Featured Audience Ratings

• John M

  
  I was expecting a solid movie. Matthew Vaughn is easily one of my favorite directors. The cast is loaded from top to bottom with a good group of actors even if you have not heard of many of them. After two hours of solid fun I was ready for more. If any movie deserves sequels its… More
  I was expecting a solid movie. Matthew Vaughn is easily one of my favorite directors. The cast is loaded from top to bottom with a good group of actors even if you have not heard of many of them. After two hours of solid fun I was ready for more. If any movie deserves sequels its this one. Keep Vaughn and Singer on board and the cast and you will have money. Easily in the top two of all the X-Men films. I am not an X-Men fanboy. I could care less about the five hundred zillion reboots retcons and who knows what else that happens in comics. Sorry. I do like the characters though and they did a wonderful job of bringing this group to the screen.

• Nikhil N

  
  Great acting. Great Effects. Great super heroes. Amazing characters. Nice theme. Great pacing. Smart script. The best X-men film ever. Worlds better than X-3. Same great story, and you know what? It gets better every time its told.

• Joseph M

  
  A

• Mike S

  
  Stand aside Thor, because you've just been outclassed! However much I enjoyed the adventure of said lightning god, I'm afraid the title for best comic-book flick of 2011 has now been snatched by the X-Men. With a sophistication comparable to the classic Bond films with Sean… More
  Stand aside Thor, because you've just been outclassed! However much I enjoyed the adventure of said lightning god, I'm afraid the title for best comic-book flick of 2011 has now been snatched by the X-Men. With a sophistication comparable to the classic Bond films with Sean Connery, this prequel does the impossible and gives the word a whole new positive aura. A stellar script put to its full potential, and cast members of such excellence that every second in their presence is a cinematic gift. Just like "Kick-Ass" was one of my favorite films of the year before, director Matthew Vaughn has now topped my lists with yet another awesome superhero flick. Stylish, exciting and first class indeed! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikes-Movie-Reviews/281824101875153?ref=hl

• familiar s

  
  For those who are familiar with the X-Men series, this reboot has nothing exciting to offer. There's hardly anything interesting in the execution of the storyline, and the action sequences & special effects weren't that great either. The performances were average, with a… More
  For those who are familiar with the X-Men series, this reboot has nothing exciting to offer. There's hardly anything interesting in the execution of the storyline, and the action sequences & special effects weren't that great either. The performances were average, with a few leaving an impression of being a miscast. Quite a few actors came off as being an amateur at playing their roles. All being said, the movie has the X-Men plot to its credit, and that saves it from being a total disaster. In fact, that's the only thing that makes it worth a shot. Not first class, but just about watchable (and that's no mean feat in this mean times!!!). Hope there will be some evolution in the sequel.

• Alice S

  
  James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are respectively dashing and troubling as Marvel's MLK and Malcolm X. Backstories of Charles Xavier's friendship with Mystique and Magneto's stint in the concentration camps are moving and cathartic. How Charles ends up in the… More
  James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are respectively dashing and troubling as Marvel's MLK and Malcolm X. Backstories of Charles Xavier's friendship with Mystique and Magneto's stint in the concentration camps are moving and cathartic. How Charles ends up in the wheelchair is a change from canon, but it's still devastatingly Shakespearean (Mercutio's "I was hurt under your arm"). I also dig all the joke cameos: Hugh Jackman as gruff Wolverine, refusing to join forces, and Rebecca Romijn as part of Mystique's shape-shifting ploy to get Erik in bed with her. Jennifer Lawrence is a bit annoying as angsty, young Mystique. I hope Haughty American Girl doesn't become her thing although by the looks of "Silver Linings Playbook," it may...

• Sophie B

  
  A fantastic and well thought out reboot that is not only intelligent and enjoyable but thoroughly entertaining film. The casting is perfect, as is the acting and I can't wait for the next instalment.

