The Simple Class

After the tightly scripted introduction to Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in 2009, the X men franchise proceeds to provide a smorgsabord account of the history of several key characters. Set in the 1940 – 1960’s cusp, X Men – First Class is inevitably intertwined with several key (mostly American) historical events of its time. The whole routine of the contemplative Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr/ Magneto (Michael Fassbender) being shaped by their experiences is rather hackneyed, and the easy re-rendition of historical facts threatens to sink this installment into the Marvel comics rather than Marvel graphic novels-genre. But there is enough going for the movie by way of straight entertainment. The highly adaptive prequel, like some of this mutant cast, swings between death camps and Nazi hunts, and the Oxford life and missile crises. Touching? No. Noir? Definitely not. This is the cookie cutter entertainer without the hint of a shade of grey. And previous installments have done enough for this one to be a natural commercial hit. All said, I preferred Wolverine

12/20