- Great Story
- Great Script
- Great Acting
- Great Cast
There is no 3-D here and while there is CGI it is used to enhance the story and action scenes not make-up for a lack of them. The key that makes this work so well is the great job on character development and how they interact with each other.
The story at its core is what the comics were all about originally...not spandex and BAP...WHAM...POW...but about being different, being a minority, being judged by how you look..or sound or dress vs what is inside and who you are. Man's fear of those perceived as different from oneself, the stupidity and ignorance of prejudice and the horrors and atrocities that man has committed against his fellow man and continues to do so . It's about what makes us who we are. What makes what could have been good people bad...and why do those who could have easily gone bad stay good? The responsibility of power, it's abuse and ramifications. How sometimes we hurt the ones we love while not meaning to. OK...now that we've gone deep...so to speak, now let's get on with the fun...
When I read that Vaughn...Matthew Vaughn who did Layer Cake (awesome Brit gangster flick that was blatantly if not intently Daniel Craig's audition to play Bond) was doing the next X-Men flick and setting it in the 60's...I was psyched because there was no doubt that he was a going to do a Bond/Avengers (Ms Peel not Marvel) take on this...which is exactly what he did. What I didn't anticipate was how well he knew some of the characters back stories (NERD ALERT: he does use artistic license...so don't freak out that everything is not exactly like in the comics) and making a young Lehnsherr...Erik Lehnsherr*(Magneto) a Nazi Hunter was pure genius. Make no mistake...this movie is Michael Fassbender's audition to play Bond when Craig has had enough (I'm a Bond fanatic and he passed with flying colors). Thus, the Nazi Hunter comment. This is a major component of the story and Bond fans and those who love the perverse joy in killing histories most despicable villains....Nazi's will rejoice.
In regards to the X-Chix...good luck in finding a more beautiful and talented cast. January Jones of Mad Men nailed the Emma Frost role. She looks like a Playboy fantasy version of Grace Kelly with boobs in white leather as a Bond Girl. Jennifer Lawrence of (Winters Bone who is only 20 and already almost won an Oscar) is Blue Skinned Shape changing mystique. Beautiful in disguise...but deeply troubled by her true appearance, Zoe Kravitz plays an angel with a dark side while Rose McGowen here plays Moira MacTaggert (in the comics she is a geneticist) the CIA agent that enlists Xavier's help when she stumbles onto mutants on a mission using her "assets" in a scene right out of a 60's spy flick. The boys here include Beast, Havok, and Darwin led by a young Professor Xavier. The baddies Azazel and Riptide are led by Sebastian Shaw (think super-powered Bond baddie). If you don't know them from the comics yo will learn all about them in the movie...we try to maintain being SPOILER FREE here...
The story centers on why Magneto became a villain while Xavier choose the path of good. From the death camps of the Nazi's to the Cuban Missile Crisis we see how these me were shaped by forces both beyond and in their control. There are plenty of great action scenes and some good humour as well. There are 2 great cameo's and at least 5 great origins explained. Make no mistake...the rest of this Summer's supposed blockbusters have their work cut out for them...if not only all Super-Hero..but all movies were this good...you wouldn't mind paying $10+ to see a flick in the theater...
*As a kid from what I remember Magneto's origin was that he was a Holocaust survivor but a gypsy. It was later on and now that they are really exploring his back story as a Jewish child whose Father was a proud German who served Germany in WWI and was a hero. A man that could not believe that the Nazi party would rise and go on to build the camps and try to wipe out a people. It was in the camps as a Sonderkommando (google it) that he lost his faith in man and his powers manifested.
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