X-Men: First Class

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
8/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
8/10

Year released: 2011
Runtime: 135 minutes
IMDB page: here

Always been a fan of the X-Men movies. Unlike a lot of the other superhero movies, X-Men never lost its classic touch and never compromised with boring villains that no one cares about. There's always central conflicts that hit close to home, and the acting is always a joy to watch.

This latest addition to the series is no exception. James McAvoy as Charles Xavier/Professor X and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto have been called "casting triumphs." In addition to the hotness factor, both men exhibit a sensitivity and vulnerability as the two characters meet, work together, understand each other, and then come to realize their goals are not the same even though they both want the best for mutants.

Ah, I kind of take it for granted that everyone is familiar with the gist of X-Men. In a nutshell, there are mutants with superpowers co-existing with normal humans. Humans are fearful (understandably) and try to keep mutants under control. While Professor X's X-Men attempt to counter this by helping humans and making them understand mutants mean no harm, Magneto's Brotherhood tries to destroy humans to make way for mutants, the next step of human evolution, as Magneto sees it.

This movie explores the two men's initial encounter and their subsequent cooperation to help avert the Cuban Missile Crisis, an incident led on by the manipulation of one Sebastian Shaw, a mutant from whom Magneto inherits his views on the mutant-human relationship.

The only question I may have on the movie is .... WTF is Kevin Bacon doing in an X-Men movie? He can have the creepiness factor, but you really don't think of him as the evil mastermind type. He does pretty well in the movie, but just seeing him in one of the opening scenes threw me off.

The soundtrack is very fitting to the epic nature of the tale. "Love Love" by the British man-band Take That serves as the ending theme. It is currently (08/28/11) being featured on the blog.