• xGary X

  
  A young post graduate with the power to read minds joins with a holocaust victim with powers of magnetism to found a CIA sponsored training program for newly empowered mutants in the 1960s. X-Men: First Class is really what the first film SHOULD have been. Instead of the clumsy and… More
  A young post graduate with the power to read minds joins with a holocaust victim with powers of magnetism to found a CIA sponsored training program for newly empowered mutants in the 1960s. X-Men: First Class is really what the first film SHOULD have been. Instead of the clumsy and constant exposition of the original, it expands on the best scene of the film featuring the first manifestation of Magneto's powers and shows the origins of his relationship with Xavier and how their ideologies and methods diverged. Not only that, but it does it with wit and style and the 60s setting gives it an epic quality that plays out on a world stage in history as well as some very cool old school Bond imagery provided by SFX legend John Dykstra. The only real weakness lies in its being the victim of the franchise's own continuity. The story was crying out for the original team but because most of the central characters have already been "used up", the supporting cast include non-characters like Darwin, and quite how Angel made the cut I'll never know (this fact is thrown into sharp relief by a brilliant cameo by Hugh Jackman). This is also true of the villains; Shaw and Emma Frost are not fully explored but still interesting but Azazel (who?) and erm...the other one, are completely anonymous and I can't remember either of them uttering a word. Still, this film is all about the double act of McAvoy and Fassbender and their interplay is brilliant., setting up a potentially fantastic new direction for the series. Not quite the measure of X2, but a worthy runner up.

• Daniel P

  
  An interesting who's-who of rising-star actors - and of course, Kevin Bacon, (who else?) - come together to tell the X-Men origin story (again) in a way that's very cleverly historically located, but one that puts teenagers squarely in its sights. I liked the plotting as… More
  An interesting who's-who of rising-star actors - and of course, Kevin Bacon, (who else?) - come together to tell the X-Men origin story (again) in a way that's very cleverly historically located, but one that puts teenagers squarely in its sights. I liked the plotting as well as the action, and Fassbender and McAvoy are always worth watching, but in the end - and particularly, at the end - this is not the X-Men film for me, at this stage of my life. The final scene was blocked like a high school play... too bad, too, because I'd have liked it more without that sloppiness as my afterimage when the film faded to black.

• Eric S

  
  Characters have depth, the action scenes are good, and it's great to see those who are enemies in the future come together as friends. I felt the pacing could have been better; the film feels a little rushed. But with the fast pace it still manages to develop characters. Overall,… More
  Characters have depth, the action scenes are good, and it's great to see those who are enemies in the future come together as friends. I felt the pacing could have been better; the film feels a little rushed. But with the fast pace it still manages to develop characters. Overall, this is a worthy installment in the X-Men franchise.

• Jens S

  
  There have been prequels that did justice to their original films, and others that didn't. First Class ties the loose ends from the X-Men's past together quite nicely. Sure, you'll find inconsistencies if you are a comic expert or know your maths really well, but the… More
  There have been prequels that did justice to their original films, and others that didn't. First Class ties the loose ends from the X-Men's past together quite nicely. Sure, you'll find inconsistencies if you are a comic expert or know your maths really well, but the creators obviously did their homework. They also combined a perfect cast that fills already well known characters with new life. Michael Fassbender is the winner of this film, delivering a powerful performance somewhere between James Bond and young Hannibal Lecter. The look of the film is reminiscent of pictures from the 60s, even though it's clearly a 2011 movie, especially when it comes to special effects. The film takes its time to set up its new characters and the situation before kicking serious ass. The showdown is particularly spectacular and the real looking in-flight battles are as fresh and original as the producers promised. It's always a good sign when you're leaving the theater, hoping to see more of these characters. Here, you really wouldn't mind a few more films filling the gaps.

