The Red Band Project

James McAvoy is Professor Charles Xavier . . . the original incepter.

Ladies and gentlemen . . . the summer movie season has officially started! Just got back from a late showing of X-Men First Class and I have to say that I was pretty blown away by the film. I’d been hearing good buzz from the blogosphere, but that didn’t prepare me for how good this movie was going to be. Just how good is X-Men First Class? It’s the first movie of the summer that I want to see again! Here are some quick highlights:

• THE CHARACTERS: Almost all the characters are portrayed pretty well by the actors. Everyone had be believe that their characters were authentic and I generally felt for each of them when each character faced their own particular hurdle in the film. The two best though definitely anchoring the film had to be . . .

• THE CHARLES/ERIK RELATIONSHIP: They are arch enemies in the comics, but their history as portrayed in this film I felt was really spot on. They were once friends and we get to see why. Their friendship and relationship felt genuine. However, you could see the train wreck coming the whole time, but you still had to watch and see how they would go their separate ways. McAvoy and Fassbender were great in the two lead roles.

• AWESOME POWER USE: How the X-Men and mutants in the film used their powers and how those powers were portrayed were really well done. Most of the time power use in the film was for practical application–which was fine because it fit within the story. Sometimes I feel comic book movies overdo power use and make things more than they need to be, especially when CGI and special effects are involved. Thankfully their use of powers was appropriate when necessary and larger than life when necessary.

• IT FIT WITH X-MEN 1 & 2: This film perfectly lined up with the characters in the first two films which added to the awesomeness of this film–character motivations in future films are apparent in this one. And of course this film fit . . . it was produced by the director of the first two, Bryan Singer.

• KEVIN BACON: I know, call me crazy, but I liked Kevin Bacon in the villan role. He could have played it SO over the top, but he didn’t. You could have laughed at him because he did Footloose (ok well, you do laugh at that, but then the movie goes on). Again, another good casting choice in my opinion.

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Other Local Reviews:

coconutwireless‘s review at The Tiki Outpost

Myong Choi’s review from Nonstop Honolulu