X-Men: First Class Is a Definite Step up in the X-Men Film Universe

Okay, so after The Last Stand, and Wolverine, lots of people are justifiably wary of a new X-Men movie. This is good on one level, because it means the film makers know they really have to deliver this time around. The bad thing is that it doesn't look like people are giving this new movie the chance it deserves. The box office take should be much higher for a movie this fun and well made.

The movie is set in 1962 and largely follows Charles "Professor X" Xavier (James McAvoy), Eric "Magneto" Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), and Raven "Mystique" Darkhölme (Jennifer Lawrence). They each have their own difficulties with finding ways to fit in with a society that doesn't yet even really know that mutants exist.

Eric is trying to find and kill a former commander in the Nazi prison camp where he was held. This commander, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), ends up with his own little team of mutants. They're running all around the globe trying to incite global nuclear war, and a CIA agent named Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne)—who was seen briefly in The Last Stand—ends up contacting Xavier and bringing him and other mutants into a special task force to take out Shaw.

There are fun action sequences, and very colorful characters. But more importantly, this one has great character moments, and the budding relationship between Charles and Eric is very well done.

That being said, if this movie is assumed to fit within the same chronological universe as the movies that have already been made, there are several continuity errors, some more serious than others. But you really shouldn't let that get in the way of enjoying the movie.

I give this one 8 / 10.

X-Men: First Class is rated PG-13 for profanity (including one use of the eff-dash-dash-dash word), sexuality and plenty of action violence.