BLU-RAY/DVD REVIEWS

Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to prevent nuclear Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.

Ever since I was kid, I’ve been a huge fan of X-Men. I grew up with X-Men: The Animated Series, which eventually got me into the comics and I’ve always had a soft spot for the franchise and the characters from it. For me, the initial trilogy of films just didn’t do my beloved series justice and I’m pretty well still denying the existence of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. When I heard that they were working on another X-Men film, the first thing that ran through my mind was something along the lines of What the hell are they going to ruin for me this time around? Then I found out that Matthew Vaughn would be directing the film and I breathed a big sigh of relief, since he directed two of my favourite films of all time (Stardust and Kick-Ass).

While the story is amazing and well written, the strongest part of the film for me was the pitch-perfect casting for the characters. I adore James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne and Nicholas Hoult, but the person who completely stole the movie away was Michael Fassbender as a young Magneto. For those familiar with the X-Men comics and TV series, the friendship between Magneto and Xavier has never been a secret despite being fierce rivals and enemies. However, the movies have only ever hinted at a previous friendship before the two mutants started butting heads, so FIRST CLASS gives us an excellent view at their relationship before the “war” really began.

My only real complaint about the film was the casting of January Jones. While Jones had the look of Emma Frost down perfectly, her lack of delivery with her lines definitely makes the character of Emma Frost a little less believable. I think it’s something about her face; she works so hard to say her lines without error that she forgets to emote and her eyes just look completely devoid of life. Some people would say that that sums up the character of Emma Frost, but from what I remember about the character, she really had a lot of depth that I don’t think Jones was able to portray. I could’ve done without Zoe Kravitz as well, but I don’t think she was really in the film long enough to be an issue.

The special effects were extremely well done and none of it really gave off the whole overkill CG vibe. There were scenes that I had just assumed were real and after watching the special features I discovered that many of them were actually filmed with green screens… so needless to say, I was pretty impressed.

Children of the Atom: This was such an awesome feature. A pretty long “Making Of” extra that went through just about every aspect of how the film came into being. This has to be one of the best extras I’ve ever watched and I can honestly say that I learned a ton from it and enjoyed hearing from many different people from the cast and crew on how it all came together.

Fantastically put together and while most “Making Of” features have the feel of being put together just for the sake of having it on the special features, that was not the case this time. The feature instead feels like it was put together as a way for the cast and crew to document how much detail, effort and love went into making this film.

Cerebro Mutant Tracker: A really interesting feature that incorporated not just FIRST CLASS, but all of the X-Men movies in the franchise. Cerebro allows for the viewer to go through all of the mutants that have ever been in any of the films. It then provides some footage for each character and then a stats and mini bio for each. All of the mutants you find and unlock in Cerebro are then catalogued for you so you can easily go back and check out any of the mutants you may have a sudden curiosity for.

"X" Marks the Spot: A special feature going through cast interviews about the movie.

Extended and Deleted Scenes: Almost every single one of these scenes I really wish that they had left in the movie. Usually I find that the deleted scenes from other films are scenes that I don’t really care about one way or the other, but I rather enjoyed these. I could see why they took them out though, since two or three of them add in the romantic link (that fans of the comics and animated series will already know about) between Xavier and Moira.

Composer's Isolated Score: Basically this feature is exactly what it sounds like. Henry Jackman did the music for FIRST CLASS and he goes through his work on the film and how he put it all together.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS is everything that I could’ve ever hoped for and more. While the film has flaws, it’s definitely the best thing that’s ever come from the franchise. I hope that if they decide to carry on with the franchise, that Matthew Vaughn will helm at least one more film for the series. That may be too much to hope for, but he did such a fantastic job with this film that I would love to see where he takes the story from here.