A confident young man, complete with a full head of hair, swaggers over to a beautiful young woman, spouting off evolutionary facts as off kilter, albeit effective, pick up lines. Ladies and gentleman, meet Charles Xavier, who general audiences now know as Professor X, the wise, benevolent, very bald and wheel-chair bound leader of the super powered squad commonly known as The X-Men.
Set in the early 1960s, X-Men: First Class is a wildly imaginative and stylish film, a loose prequel to the popular film franchise that has brought in over one billion dollars over the course of four installments.
Even though the series had continued to prove profitable, it began to fall out of favor with both critics and audiences, first with the initial trilogy’s concluding chapter, X-Men: The Last Stand, and next with the entertaining, but overall disappointing X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Somewhere along the line, the films lost the thematic integrity and smart storytelling with which director Bryan Singer’s X-Men and X2 established the bar for serious, respectable comic adaptations.
Enter director Matthew Vaughn, hot off his success with the no holds barred Kick-Ass, and a limited but impressive resume that also features the British gangster film Layer Cake and the underrated fantasy gem Stardust. Vaughn proves to be just the adrenaline boost that the lagging X-Franchise needs. His presence, coupled with a story from Singer (who also returns in a producing capacity) makes for a fast, fun, thrill ride with real gravitas, a true return to the excellent form of the first two films.
