The Philippine Online Chronicles

First off, let me say that I am extremely biased about this film. Having grown up on X-Men comics, cartoons, cards, and tabletop and video games (how many can still remember that four player button-mashing side-scroller for the arcade? or that overhead view maze-like game for the Sega?), I can lay claim to a fair knowledge of the mythology. And it’s within this framework that I approach the film: I am a fan of the franchise, I am a fan of action films, and I like comic-book adaptations that do something new.

It’s with this kind of framework that I say that I was thrilled by the new X-flick X-Men: First Class, directed by Matthew Vaughn. Vaughn, who made a name for himself with the over-the-top fun of Kick-Ass, does the right things in adapting an X-Men movie. And while it might have been easier to go the way of previous adaptations by taking some of the modern storylines, Vaughn turns his attention to mythology building.

One of the great things about comic books is that there is the opportunity for new creators who take over a title to create something new. What they do is that they draw upon what’s been done before, and then they have the freedom to either continue or to pull a reboot and try and reimagine the story with the same elements but with their own tweaks. It’s this very thing that Vaughn decides to do in First Class.

He takes a number of elements from other writers who have touched the X-men franchise: he cuts down like Grant Morrison did, he goes big on relationships like Joss Whedon, and he draws on a lot of the mythology, but I believe that the biggest and most significant influence here is that big name of X-Men Claremont. Chris Claremont repositioned the X-Men not only as a mutant team but added a deep social aspect to the mutant struggle.

While the struggle between mutant and human was addressed in the previous film adaptations, it was never done so clearly or powerfully as Vaughn does here. He accomplishes this by stripping the conflict down to its significant components: the fear of humans, the evolutionary superiority of mutants, and the advocates for both sides Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier. I know that non-comics non-sci-fi readers could be nodding off as I go into this mutant/human analysis, but consider that at its best X-Men has used this sci-fi framing to discuss issues of ethnicity, race, sexual preference, and even (and most importantly for, especially as weird little ethnic kid growing up in an uncertain world) issues of adolescence and not fitting in, amplified through the lens of “mutation” which makes one different.

The potential for this is brought to bear in First Class, which benefits from Vaughn’s rebooting of the franchise, reimagining its mythos, and establishing his own world here for what I hope will be a long and fruitful franchise. He brings us the young Magneto and Professor X, portrayed by outstanding actors Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, who give the roles and the film true grounding and gravitas. We know that they were friends before their differences in belief caused a permanent rift between them. But now we get to witness how that happens. Most significantly, Vaughn chooses as his backdrop the Cuban missile crisis. In doing so he is creating alternate history, a whole new world and history for the franchise to move in.

I may be guilty of giving this and other comic book films more leeway, but I do believe that like the art that these films are adapted from, these are planned as serialized films. With that in mind, I saw how this first film was doing scene-setting and character introductions. One of the problems in the first films of new franchises or reboots is that too much time is spent on exposition and introduction, but in First Class most of this is done smoothly and you don’t have to be an afficionado to catch up or to understand what these characters’ motivations are.

The strength is that these characters come to embody a set of beliefs, and the philosophical struggles between the men who would become Magneto and Professor X are so well personified and illustrated by Fassbender and McAvoy. You can’t choose a side, because both sides are so compellingly argued, the backgrounds of both men so well-drawn that we understand them both and know that in some way, they are both right. Which is to say that there is a lot of thought underlying the film and the goings-on in the film.

The film suffers from the usual problems of films like this, with the expected recruitment and training montages. It’s only a good thing that these are done quickly and with a fair amount of wit. More surprisingly is that the action here is deployed sparingly. Make no mistake, there are massive explosions and big mutant battles, but theme and thought are never compromised in favor of something blowing up.

This is a thinking action movie. I know that in the post-Bay hollywood this sounds like an oxymoron, but X-Men: First Class comes packed with ideas and questions about humanity just as much as it comes with great action sequences and just the right amount of fan-service. It is a fun film to watch, and you can actually take it seriously.

Image taken from the movie's Wikipedia page. Poster copyright belongs to 20th Century Fox, used here for reasons of review.