X Men: First Good X-Men Film In a While

X-Men: First Class

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Starring: James McAvoy, Micheal Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence.

Alright, let's be honest up front. X-Men: The Last Stand sucked. Then, when we were ready to forgive Marvel, X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out. That sucked as well. When I heard about yet another X-Men prequel, I was not going to jump on the bandwagon quite yet. However, when I saw the cast and the talented ensemble that was laid out for First Class, I let myself fall in love again. 'Maybe they could do it', I thought, 'Maybe they could give us another good X-Men movie!' Ladies and gentleman, Marvel did not disappoint. X-Men: First Class is an exhilarating, yet episodic, well acted film that brings good review and good standing back to the X-Men franchise.

The film focuses on telling the stories of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, respectively. McAvoy plays Xavier, a recent Oxford graduate who lives with his friend and fellow mutant, Raven. Lensherr, in trying to track down the man responsible for discovering his power to control metal and also for the death of his mother, crosses paths with Xavier, who had been hired by the C.I.A to stop Sebastian Shaw, the very man that Lensherr was trying to find. Once united, the two are put in charge of finding mutants to recruit for the C.I.A.'s purposes, (cue the hilarious one-line cameo from Hugh Jackman.) The mutants focus is then to stop Shaw from inciting World War III, and this puts them smack in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This film works on several levels. The cast is superb with McAvoy at the helm. He is a confident, charismatic presence as the young Charles Xavier. His chemistry with Micheal Fassbender (Lensherr,) is palpable, with plenty of homosexual innuendos to boot; ('He left quite a gap in my life, I was hoping you could fill it' Really?) Believability is important when it comes to comic book films, it's the difference between The Dark Knight and Ghost Rider. Now, the script doesn't work quite as well. There's a rushed, talky quality to much of the dialogue, like the characters being given their iconic nicknames in one convenient line, and never touched upon again, or the discussions regarding the Missile Crisis. The direction feels episodic at times, but that's what you get when you have to tell so many stories in one film. Perhaps that's why Vaughn felt the need for the abundance of title cards in the film. We know we're in Russia when we see marching armies and men speaking Russian, and we know we're in Miami when we were just told that Shaw was in Miami in the last frame. But Vaughn's action sequences are really a marvel (no pun intended.) He infuses a kinetic energy into all of his frames, much like he did in Kick-Ass. Vaughn almost directed X-Men: The Last Stand, so we get to see a glimpse of what that film could have been, although it's main problem was its script, which Vaughn couldn't have saved. Despite some inconsistencies between that film and the comics, I would say that Marvel has brought us a film that, despite its issues, holds the summer hostage as the best film to come out so far.

Score: 8/10

The Fighter

The Fighter

Director: David O. Russel

Starring: Christian Bale, Mark Whalberg, Amy Adams.

In the hubbub surrounding David O. Russel's "Irish" Micky Ward biopic, I pictured a Classical Hollywood inspirational film with sweeping montages of Mark Whalberg running and soulful closeups of him, Amy Adams, and Christian Bale making up the substance of the film. What I expected was a film that relied on good performances alone to push it onto Oscar territory. What I got was an intriguing docu-drama that functions not only as an inspirational sports film but also as a family study of dysfunction within the dynamic of the Ward/Eklund clan. Russel and his crew let the camera fit into the intimate spaces in the character's lives, giving the feeling that we are where the cameras can't be in these character's lives. The "film within a film" aspect of the documentary on Dicky Eklund's crack addiction allowed the film to delve into those places. Steadicam and handheld work dominate the film, giving the actors a natural place to transform into real people living in an early 90's Lowell suburb. The best performance of the film is the Oscar worthy transformation of Christian Bale. As always, Bale was very physically prepared, having lost a lot of weight since we last saw him in Public Enemies, and he looks almost as repulsive as he did in The Machinist, a role which he lost 60 pounds for. Bale has the accent, the hubris and the tragedy that define the contradictory figure of Dicky Eklund. Adams is impressive as well, stepping out of her type and stepping into the role of a smoking hot woman who won't give up on the people that she loves and doesn't take no for an answer. Whalberg deserves much credit as well, this was his project, and his genuine desire to to the story was certainly reflected in his performance. While The Fighter runs a little predictable, the dynamic of the family and the effect that it had upon Micky Ward make this film a solid, well filmed and acted Oscar season winner.