X men first class review stub

Review Stub : X Men First Class.

« on: June 13, 2011, 04:47:13 AM »

I've just seen X-Men First Class, and in handy fashion as I've been so late with my Tron Legacy review ( Which torments me with production hell with every turn I try to take it. ) I can't as of yet give this film the youtube review it so rightfully deserves. As such, and because I don't want to slap down a thousand words only to pontificate the exact same later within my full review, I've come up with a rather neat idea. Like a ticket stub, this is in fact a review stub, a condensed evaluation that shall be expanded at a later date, ( Or rather, as soon as I can throw up a few long standing reviews first. ) and by no means represents my full opinion. This alone should satisfy the casual readers who are happy to glance over the sentence "I think that film was good/shit." And be done with the entire trifling affair rather than riffling through an expansive tome to understand the true feelings it invoked, and will probably enrage those of you who think that this is just my excuse to be lazy. It isn't, I promise you.

In any case to cut the formalities and explanations behind it short, I really enjoyed this film, which is something I hadn't expected. The acting that pushed it along far exceeded anything I had expected prior as I had seen the trailer and the previous film incarnations and expected this to be a goofy high school musical remake to what was otherwise a good to fair franchise for marvel films. Below are three of the pro's and con's that would otherwise make up my opinion.

Pro's :

1: The Length : Unlike the previous films, this didn't drag the tits out of the dialogue scenes purely for fan appeal, and it didn't waste it's budget on one super huge massive special effect at the end. It spaced them out and gave a really nice flow to it, which for a two hour long film is a rarity in itself. Because of that it felt like a more balanced piece.

2: The acting : While I won't deny the previous films did pack a bazooka of acting talent in Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, there wasn't a shitload of padding between them and the rest of the cast ( With the exception of Hugh Jackman who held his own. Just. ) meaning there was a definitive gap in quality between Xavier, Magneto and those other mutants. This however seemed a little more padded out in that the villain ( Kevin fucking Bacon. The baconator. ) was able to balance the performances of McAvoy and Fassbender ( Who are both well respected acting talent in their own right. Neamo gives thumbs up. ), something which was horribly lacking in the other X-Men films. Admittedly there was allot of "I'm a gormless no line henchman." work done by the two stooges, and the mutant 'team' wasn't really what I'd call the actor's A-Team, but it was better than Halley Berry and that's all you can really ask for in a film.

3: The set design and the special effects ( Mise En Scene ) : There was something very convincing about the whole affair. I'm sure if I wanted to pick holes in it and I sat here for thirty days searching through iconography of that period I would be laughing my ass off at it, but I'm not that picky. It's pleasing to the eye, and it definitely captures what I wanted from it. In terms of the special effects however, they were spectacular. My favorite parts weren't actually the highly ramped CGI titans that Hollywood's made mandatory of any backwater production, but actually the smaller scenes like the trick photography used when ( For instance. ) Magneto throws the Nazi like knife and then calls it back to his hand to stab it once more into the former SS's hand. ( SPOILER! HAH! ) It seemed fluid and real, something that's lost when say, a man stops nuclear missiles mid air only to reverse them and thrown them back. ( SPOILER! HAH! ) What I would say however is to take the CGI with a pinch of salt. There are with any film of this budget some really dog eared effects ( The Beast transformation scene was similar to the original Hulk film. I know. The original. ) and while that would leave most with a sour taste, on a whole it is still top rate.

Con's :

1: The ending : Most people argue with me that you don't go to watch a film for an ending but the experience of the film itself, and they might be right. They aren't of course, they are morons, but I'm willing to humor them all the same. It's for that reason I count the rather deflated anti-climax as a detractor. It's not that I wanted a giant world ending battle or some kind of apocalyptic vision as I realize this is very close to the 'comic', whichever one that may be in Marvel's fucked up psyche loop of infinite possibilities, however it does still leave you with a large flavor of disappointment that the Baconator doesn't throw down against Magneto like the birthing of a second sun. The ending is pretty stylish, I'll grant you,