The Official X-Men: First Class Rate and Review Thread: Second Edition

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Finally saw this yesterday and thought it was superb, not quite as good as X2, but definately the 2nd best movie in the series. Everything just seemed to work, I did have some issues, I would have liked Charles and Erik to either meet earlier or spend a bit more time together, as their friendship did seem brief, although the actors made it all believable.

Also, I didnt like the death of the one good guy, his character possibilities were limitless with his powers, but he barely got a chance to display them, and the thing that killed him just seemed too simple. Other than that, my only complaint was that the movie wasnt longer, the cast were superb, McAvoy and especially Fassbender knocked it out the part (MF actually challenges Ian McKellan as possibly a better interpretation of the character) the movie had many touching moments as well as 'holy ****' moments, the action was great, only bettered by the action in X2 in the franchise.

I knew with Vaughn behind this the film would be good, but I was really surprised how good it was and it totally drew me in from start to finish, great stuff, REALLY hope we get another movie in the FC series, 9/10.

[JimB]

I liked the origin of Magneto's helmet, and Shaw looked good with it too. And as the saying goes, nobody knows who he works for

[Nokio]

Good movie. I had problems with it but I liked it the best of all the Xfilms.

[TheFuture]

I really enjoyed the film. I loved the dynamic between Fassbender and McAvoy, I had faith that these guys would work well together and they didn't disappoint.

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Beast really was bad ass looking as Havok said. Though I was a little surprised with how well he handled his transformation after his cure backfires. The poor chap was quite clearly disturbed and really self conscious over having deformed feet, so how he took so reasonably well to becoming a big blue furball I'll never know.

I didn't think Jones was as horrific as some critics suggested. I mean the role really was miniscule, not a whole lot was asked of her so how she can be described as wooden I'll never know.

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Finally, LOL at Jackman's cameo. I rolled my eyes when I saw him on screen as I was expecting some boring sour faced brooding scene. But it was so simple and absolutely hilarious. It really was one of the better cameos I have seen in recent memory.

[BrazilianBatFan]

Fantastic! McAvoy and Fassbender rule! 9/10

[Iceman]

This film was amazing. Even surpassed my expectations! Great cast, even down to the minor guys. The two leads were perfect though.

[LadyVader]

Still has the same problems that Last Stand and Wolverine had. Many mutants inserted just because. I had no problem with Emma Frost and Havok being in this even though there's no sense in it continuity wise. But throughout the movie these young mutants and henchman were treated as nothing more than background. They had Havok because they needed an energy based power. Angel, they needed a flyer. Azazel, they needed a teleporter. And so on and so forth. Not once did I get an idea of who these people actually are and why they do what they do.

Also, the amount of logical fallacies is astounding. Brass damaging diamond? Charles disposing of a cargo ship full of nuclear weapons by blowing it up? Two army forces after witnessing a guy raise a Submarine out of the water decide it would be a good idea to fire missiles made of metal at him?

But that being said, there was plenty of good stuff in the movie, to make me stomach these things. The relationship between Xavier and Magneto was expertly done, and took me by surprise especially in terms of how much they inspired each other and even fed off of eachothers ideals. I think this was perfectly illustrated in the scene where Charles helps Erik to relax in order to move that giant antenna.

Sure, it was a bit of a mind-f**k (literally), but Fassbender and McAvoy acted the hell out of that scene.

[CelticPredator]

^...

1. Wolveine sucked, so therefore the movie is null and void. Same with X-3. I'm glad they reconned that.

2. Every character had a purpose to the story, and didnt have a pointless 2 second cameo. The only character that did **** all was Riptide...or whatever his name was. Which is fine because another bad guy is cool with me. More action and ****.

And they DID have character. Alex was a cocky loner, who learned how to use his power. I enjoyed his character, and felt happy when he got it. But that's just me. Not every character in a movie is going to be really fleshed out. But they had enough characterzation that I cared for them.

