X-Men First Class - SPOILERz, Thoughts and Nerd Rage Options

[Tiralee]

First of all - it's a good movie let down by the costuming.

Honestly, since Mad Men became the icon it is, we're able to spot genuine 60's underwear/clothing and vehicles from across a crowded pub. Watching a blockbuster movie screw up like that was...painful. Note: Costumes (ie: yes, the yellow spandex) and military uniforms looked authentic, hell even the TVs and various other fittings managed to comply with the era...but the 90's "avengers" movie would have done a better job for the daywear.

Magneto - ok, watch the movie for him. Micheal Fassbender can act . Perfect lead to Ian McKellen in X-men 1 & 2 (There was no X-men 3. I'm not listening...)
Xavier...uh, after Micheal's scenery-chewing and brooding, James McAvoy was a little...pale in comparison.
Kevin Bacon (as Sebastian Shaw, main villian) Eh, yeah. Hmm. Ok, as a Nazi, he was great. Really menacing, "boys from Brazil" vibe. As a swarmy wannabe despot, he lacked a certain finess.

The rest - ok, the opposing force has colour and style...but could whoever wrote Emma Frost's lines please step away from George Lucas? I think it's catching.

Fast set up, and faster knock-down for "official oversight" for mutants was completed nicely - the 5 seconds of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine was all the movie needed. Too much and it would have looked like a fanboy marysue; you sort of need Mr Jackman for the mancandy factor.

Ratings out of 5:

Pop-culture references 11/5. They've packed more callbacks and nerdery into the movie than effective dialogue or plot...which is sort of saved because the nerdery takes care of the plot nicely.
Action: 3/5 - they could have bloodied it up and actually have a REAL blockbuster on their hands, but they toned it down to a PG and so a lot of the carnage is inferred, weakly, from offscreen. The stuff that's onscreen was handled...poorly.
Visuals: 5/5 - Solid apart from the horrible era-costuming. The mod-squad of superevil mutants looked like James Bond was going to burst in and make a casual quip. Team mutant freedom...eh...they looked like they rolled around in Goodwill and wore what stuck.
SFX: 5/5 Reasonable and apart from the end missile/shell storm, handled with a light touch. CGI can't polish a steamer, no matter how much bloom and lenseflare you use.
Sound: 4/5 Music was quite forced but era-specific, apart from the end credits (catchy). Seriously, "Hippy-Hippy Shake?" In 1962? It was written in 1959...but it only became popular in the US ~ 1963-64 after it was covered by some young up-and-comers known as the Beatles.
Plot 2/5. Workmanlike and skinny, it's a by-the-numbers bluindingromen of three men, only one of whom we really get to feel there is meat on the bones of his story, brooded so well by Herr Fassbender. Professor X is there because for every good antihero there's a whiter shadow and the villian is there because you needed to connect Kevin Bacon to the X-men with less than "7 degrees of seperation".
Sting -10/5. God damn them. No sting. Unless our theatre decided to cut it (possible) but if it's Marvel, there's got to be a sting.

Oh, and a special thanks to the ADD Twat who couldn't shut off her fucking Iphone through the entire movie because checking her email, text and playing Angry Birds was more "iportant".

PS: Watch it for Micheal Fassbender. Whoever the kid was who played young Eric was damn good as well. Young Charles set such a high standard as well, as did young Raven.
PPS: Isn't young Charles the one who did the children's voices for Dragonage: Origins? "Where's my mother, she said she'd be right here" etc?


-Rant mode off, Tir out.