Nerds That Geek Movie Review - 'X-Men: First Class'

​Written by Scotty

Well here we go, into the new generation of X-Men.  When I saw the trailer for First Class, I decided that I was going to forgo watching it in theaters because it was missing everything that made the first series of X-Men films a success.  I am kind of saddened that I did this on one hand, but not too upset after seeing it on cable a year later. I was a huge fan of the original cast and reading reviews from when this movie first came out, I was not the only one. But you have to remember that this is a reboot and there will be many people that are not willing to accept the new storylines, so I am ready to put my complaints in my back pocket and take a good look at the next generation. 

Charles Xavier is working on his thesis for his graduate class. He is focused purely on mutation, which he and his best friend Raven have had to deal with all of their lives. Not many other people in the world know that there are mutants out there, some of them hiding in plain sight. When being approached by Moira MacTaggert from the CIA, Charles is ready to step up to the plate and help the nation battle its next threat. With the head of the CIA not willing to accept that mutants are all around him, he passes off the responsibilities to keeping them locked away to the Man in the Black Suit. With a facility away from the CIA, he is able to give Charles and his friends a place to train and find a way to use their abilities to their benefits.

Erik Lensherr is focused on revenge for the loss of his mother years ago and only has one target, Sebastian Shaw. Watching as his mother was killed in front of his young eyes, Erik has been able to harness his power and control any metal object that he focuses on. Asking the right questions and getting answers in one form or another, Erik is able to pinpoint the yacht that Shaw is on and tries to make his attack, only to be thrown overboard by one of Shaw’s henchmen. Not ready to give up the fight, Erik is able to disable the yacht, but not before Shaw and his crew make their way to freedom in a nuclear submarine. Being picked up by Charles, Erik sees that he is not the only one with powers and decides to join the CIA to try and find Shaw and keep him from running through with the plan he has worked so hard at disguising. 

Sebastian Shaw has only one thing on his mind, to take over the world and kill all of the humans. Being able to manipulate and pay off high ranking officials in the military of both the United States and Russia, he is setting up his pawns to start the first nuclear war. Knowing that mutants have been born from the atom and the new masses of radioactivity have caused these powers to evolve in several of his brothers, the war could eradicate most of the world’s weak and give the planet over to the evolved. With his army of mutants at his side, he is surprised to see that there are others with the same abilities that do not see what will happen in the future to their race. Not wanting to fight with his own kind, Shaw is forced to take his fight to the next level and being able to absorb any type of energy, he is ready to start a war that no human will ever forget.

As Charles becomes familiar with his surroundings at the CIA, he finds a new toy that will help him locate mutants all around the world that can help him and his team stop Shaw from playing out his plan of world domination. As each recruit joins the team, he quickly finds out that they will need to be trained to harness their powers in a productive way. But time is a factor as Shaw and his team have arranged for nuclear missiles to be delivered to Cuba, while the United States is ready to launch several of their own if the delivery is made. With each member of the team using their unique talent, they are able to locate Shaw, but will they have enough time to stop the two superpower countries from destroying each other in World War III?

Let me just come straight out and say it, I am not a fan of reboot movies, especially when the original series did not need one.  With that being said and getting past my dislike for them, this is a great rebirth of the series and you get to find out a little bit more about Charles, Mystique and Erik that you never saw in the previous movies. I was especially happy with more of a back story for Erik Lensherr and watching how he was able to harness his powers, even with the help from his friend Charles. But my hats off to Mystique, Emma Frost and Moira MacTaggert for stealing the scenes that they were in, strong performances were what this movie needed and they carried it most of the way. I also liked seeing a couple of new mutants that I only remember from the comics making an appearance, specifically Riptide, Banshee and Havok. They were great additions and hopefully they will be noted as a good start to the X-Men crew in the future movies. I still have my problems with some of the storylines in this movie, but what’s done is done and now we have a new band of X-Men that we will rally behind for the future movies.

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