X-Men: First Class

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Reboots, re-imaginings and origin stories are all the rage at the moment. This is partly to do with Hollywood studios squeezing a franchise until it bleeds – after all, why make just one movie out of a property you have when you can loads? But audiences also want to know more about the characters they have come to care about and the world they inhabit. Batman dresses up as a bat and beats up criminals. But why? Just how did Spider-Man start doing whatever a spider can? And, as “X-Men: First Class” explores, just how did mutants such as Professor X and Magento begin on their path?

Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr are two young men with very different backgrounds who discover they share the same thing – strange powers. As they learn to cope with their powers, the pair discovers that there are others like them in the world. Soon – with a backdrop of ’60s paranoia – the duo find themselves embroiled in the Cuban Missile Crisis and a plot that will tear the world apart. Just how will the mutants be accepted by the world? And just whose side will everyone be on?

After the final few movies in the X-Men franchise became overblown and throwaway comic book movies after the relative intelligence of the Bryan Singer originals, director Matthew Vaughn has, pardon the pun, reinstated a touch of class to proceedings. This is a pleasingly clever movie that adds a touch of ambiguity amongst some slam bang action sequences. The ’60s setting is well realized, giving the film a different feeling than others of its ilk whilst leads James McAvoy and Michael Fassbinder do well in making the roles that became rather iconic for Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen their own.

This is fine and intelligent Hollywood filmmaking that is currently standing out as one of the summer’s best blockbusters.