• paul s

  
  I have to say that as a holder of issue #1 of the x-men, I was glad to see this prequel - especially since Wolverine was absent (he wasn't in ANY of the original comics). That being said, and perforce branding me as an X-Men aficionado (at least I was when I was circa 12 years… More
  I have to say that as a holder of issue #1 of the x-men, I was glad to see this prequel - especially since Wolverine was absent (he wasn't in ANY of the original comics). That being said, and perforce branding me as an X-Men aficionado (at least I was when I was circa 12 years old buying all those early Marvel comics), the film was enough of a trip down memory lane for me to give a slight passing grade in spite of some odd pacing - either too frenetic or too static... and those scenes on the beach... ouch! The CGI is rather toned down for this prequel; nothing too grandiose, as if saying that, well these are youngsters; they can't really expect to move mountains, now can they (or the Golden Gate Bridge for that matter). The film has a nice back story to it, involving Nazi concentration camps, that introduces the big baddie, deliciously overacted by Kevin Bacon. Bacon, a "scientist" sees the young Magneto in action and almost drools over the possibilities. Fast forward to the 60's where we get to meet James McAvoy as Xavier, who has an encounter with a young Raven (who also, just for the record, was NOT present in the early comics). McAvoy is quite good as the Oxford Xavier, coming off as sincere and engaged in the plot, whereas, whether by script or whatever, Michael Fassbender as Magneto fails to carry the gravitas required. Their eventual friendship is another of the film's failings as we realize that the two are friends only because we are told so (instead of by acts etc.). The film weaves in CIA plots, and a nice nod to the cold war circa Bay of Pigs, even including archival footage of JFK. Yes, we stood on the brink of doomsday back in 1960, but who'd a thought it was all a mutant plot!!! Pretty rich idea, if a bit flawed in the execution. There are also references to the well argued theory that homo sapiens supplanted the Neanderthal, forcing that earlier model of human into extinction. The film argues that the mutants will do the same to humanity... and if you think this is original, then you haven't read The Chrysalides by John Wyndham, written in 1955. Let's move away from grand concepts and concentrate on the film, shall we? As mentioned, the two leads don't really gel, and the film does itself a disservice by having a big, I'll show you mine if you show me yours, sequence with all of the young mutant recruits. The scene is such an obvious plot contrivance, letting you see what each mutant can do - and the dialog is so achingly hokey... sigh. Anyhow, you get to see these youngsters who then get schooled by Xavier in how to harness their powers. Here the director decides to use some split screen, which is kind of cool as it echoes the comic book pages (and a further digression, if you haven't fallen asleep already... the original X-Men comic had only 4 recruits: Cyclops (a guy with laser beam eyeballs), Beast (who shows up here!), Iceman, and a male with wings called Angel. I mention this last because the film has a girl with dragon fly like wings who decides to call herself Angel (in the original at least the wings were angelic). The CGI is pretty cool and understated - actually quite nice in showing the antics of the devilish mutant and another of Bacon's henchman who causes tornados. And of course Kevin Bacon is pretty darned cool as a guy who can eat energy. On the good guy side we have Banshee (who actually showed up several episodes into the original comic), and a couple of others who... ho hum, you could care less what happens to them, or what their skills are. The film gets a bit bogged down towards the end where all the characters seem to stand around until called upon, or there needs to be a reaction shot. When Magneto makes his "who's with me" speech, echoing the earlier one made by Bacon, I was thinking "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"; and looking at it philosophically (never a good thing to do during a cartoon movie), one could argue that indeed, Magneto is going to go down the same "us against them" mutants vs. humans dilemma, so the entire exercise of stopping Bacon seems hollow. There's a nice tag ending where January Jones' character (who has been... on ice for the last half of the film) makes a final appearance and Fassbender acknowledges to the world that he will become Ian McKellan (in his dreams!!!). Unnecessary, as is another bit where Xavier and a CIA operative share some light (and awful) banter that leads up to naming the "good" mutants X-Men. Wow, and here I thought they'd be called the Watchers... oops, wrong comic.

• Cynthia S

  
  Talk about surprised! I figured this would be one of those "riding on the coat tails of the franchise" movies full of special effects, and not much more. Well, it was much more. In the original X-Men movie, the opening scene was really moving. The fact that this film started… More
  Talk about surprised! I figured this would be one of those "riding on the coat tails of the franchise" movies full of special effects, and not much more. Well, it was much more. In the original X-Men movie, the opening scene was really moving. The fact that this film started the exact same way, and then expanded directly from that point in time, was perfect. This was very enjoyable. I loved how they tied things together to show how events in the future came to be...nice touch.

• Chris M

  
  A well directed, excellently acted, better than I thought it would be movie. Finally a good X-men origin movie. Matthew Vaughn deserves a medal for making the X-Men series good again.

• Anthony L

  
  As an origin movie X-Men: First Class is pretty impressive. Apart from a couple of factual errors regarding dates, it's pretty solid. I liked the fact that they didn't get ahead of time with their technology, it was very fitting with the classic comics of the time. There was… More
  As an origin movie X-Men: First Class is pretty impressive. Apart from a couple of factual errors regarding dates, it's pretty solid. I liked the fact that they didn't get ahead of time with their technology, it was very fitting with the classic comics of the time. There was also an element of tongue in cheek about it that I think only an Englishmen could deliver, I think it worked rather well here when more than often it doesn't. The cast is ace, McAvoy and Fassbender are brilliant, the only bit of re-casting I would do would be to replace January Jones but only because I can't stand her and the character of Emma Frost deserved better. Twenty something Beast was a bit of a let down too, he looked like one of the monsters that would always be in the back ground in The Muppet Show. Also, and I'm a full on comic nerd so bare with me, if Magneto and Mystique know where the X-Men base is having trained there, how do they spend the best part of the first and second films looking for it? I'm sure all will become clear in the many sequels this films deserves. If you really have to re-boot a franchise, this is how you do it!

