Risk-free X-Men off target

FILM REVIEW: X-MEN. The problem with helming a studio tent-pole is that no matter the credentials of the director, the necessity of box office success tends to inspire risk-free filmmaking.

With the possible exception of X-Men’s first sequel X2 (2003), 20th Century Fox has hobbled the others, with the last two in particular, X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, bordering on offensive.

So when Fox announced it was making an X-Men prequel, it needed a sweetener to lure back fans, who had become rightly disillusioned at the soulless pap of preceding iterations.

To this end, it enlisted British director Matthew Vaughn and his Jewish writing partner Jane Goldman, whose stocks were high following the 2010 smash Kick Ass.

There was an A-list cast too, with Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds, 300) named as Magneto, James McAvoy (Last King of Scotland, Atonement) as Charles Xavier and Kevin Bacon (Mystic River, Apollo 13) as arch villain Sebastian Shaw.

As with the original X-Men (2000), First Class begins in Auschwitz, where a young Erik Lehnsherr (aka Magneto) watches helplessly as he is separated from his mother.

As he flies into a rage, the steel of the surrounding gates begin to warp and buckle until he is pistol whipped and rendered unconscious. As an adult, Lehnsherr turns Nazi hunter, tracking those who wronged him, including the camp commandant, now called Sebastian Shaw (Bacon).

Lehnsherr joins mind-melding mutant Charles Xavier, who is working with the United States government to stop Shaw – a powerful mutant himself – after it is revealed he is planning to incite Russia and America to nuclear war, so his kind can rule.

Vaughn’s take on the popular comic series is good, but not great. The performances from Fassbender and McAvoy are predictably excellent and the film looks great, with lavish set design, art direction and camera work, all of which imparts a sumptuousness.

The film’s real strength is its moral centre. The plight of the super-powered mutants is allegory for the struggle of the outsider. First Class: picks up on this theme, and looks at how the marginalised reconcile assimilation and integrity.

Fassbender and McAvoy give this struggle a great humanity, but the sheer size of the ensemble cast in First Class makes for a film littered with poorly-realised secondary character arcs, and mires the film in a swamp of clunky, condescending exposition.

The action is okay, and there’s a nice cameo from an X-Men franchise mainstay, but ultimately this fails to inspire, despite flashes of brilliance.

X-Men: First Class is currently screening.

REVIEW: Adam Kamien
Rating: ***

PHOTO: Michael Fassbender as Magneto in X-Men: First Class.