” which muddies the film’s moral waters considerably – to its benefit. The mutant scenario proposes at best an end result of peaceful human extinction, and asks the ethical question of how this is best handled. It allows for greater conversations post screening, the sign of a thoughtfully constructed popcorn flick – that, or you can just gush over how awesome the climactic naval battle is, which is equally valid.
Acting as lynchpin to the central duo is Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), someday to become Mystique. She grew up with Charles, but is destined to side with Eric. This, along with Raven’s shape-shifting lack of identity, ground the emotional trauma as successfully as Singer’s Rogue. With inevitability, her scenes of soul-searching carry the air of prequel tragedy, accomplishing the emotion Vaughn so desired of The Last Stand.
Emotion goes double for the quieter scenes between Charles and Eric, where First Stand truly earns its keep. There is a moment where Charles, attempting to mentor Eric’s magnetism, leads him to embrace the place between – if I can remember this correctly – rage and serenity. In other words, to temper Eric’s vengeful myopia. Huge kudos to Fassbender in particular! This is the most profound moment in the franchise, for how it underscores Magneto’s humanity, etc. – it’s also simultaneously corny as hell, a part of that wonderful comic booky line First Class treads.
Let me pause to run through some more characters – especially since an X-Men X-cells (er, excels) by its mutants, and so it is here…
Eric, Charles, Raven, we know. They’re all fine. Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) carries whatever tragedy Raven cannot, as the man doomed to become Beast – in a surprisingly efficient homage to Robert Lewis Stevenson, which never gets bogged down in what could well be its own movie. As the genocidal Sebastian Shaw, Kevin Bacon is present and functional – because a villain is needed, to fuel immediate (lesser) plot, and to suggest what Eric might become. Though Shaw has little value on his own. Emma Frost (January Jones) is perhaps the weak link, though it’s hard to fault Frost for appearing an ice queen.
Others include Havok (power: fires off energy whatnots), Banshee (he screams), Angel (has bug wings – I suspect there’s some comic discrepancy here), Darwin (evolves, naturally), Azazel (teleporting demon, nicely recalls Russian propaganda with his red skin and Soviet uniform), and Riptide (Storm the Lesser). Plus a generous helping of actual, honest-to-Lee humans, giving the other side a face, best represented by mutant sympathizer Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne).
I am surprised by how much X-Men: First Class does right, given a franchise predicament where one might expect nothing at all. Surely with the latter X-Men atrocities a recent memory, it’s all the more substantial for its effectiveness. Whatever could have been a hindrance becomes a benefit – First Class fulfills the oft-ignored dramatic function of a prequel, such a rarity that many even doubt it possible. It build upon the work of its formers, understanding this universe’s mutation enough to couch the needed X-position (er, exposition) in Charles’ professing, and not directly to the audience. It respects its comic origins, compounding the goodwill of a decade’s superhero movies to combine heroes, themes, a cool setting, and further details one wouldn’t have even once thought necessary for this genre. Now more than ever I yearn to know what a Vaughn-helmed Last Stand might’ve looked like, though I’m also quite satisfied with First Class as its first class (ahem!) substitute.
The only concern is talk that First Class might lead to a potential Third Class (or whatever), lunatic Fox X-ecutives famished for a goddamn trilogy. This in addition to Aronofsky’s proposed The Wolverine, which looks to more fully embrace discontinuity – i.e. rebooting, or flat out ignoring. Eh, plus a likely X-Men Origins: Deadpool (look, just drop the “X-Men” title thing already!), and even (shudder!) X4, Berry be blessed. Yeesh, are cinematic Marvel movies becoming so like the comics that innumerable spin-offs are that acceptable?! Is a ridiculous DC/Marvel intercompany crossover an inevitability in our distant future now?!
The issue is, for First Class as another X-Men sub-franchise, the ever-diminishing dramatic gap between First Class and X-Men. I don’t mean chronologically (X-Men is in “the near future,” leaving things nicely wide open), but…well, the tale of Charles’ and Eric’s friendship is mostly a done deal now. Stretching this out in sequels, with continued reverence for Singer’s original continuity, can only diminish artistic returns on Vaughn’s unlikely success. This suggests a future of dramatic trivialities to rival Origins: Wolverine, and while I presently trust Vaughn and crew, it seems a road fraught with peril. But First Class proves it can be done.
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