And you do know diamond CAN break...it just cant be scratched. Magneto put a **** ton of pressure on her neck...

As for the army guy thing...people arent smart.

[X-Maniac]

Originally Posted by LadyVader

Still has the same problems that Last Stand and Wolverine had. Many mutants inserted just because. I had no problem with Emma Frost and Havok being in this even though there's no sense in it continuity wise. But throughout the movie these young mutants and henchman were treated as nothing more than background. They had Havok because they needed an energy based power. Angel, they needed a flyer. Azazel, they needed a teleporter. And so on and so forth. Not once did I get an idea of who these people actually are and why they do what they do.

Also, the amount of logical fallacies is astounding. Brass damaging diamond? Charles disposing of a cargo ship full of nuclear weapons by blowing it up? Two army forces after witnessing a guy raise a Submarine out of the water decide it would be a good idea to fire missiles made of metal at him?

But that being said, there was plenty of good stuff in the movie, to make me stomach these things. The relationship between Xavier and Magneto was expertly done, and took me by surprise especially in terms of how much they inspired each other and even fed off of eachothers ideals. I think this was perfectly illustrated in the scene where Charles helps Erik to relax in order to move that giant antenna.

Sure, it was a bit of a mind-f**k (literally), but Fassbender and McAvoy acted the hell out of that scene.

It's impossible to deal with all that in an ensemble film. This isn't Batman, with one non-superhuman hero (and The Dark Knight cut out all of Joker's backstory even in that film without loads of competing characters). This is X-Men = multiple characters, some with bizarre appearances and fantastical abilities.

And don't say 'Yeah, I know' because obviously you haven't considered it properly.

In X1, we had no backstory or motivation on Toad or Sabretooth, and we knew little to nothing about why Jean, Scott and Storm were at the school. It's only in X2 that people start to get 'fleshed out' a little more, hence Iceman and his family, Storm talking to Nightcrawler. Even then we don't get full origins. Unless you want a 20-hour movie (and yes, I'd love one, but how practical is that?), then the storytelling has to be economical.

I've seen the film four times and never once did i find myself screaming out for the full lifestory of Riptide.

I realise it's easier to complain and to let the film wash around your head until you've totally deconstructed and dissected it. That's what most fanatics tend to do. I sometimes feel myself start to get that way, and then i just watch the movie again and put myself back on track as to why I enjoyed it in the first place.

[By your Command]

Riptide is the worst henchman in the history of these movies, I'm even including "Wolverine", he was completely unnecessary, the whirlwinds got to a point where they were just annoying, I can stand silent backstory devoid henchmen, but I'm sorry Riptide it's just the worst thing.

[Iceman]

I thought he was fine. Certainly prefer them using a character like that than completely wasting someone like Sabretooth in a similar way. I will admit that Azazel was better at doing the same job.

[By your Command]

Azazel alone would have sufficed.

[X-Maniac]

Riptide performed what was required, destroying the proto-Cerebro and making Magneto lose grip on Shaw's sub. That's the sort of stuff henchmen do...

[Doctor Jones]

People should realize by now not every single mutant will be well developed in two hours. You have to focus on more characters than others. Ironic given that people complain about things be overstuffed in movies, especially SM3. Too much stuff going on with all those characters and trying to get everything developed, or they just come as underdevloped because you're trying to accomodate everything and everybody.

[By your Command]

Originally Posted by X-Maniac

Riptide performed what was required, destroying the proto-Cerebro and making Magneto lose grip on Shaw's sub. That's the sort of stuff henchmen do...

I'm sorry, any other mutant could have done that in a more interesting way, I think Gonzalez did a good job, but as a villain he was completely uninteresting, and I grew tired of the whirlwinds very quickly.

[X-Maniac]

Originally Posted by By your Command

I'm sorry, any other mutant could have done that in a more interesting way, I think Gonzalez did a good job, but as a villain he was completely uninteresting, and I grew tired of the whirlwinds very quickly.