• Albert K

  
  By far, the best X-Men movie to come. The first 3 installments to the X-Men Franchise has always drew me away due to a bad screenplay, mediocre direction, amateur cinematography, and poor production value (except for Final Stand), but First Class surpasses in all of these elements.… More
  By far, the best X-Men movie to come. The first 3 installments to the X-Men Franchise has always drew me away due to a bad screenplay, mediocre direction, amateur cinematography, and poor production value (except for Final Stand), but First Class surpasses in all of these elements. Everything was tightly wound together. I was pleasantly surprised by the more gritty tone the movie had and how sharp the script was. Dare I say, this is the best Marvel movie to come, but not just because of the technicalities of a great movie but also because it breathed new and refreshing life into the characters we've come to know from previous installments. Honestly, it's pretty cool to see the Cuban Missile Crisis incorporated into a comic-book context, but unfortunately, these moments are pretty damn cheesy and the pacing drops considerably.

• Mario L M

  
  There's a scene in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class, where Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) a Holocaust tracks down two former Nazi's who have decamped to 1960's Brazil to while out their twilight years, that kind of ruins the rest of the film. After… More
  There's a scene in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class, where Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) a Holocaust tracks down two former Nazi's who have decamped to 1960's Brazil to while out their twilight years, that kind of ruins the rest of the film. After swaggering into a bar the pair frequent, Lensherr impresses the two men with his knowledge of fine German beers. He takes a seat at their table and causally reveals the tattoo he was given while spending his youth in a concentration camp. The two men panic. The older of the two attempts to stab Lensherr with his Hitler youth knife but is quickly overpowered him and pined to the table with his own knife. The bartender, also reveled to be Nazi, pulls a gun on Lensherr who forces him to shoot the younger Nazi with his magnetic powers before stabbing the bartender with the Blood and Honor knife. Lensherr then smooths over his hair, finishers his beer and kills the third Nazi. The relish and precision in which Fassbender plays the scene makes it the most compelling in the film. After it, the sloppy speechifying, adolescent sexuality and bizarre plotting that makes up the rest of the film's running time seems incredibly dull by comparison. X-Men: First Class tells the origin stories of the two groups of superpower mutants seen in the 2000-2006 series, specifically those of future mutant leaders Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Eric Lensherr. The film also uses the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis to tell the story of how nefarious mutant supremacist Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon, totally hammy but loads of fun) almost drew that world into nuclear war and the first group of X-Men were gathered together to stop him. The film is definitely the most stylish film in the Fox Studios series. It's elegantly costumed and sensuously decorated. It's the more vibrant that any of the Bryan Singer/Brett Ratner films. It's palette seems to be a reflect the film's embrace of its four color origins. Despite its grounding in capital S capital I social issues of the 1960's, its a garish and exuberant film. This approach sometimes works, like when Lensherr finally embraces the cause of mutant supremacy to the detriment of his best and only friend or the clever way in which invades the proto X-Men's HQ. When this more florid approach fails, the extremely awkward bit where Xavier uses his psychic powers to help Lensherr overcome his mental power dampeners and whenever the Beast/Mystique romance is featured, it's almost unbearably flat. Especially when you know another great Fassbinder-being-cruel scene is coming. It's more successful than it isn't which makes it the best X-Men film so far. Superhero movies, by their slap together, the release date is set before pre-production had started nature are always a work in progress. The first X-Men was boring because it needed to educate the audience to who the X-Men were and the second was unsatisfying because it was essentially a very exciting prologue to a film that only ever existed in Bryan Singer's head. And X-Men The Last Stand was awful because it was trying to be two different movies that poorly fused together by the guy who made Rush Hour. First Class works because even though its a prequel, its doesn't bare the weight of having to establish its universe. You know mutants exist and that humanity hates and fears them from the earlier films but here you find out why. None of these reveals are exceptionally interesting or even necessary but they carry a dramatic weight from our understanding that, no, things will not work out for the best. The film's sense of inevitability sometimes works against it. You know that never before seen mutants like Darwin, Angel and Riptide somehow don't make it the near present of X-Men. This adds a disposability to the characters and seemingly their characterization. Since FC is a big budget action movie built around the contrasting view points held by its two main characters, all of the supporting players exist to support those view points. Beast sides with Xavier because he sees his mutation as a deformity and White Queen with Magneto because of her belief in the inherent superiority of mutant kind. This thematic hammering leaves characters like Darwin (Edi Gathegi) and Angel (Zoe Kravitz) racial suspect due to their flatness. And since you know that Shaw's distinctive helmet is later worn by Magneto, he's probably not going to mess up the above the credits cast to bad. Despite Bacon's enjoyable performance, Shaw is an empty villain. Even his second act murder of an X-Man, his character has little menace. The moment he slips on Magneto signature helmet, you understand that he isn't going to be the final's real antagonist. He's just a filling a space until the final boss can take the stage. X2 had the same kind of misdirection but it succeeded because it was understood that Colonel Stryker was more of a means to an end than a character whereas FC tries to present Shaw as an ultra cool Bond villian he never seems believably as being. Such inconsistencies are the nature of films with six credited screenwriters. Another glaring problem with the film lies with its sexual politics. Cartoonishly noble CIA agent Moria MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), attractive block of wood Emma Frost (January Jones) and frustrated metamorph Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) all appear in various states of undress and compromise but since First Class is a big Summer tent pole film it can't ever reach the simple catharsis of nudity. This vacant, unempowered sexuality reduces the role of most all of the women in the film to that of gorgeous scenery. This blind adherence to outdated mores is extremely disappointing especially given that one of the film's central creatives, Jane Goldman, should be aware of how degrading this depiction is. X-Men: First Class would have been a lot better if it was just X-Men: Origins Magneto. It could have been a Carlos flavored action film that followed it's suave yet ruthless protagonist as he murders his way across the world, first toward revenge and then revolution. But that's not the film we got. First Class is an uneven, at times exciting superhero film that benefits greatly from a stand out performance from man who proves that a great actor can enliven even the weakest material. Matthew Vaughn is good filmmaker, the Brazilian bar sequence and Layer Cake bare this out, but when he's hamstrung by the demands of a PG-13 rating and the superhero genre, he'll never make an X-film that's more than mindlessly entertaining.

