X-Men: First Class

Like most mythologies, X-Men takes an awkward, but specifically describable path. In a necessity to keep interesting or cool characters around, ages are fudged, explanations for agelessness are explained at length, and "the later years" of characters are often over explained. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS attempts to show us the early lives of the X-Men from the original trilogy. However, these mutants are more interesting and played by better actors at a young age than they were in the original trilogy of films. James McAvoy as Professor X and the radiant Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique bring a special poignancy to the film with their relationship, Michael Fassbender as Magneto is solid, and the rest of the mutants are populated by competent teenage-looking actors who could have been in a modern day THE BREAKFAST CLUB (and made a better film out of it too). But it is not just the actor-power that assists X-MEN: FIRST CLASS to be the finest X-Men film and one of the better superhero films of, say, this year. It is instead the way that the film embraces how silly its subject is. It never asks us to take it seriously, and that allows for the audience to take some, selective lines seriously, rather than every supposedly prophetic word to come out of Magneto's mouth. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS should spawn a number of films following it's story. It's more interesting, populated by gleeful actors, and gloriously goofy.
X-Men: First Class: ★★★1/2