X-Men: First Class

We saw this at HAT 109 on Sunday the 19th. I make this the 5th in the series (I hesitate to call it a 'franchise' - that sounds kind of ugly and capitalistic to me - I'll reserve that moniker for films I don't like), if you include Wolverine as part of that series. In my opinion, this prequel sits about 2nd best, after the first one (X-Men) and just above the second one (X-2).

I reckon they got the right director, Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Layer Cake) and Bryan Singer was on board as a producer too. The cast was patchy, from great (McAvoy, Fassbender) to serviceable (Byrne, Platt) to poor (Bacon, Jones - who is this dull Barbie?).

The pace of the film was an asset, it really rattled along in parts, especially the initial meeting sequence of Xavier and Lehnsherr. I really like the 3 way antagonism these films explore - humans v good mutants v bad mutants - and X-Men: First Class shows the origins of this. I think it's one of the reasons that sets it apart from other comic book adaptations that rely on a more black and white polarity.

There's also a classic 3 word retort that made me laugh quite a lot - you'll understand when you see it. As it's something of a spoiler, I won't elaborate here.

Worth watching.