X-Men: First Class

Director: Matthew Vaughn
2011
RT score: 87%
My rating: 8/10

Let's face it. If your like me and your in your early thirties you are facing a reality that the next 50+ years of movies are going to be packed full of remakes, reboots and reimaginings of past classics. Even non-classics like Red Dawn are being remade for reasons only known to themselves.
While we all tear our hair out over why would they already reboot Spiderman let's not completely write off this trend as being a total zero-sum approach to film making. With X-Men First Class, Matthew Vaughn delivers a reason to believe that this trend can also provide highly entertaining and quality work.
The film opens the same way X-Men opened with Magneto being separated from his mother at a Nazi concentration camp and continues the sequence to show Magneto being forced to use his powers to save his mother. He fails and in his rage we see the enormity of Magneto's power even as a boy.
Now, let me just say that I think Ian Mckellan is great as Magneto, GREAT! However, Michael Fassenbender over the past few years has begun building a track record that may lead him to being one of the best actors of a generation and his portrayal of Magneto is what makes this movie. As with all comic book movies, I believe the villain is what makes the difference between the movie being good and the film being worth watching again and again and I could watch Fassenbender play Magneto over and over. Sure, Magneto isn't the films true villain, that honor falls to Kevin Bacon as Sebastien Shaw in a strong performance, but Magneto is the one that scare and thrill you all at the same time. Whether it's the way he is able to persuade people to his side or his calculated ruthlessness when exacting his revenge on the Nazi's that destroyed his life as a child he is the most watchable part of this film.
On the flip side we also have a pre-wheel chair Professor X. Portrayed as a recent college grad using his knowledge of mutation to flirt with co-eds, James McAvoy deserves credit for doing well in the Professor X role although his effectiveness does not surpass Patrick Stewart. He gets recruited to join the CIA in their fight against Shaw and with the help of the kid from About a Boy and Oliver Platt (who I always enjoy) he uses cerebro to create his first class of X-Men. This leads to some of the films weaker moments as we see the mutants introducing themselves, giving each other names and other such non-sense.
Thankfully, Vaughn doesn't linger in these moments to long and the story movies at a good pace. We get a final showdown created within the historical events surrounding the Cuban missile crisis that delivers and sets up future conflicts between Professor X and Magneto. Of course, the ultimate goal of a film like this is to hook you into subsequent sequels and with Fassenbender as Magneto I can say I will be their on opening day for any future installments of this version of the X-Men. And as we prepare to see reboots of Superman, Batman and others in the near future, I say there is hope that they can be done right.