This was not the soaring success I had hoped
it would be. Although, in comparison to previous X-films this does rank at the
top, but it is far from the way an X-men movie could be. The movie seems to be divided into three parts which appear to be separate movies entirely, with "part three" being by far the best one (and probably the reason you went to see the movie).
The plot itself was not terrible, although
the trailer pretty much gives everything away. It does offer a completely
different feel than any of the previous X-men movies, and after the Wolverine
fiasco this is a refreshing reboot. The costume designs were the best I have
see so far, they were colourfull, matched the more vibrant tone of the visuals and were more faithful to the ones in the comics, (I loved the fact that they used an almost identical
helmet to the one Magneto uses in the comic books). The visuals were acceptable
but at times did not fit the theme of the movie, either being underwhelming or Michael
Bay-esc. The fight scenes were highly entertaining, especially Azazel’s cover
strike scene, and every scene where Magneto was doing something. I would have
liked it if the roster had a few more flashy, heavy hitters, or at least have Darwin
do more impressive transformations than what he got to do.
A strong criticism that I have for the
movie is that a significant proportion of the cast did not reproduce the
personalities of the characters they were meant to portray in a very successful
manner, nor did they offer an alternative interpretation better suited for the
movie. Some of the issues could have been avoided by trying less to physically
match the characters, like Emma Frost/January Jones, to their X-men Universe counterparts and
attempt to find someone that is better suited to play the part.
January Jones
simply did not have that femme fatale air about her or the sophistication that
some might have expected from her character, and it was difficult to take her role
seriously as it was reduced to a blonde playboy bunny used solely for
exposition and eye candy; they should have went for a more Basic Instinct
Sharon Stone than the bitchy Elvira they ended up with. (I had a similar issue with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow).
Bacon’s portrayal of Sebastian Shaw while
highly entertaining, and at times quite brilliant, was not as dramatic and grandiose
as he should have been. If they decided to use him as the main villain they
should have at least given him a few decent monologues typical of a
megalomaniacal super-villain; instead we pretty much uncovered the motivation
for his plans from a few scattered and vaguely connected scenes.
Fassbender did a splendid job portraying
both the troubled yet focused and opinionated Erik Lehnsherr, as well as a
rising Magneto. The dynamic between him and Xavier was well constructed, but at
times lacked the gravitas that one would have expected from two of the most
important (future) leaders of mutant kind. I get that the movie wanted to keep
the focus on who they were before they became Prof.X and Magneto, but this
resulted in the in-movie transitions being to sudden and feeling rushed. McAvoy was a very convincing Xavier (although at times a bit over the top) and
cannot be criticised for his acting, especially since he seemed to be the glue
that held the plot together, so he had his work cut out for him from the start.
While I may sound highly critical of this
movie it should not be interpreted as me giving it a bad review. I am as
opinionated with respect to this movie as I have a lot (and I mean a lot!) of
background knowledge of the X-men universe so I am fully aware of the potential
it has, but also in light of the new standard that comicbook based movie have
received due to films like Dark Knight and Thor. Overall I found the movie
enjoyable, and a good combination of dialog driven and action based plot; maybe
if they had made it a two-parter it would have had more fluidity (as
paradoxical as that may sound), but I have serious doubts that even this one
will make enough money for a sequel.
How far will this reboot go remains to be
seen, at the moment it looks quite promising, especially if they continue on this path of making movies that more closely resemble the core concepts of their sources. So, my vote is to go see it. Oh and
at a certain point there is a well-placed cameo that I think deserves some
attention mainly because it adds some entertainment value to people who are
fans of the series, while not taking away from the movie, which is, as past experience has shown us, not an easy thing to accomplish (although there are
easter eggs galore throughout the whole movie).