• Candy R

  
  Good movie about the origins of X-men. The story shows the discovery of each other and their powers. Good cast.

• Jameson W

  
  Excellent, I loved it. I was expecting something more like Wolverine, but this was a fantastic movie. Not only a brilliant addition to the X-Men series, but it's the best of the series! The reason I say that this is the best of the series is because it delivers in more areas… More
  Excellent, I loved it. I was expecting something more like Wolverine, but this was a fantastic movie. Not only a brilliant addition to the X-Men series, but it's the best of the series! The reason I say that this is the best of the series is because it delivers in more areas than the previous films did...First Class is very deep. For once I felt for the characters, I actually cared about what happened to them and how they interacted with each other. Credit must go to the cast because their performances contributed to this, especially James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. McAvoy gives a great performance as Professor X, and Fassbender is incredible as Magneto. (You will see Erik/Magneto in a whole new light). My favorite scene in the entire film is actually not an action scene, but the highly emotional diologue between McAvoy and Fassbender with moving the satelitte...also the end of the final action scene. Those two scenes alone add SO much to the film and trilogy. I can't explain it all, but this is truly a great addition to the series. And...of course the action was awesome! The visuals were excellent and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I love action movie blockbusters and First Class delivered. I cannot recommend this film enough! It's my favorite of the year so far. Action + Drama = X-Men First Class = Great Film!

• Jacob E

  
  Well, this was certainly a surprise. I had heard that "X-Men First Class" was better than "Origins" and "The Last Stand", but then again, that's not that difficult to achieve. What I didn't expect was that it would become my favorite entry into… More
  Well, this was certainly a surprise. I had heard that "X-Men First Class" was better than "Origins" and "The Last Stand", but then again, that's not that difficult to achieve. What I didn't expect was that it would become my favorite entry into the X-Men film continuity. For starters, it seems the film is ignoring portions of continuity across all previous films. Some might be unhappy with this, but I'm certainly not. This is the kind of reboot that I'll welcome with open arms. In terms of quality, it's right up there with X2, just barely surpassing that film. The villain (Sebastian Shaw) was a bit too stupidly evil for my tastes at certain points, but MASSIVE SPOILERS at least his demise was satisfying and brutal END MASSIVE SPOILERS. I'm really angry that I missed this one in theaters because it would have been worth every penny.

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