Good Origins with X-Men: First Class

We know the story of the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Or at least, we thought we did. Sure, there were Soviet ships churning along and Americans drawing a line in the Cuban sand. But what was really going on behind the scenes? If you’re been waiting for the blockbuster comic book movie of the summer, it’s here. X-Men: First Class zooms, blows, and levitates into theaters today. This prequel movie to Marvel Comics’ X-Men franchise gives us the back history of our favorite characters and the inside scoop on the showdown in the Caribbean, but it does more than just that. It thoroughly entertains while intriguing us with murky moral quandaries and complex characters.

Two boys grow up in the dark days of World War II. Charles Xavier rides the storm safely in his English mansion. Erik Lehnsherr isn’t so lucky. The Nazi Final Solution sweeps him and his family away in its wake. The two boys have something in common, however: they’re both mutants, the next step on the evolutionary ladder. They have superhuman abilities. For Erik, this becomes his torturous salvation because such abilities are just what Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) has come to the concentration camp to find. His brutal actions form the framework for Erik’s future.

Fast forward to 1962. Charles (James McAvoy) lives with his adopted sister Raven (Jennifer Lawrence). He reads minds and studies human mutation while she can adapt her shape into any form. The Cold War fully in effect, the Soviet Union and America face off in the most serious game of chicken the world has ever seen. The CIA, always alert for the shenanigans of the Russians, stumbles across something even more sinister. A fellow named Shaw has a circle of sinister friends who can do amazing things. He plays the Americans and Russians off each other to his own ends. The CIA quickly recruits Charles and Raven to help stop him.

Erik (Michael Fassbender), meanwhile, travels the world as a self-appointed Nazi hunter. His big quarry, however, is Shaw, the same man who ruined and saved his life during the war. Charles and Erik, united in their common pursuit of Shaw, recruit a team of teen mutants. One flies, one controls sound waves, another sends flaming waves of death from his chest.

They’re pretty cool.

It’s all leading to a confrontation that could kill millions. As Charles and Erik’s friendship grows, the bigger conflict, however, is what the humans will do once they realize they’ve been bypassed by evolution. Will the mutants be the better men and women morally as they are physically? Or will they return evil for the evil the humans presumably will send their way?

If you’re familiar with the X-Men story line, you know the history of this group. One man becomes Dr. X, the upright guru of the X-Men and another becomes Magneto, the conflicted villain. As a treat for fans, there are a few fun cameos. You don’t need to know the history to enjoy the movie, although my friends the Punch Drunk Critics have recorded a podcast to get you up to speed. If you don't have time, that's fine. The flick works just as well for the novice as for the fanboy.

Blockbusters are nothing without effects and this movie does battles and explosions very well, whether it’s cutting a ship in two with its own cable or tossing missiles around like darts.

The early 60s setting provides lots of hip coolness. There’s plenty of martini-swirling in the manner of the trendsetting TV show “Mad Men.” A Cold War storyline is fresh and interesting, even more so because the film avoids blaming the United States and/or warmongers for the conflict. Both Soviet and American soldiers are depicted as honorable and peace-loving. Even the CIA agent comes off looking good.

Rated PG-13, the film has one obscenity and a few shots of partial nudity and mild sexuality. The real problem for kids will be in the darkness of some of the themes. The film opens in a concentration camp with a wrenching scene of separation between parents and child. The fights are intense, although the results of the fighting are not graphic.

The weight of this movie comes from what comic books do best: create conflicted and brooding characters. Comics know that the best rivalries are born of deep friendship and that vengeance is more powerful when an element of love is involved. Rarely is good and evil obvious at the beginning. Each of the X-Men must make a choice. A real threat looms and the choice becomes victory by any means or restraint. As is the case with moral dilemmas, both sides seem reasonable at the time of choosing. In such moments in real life and in comic books, villains and heroes are made. In showing us the origins of the X-Men, the film does an excellent job of setting up such a dilemma.  

Everything in this movie works, from the fun of explosions to the depth of characters. It will work for all audiences except younger children. Both men and women will enjoy it, and both superfans and casual moviegoers will be engaged. In fact, it’s one of the best movies of the year so far. Enjoy!