Such as who? And how?

[By your Command]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jones

People should realize by now not every single mutant will be well developed in two hours.

I agree with this, in movies, and comic book movies specifically I really believe that if everyone gets to be special, then nobody really is.

[By your Command]

Originally Posted by X-Maniac

Such as who? And how?

You have to understand that I mean that Alex Gonzalez could have played any other mutant, but even if he didn't, Azazel could have bamfed up to the Blackbird, damaged, and down it goes. Shaw could have taken all the energy from the shooting scene and destroyed Proto-Cerebro, etc, etc.

[pyromaniac]

Azazel couldn't have bamfed inside the Blackbird because there were all the mutants inside there being able to take him down - he's fast, but not that fast to sabotage it.

Shaw had already unleashed his explosive stomp and destroyed the CIA headquarters. The only way he could have destroyed Cerebro was if he was shot at twice.

Riptide in both of those instances was necessary. It's a trivial complaint.

[By your Command]

Originally Posted by pyromaniac

Azazel couldn't have bamfed inside the Blackbird because there were all the mutants inside there being able to take him down, and also because the Blackbird was moving at a fast speed.

Shaw had already unleashed his explosive stomp and destroyed the CIA headquarters. The only way he could have destroyed Cerebro was if he was shot at twice.

Riptide in both of those instances was necessary. It's a trivial complaint.

The Cerebro and Blackbird thing I was just answering X-Maniac questions, but like I said, I just didn't like Riptide, he's my Jar Jar, he should have never been there, or at least he should have had the decency to die at the end.

[X-Maniac]

Originally Posted by By your Command

You have to understand that I mean that Alex Gonzalez could have played any other mutant, but even if he didn't, Azazel could have bamfed up to the Blackbird, damaged, and down it goes. Shaw could have taken all the energy from the shooting scene and destroyed Proto-Cerebro, etc, etc.

It seems like you are sitting there dwelling on everything too much...

I don't mean this insultingly, but as soon as people start playing the 'why didn't he/she/it...', then i know they have too much time on their hands and need to let go and move on...

It'll be interesting to see which characters remain if there is a sequel. I don't think we can get much more out of Riptide or Angel, to be honest; they've done all they can do.

[By your Command]

Originally Posted by X-Maniac

It seems like you are sitting there dwelling on everything too much...

I don't mean this insultingly, but as soon as people start playing the 'why didn't he/she/it...', then i know they have too much time on their hands and need to let go and move on...

It'll be interesting to see which characters remain if there is a sequel. I don't think we can get much more out of Riptide or Angel, to be honest; they've done all they can do.

No, I wasn't dwelling or thinking about what could have happened, I was just trying to answer your question, I just think that Riptide is, at least for me, the worst most uninteresting henchman in the X-movies, for what it's worth it didn't stopped me from enjoying the movie at all, it's just a fun sidenote.

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Originally Posted by X-Maniac

It seems like you are sitting there dwelling on everything too much...

I don't mean this insultingly, but as soon as people start playing the 'why didn't he/she/it...', then i know they have too much time on their hands and need to let go and move on...

It'll be interesting to see which characters remain if there is a sequel. I don't think we can get much more out of Riptide or Angel, to be honest; they've done all they can do.

Agreed 100%

It's one of the worst traits of the fanboy.

[LadyVader]

That's a trait of anybody with a critical mind. Yes sometimes fanboys can be overly critical, but these movies cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make. And people working on them have the responsability to make the best movie it can possibly be. And if being scared of fanboy reaction is what we need to make 'em think twice before doing something stupid (as in killing Xavier or turning Deadpool into a mouthless Baraka clone)... then more power to the fanboys.

But I doubt that will ever be the case with Fox.

[By your Command]

Originally Posted by Midnight Black

Na bruh, he is killing us all. People just are too addicted to the kool-aid.

If the Kool-Aid includes great writing, directing, character arcs, and just pure awesomeness, the I only have to say this friend: