Some spoilers ahead.
I came to this movie with a completely blank slate. I've never read any of the X-Men comics and I haven't seen any of the previous X-Men movies. All I knew was that Professor X was in a wheelchair. Seriously. Yet I was not only able to follow the plot of X-Men: First Class, I also freaking loved it! I found it to be similar to The Dark Knight in terms of its combination of typical superhero action and underlying social message. It's not just about blowing stuff up.
X-Men: First Class opens in 1944 in a Polish ghetto/concentration camp. A young boy is separated from his parents, and as the Nazi guards hold him back, the metal of the barbed wire gates becomes twisted as the boy reaches out to his crying mother and father. This is young Erik Lehnsherr, later known as Magneto. His talent for attracting and manipulating metal is exploited by Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon, who plays a great villain, both in this movie and the anti-superhero superhero movie Super) who discovers that Erik's talent is brought out by anger and fear.
Cut to England. We see young Charles Xavier roaming around his family's mansion in the middle of the night and coming upon someone who looks like his mother, but is actually a shape-shifting young girl, Raven. After the two share their abilities (Charles can read and influence others' minds), they have a "I thought I was the only one!" moment, and the boy adopts the young girl as a sister.
Years later, in the early 1960's, our young mutants are grown up and leading vastly different lives. Charles (played by James McAvoy) is a professor of genetics and a son of privilege. He has an incredibly benevolent attitude toward life. Erik (the astonishing Michael Fassbender), is bitter, angry, and driven by a desire for revenge--against Sebastian Shaw, specifically, and the whole of humankind, generally.
The movie revolves around the relationship between Charles and Erik. While they are brought together by similar goals (combating evil, helping the CIA), their outlooks could not be more different. X-Men fans know that the two men will become enemies over time, but it is fascinating to watch their friendship unfold, grow, and finally explode at the climax of the film. Charles tries to teach Erik how to use his power without anger, and succeeds in one intensely emotional scene where he taps into Erik's memory. But in the end, the pull of anger and hatred proves too strong, and Erik embraces his dark side.
Charles' attitude also seems a bit naive. He believes that humans will accept and work together with mutants. Having grown up in the lap of luxury, Charles does not understand pain and loss the way Erik does. I found my head agreeing with Erik's negative view of humankind, while my heart agreed with Charles. X-Men: First Class manages to take black and white themes (good vs. evil, hatred vs.love, revenge vs. forgiveness) and add shades of gray. We truly sympathize with Erik. When Erik is about to destroy American and Russian ships with their own missiles (after both sides fire with the intent of killing the mutants), Charles points out that there are innocent men on those ships who are "just following orders". This is exactly the wrong thing to say, since Erik experienced ghastly torture at the hands of Nazis who were also "just following orders". And as spiritually correct as Charles is (it is better to have mercy and turn the other cheek), Erik is also right! Since when is violence and evil justified in the name of following orders? Shouldn't such behavior be punished?
There are also a few other rather heavy-handed social messages in the film. Raven (aka Mystique) struggles with her body image since she must hide her mutation in order to look "normal". Her guardian, Charles, doesn't understand because his mutation--telepathy--doesn't manifest itself in his appearance. When she meets Hank McCoy (Beast), she finds that he, too, is struggling with his "ugly" mutation: giant monkey feet. Hank works on a "cure" that will not affect a mutant's abilities, but will make them look "normal". The message is brought home when Hank attempts to take the cure, only to find that it actually maximizes the mutation. Instead of just having weird feet, Hank is now fully transformed in a cross between the Beast from Beauty and the Beast and the Cookie Monster. Raven, on the other hand, is rewarded for accepting herself as is by getting to sleep with Michael Fassbender. Or, as least, that's what's implied.
Despite the occasional lack of subtlety, and the occasional bad acting job thrown in among many excellent performances (January Jones as Emma Frost just stands there and says her lines without any inflection or facial movements), X-Men: First Class is a solid film. It's as fun as it is emotionally resonant. It's both brain candy and eye candy (see: Erik using his powers to pull a submarine out of the water while clinging to a fighter jet. Sweeeet). Many superhero films come out every year, but few really excel. X-Men: First Class graduates summa cum laude in my book.
4.5 out of 5 stars
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