First Class Film

Time for another film review and this time for 'X-Men - First Class'. Thanks to work colleague and good egg Nick (Hi Nick!) who recommended this one. I went to see this at Cineworld in Hull on Monday night.

Now this film is what's known as a prequel, a sort of beginning or the origins of a well established film series - in this case X-Men starring Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman and many other good actors. The X-Men series of films were very good but prequels in my experience tend not to be so good although there are a couple of notable exceptions including the Star Trek prequel released a couple of years ago. Some bad prequels involved the Star Wars series which were not very good.

This prequel however was very good. Here's the thing - I like quality acting, characters that are built during a film, a good story and as few special effects that is possible before the film gets spoiled. This had all the decent qualities of a film which appeals to a big audience with only one swear word (from a cameo role part played by Hugh Jackman.)

This is about the discovery of a whole species of near human beings called mutants who are scattered throughout the world. Beings who have special gifts, powers but who are clearly different from human beings although to all intents and purposes they look the same. Mutants hide their 'powers' or gifts for fear of being branded 'different'. There are many analogies to modern day issues.

Charles Xavier himself a mutant with mind reading powers and played well by James McAvoy helps the CIA to  combat the threat of nuclear war in the 1960s using the real Bay of Pigs incident by providing assistance from mutants with special powers. He meets and enlists Erik Lehnsherr played by accomplished actor Michael Fassbender, also a mutant but he is someone who is hell bent on revenge against a Nazi, Sebastian Shaw who murdered his mother in a concentration camp played by the deliciously evil Kevin Bacon who himself is trying to encourage the nuclear war between super powers Russia and the USA.

The main characters are ably supported by a good quality cast.

No spoilers here, so you'll have to watch the film to find out how the plot unfolds, but the story moves along apace with good special effects which don't overwhelm the film and this 2D production is rated at 12A.

Recommended with 7.5/10 for good entertainment for 2 hours and 12 minutes which fly by (providing your bum doesn't go numb like mine did!)

I hope you are enjoying your week, more than half way to the weekend!

Looking forward to seeing the full moon eclipse tonight - weather permitting - lots of cloud about right now; if I get any pictures, I'll post them.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

(Thanks to the IMDB for the picture)