Rating: 8/10

From crazy Nazi mutants to winged strippers, no mind control will be needed to convince you to enjoy X-Men: First Class.

With a very stylized approach, director Mathew Vaughn (Kickass) is able to revive the X-Men franchise. It seems as if this new X-Men flick is able to fill in the gaps that its predecessors left gaping open. Vaughn incorporated a mixture of tactful film-making approaches that made First Class a new, satisfying, and fresh experience, whereas in X-Men Origins: Wolverine you left feeling as if you missed something.

First Class introduces you to the lives of Charles Xavier (Professor X) and Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) played by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. It begins with the back story of Erik's life in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany terrorized by the gruesome leader Sebastian Shaw whom also is a fellow mutant. Attention is then brought over to Manchester introducing the psychic Charles Xavier and the discovery of Raven Darkholme (Mystique). While Charles completes his work at his university with Raven by his side, Erik begins on a quest to seek revenge against Shaw for killing his mother. As an agent, Moira MacTaggert, finds herself in the middle of a communist crisis involving Shaw and other mutants, so she seeks out the help of Charles Xavier. On their mission to stop Shaw they find themselves crossing paths with the violently motivated Erik. All of the parties unite to stop Shaw and his followers from starting WWIII between the Soviets and U.S.

As the plot progresses Charles and Erik begin band together the start of the "X-Men" with a group of young mutants, including the young "Beast" to help fight against Shaw. The mutants undergo training at Charle's mansion in Manchester, and we begin to see the beginnings of a relationship between Raven and Erik.

The "X-Men" have a final showdown with Shaw and his fellow mutant followers in a satisfying and epic grand finale.

Negatives:

Although Oscar Nominated, Jennifer Lawrence seemed to fall flat in her role as Raven/Mystique. She is completely lacks any provocativeness as the character and comes off as too immature. Some of the lines from the other mutants seems to cheezy and forced at times also.

The main thing from this movie that bothers me is the ridiculous mutant training and preparation. It is completely full of "cheeziness". I know it is a period of comic opportunity but the whole sequence just comes off as ridiculous.

Positives:

This X-Men ends up as my second favorite of the series, just behind X2. Even being that it is a risky prequel (which never seem to be successes) it answered all the questions, showed us complete and meaningful realtionships between numerous characters, and took us on a ride that had humor, betrayl, and most importantly---ACTION!

Its had roles that were beautifully acted especially by Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw. and Michael Fassbender as Erik/Magneto. Nothing from the film seemed forced just to gain ooh's and awws for the audience's sake. It had gritty and smooth scenes that were directed out to perfection including the opening Nazi sequence (perhaps the best scene). There were some excellent dark and "meaty" scenes that left you satisfied.

This X-Men was dark when it needed to be, fast and furious when it was called for, and added that pinch of comic relief when needed. I felt as if this film was meaningful unlike the 3rd and 4th X-Men films. Vaughn did an excellent job of creating a smooth, slick, and grity feel for the whole film. It wasn't all just meaningless bombs and explosions. If you are an X-Men fan or a comic book fan at all then this is a MUST SEE!