The second time around and it's still a five star spectacular...

Prequels are tricky beasts to master. There’s the before-they-were-famous option – as taken by Death Race – which runs the risk of kicking up a storm by trampling all over the fondly-remembered original, or there’s the ‘origin story’ route, whereby the audience is presented with a pre-determined ending and have to be kept entertained until they reach it – as seen in Batman Begins with its fledgling rogues’ gallery.

Either option is, of course, a risky gambit [I swear that’s the last X-Men character I shoe-horn into this review] and with a colossus [okay, that’s the last one] of a series like X-Men, it makes things all the more tricky.  The X-Men film released in 2000 was good fun – a fine superhero jaunt packed with whizzes and bangs which did exactly what it said on the tin. Sadly, this was the high point in the trilogy. 2003’s X2 was strained at best, while X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) was a ropey mess of colours, noises and pouting, due in part to the nightmarish production it suffered.

It way my inclination, therefore, to be extremely wary of X-Men: First Class, in much the same way as a diner - whose waiter had brought fois gras to start, a microwaved burger as a main and a brutal stabbing for dessert - would be wary of accepting a glass of port. Thankfully, to stretch this horrendous analogy beyond its breaking-point, X-Men: First Class has a good nose, rich, fruity undertones and a strong body, rather than being a lead mug full of engine oil, broken glass and horse blood.

This time around, Bryan Singer has taken the role of producer, with Matthew Vaughn as director and Jane Goldman as screenwriter (a creative pairing which brought us both Stardust and Kick Ass); as a result, X-Men: First Class feels like a very different film to those that have come before it. Set in the 1960s during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the movie chronicles the efforts of the dashing, young (and fully ambulatory) Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) as he unites a disparate band of fresh-faced mutants to ward off nuclear Armageddon, while teaching his moody, troubled companion Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) to channel his rage and grief.

As anyone who’s had even the slightest sniff of X-Men lore will know: things don’t quite go according to plan. We all know that Xavier has a firm faith in the inherent goodness of humanity and that Magneto, warped by the horrors of his youth, is determined to do all he can to avoid a mutant holocaust. These are, by now, a part of our collective consciousness – arguably, they’re the folk stories of our day – so it is obvious how the film is going to end. The fun part, much like watching Bruce Wayne learn to deal with his crippling PTSD by punching petty criminals into a quivering mess, is seeing how it all comes about.

In setting the film in the 1960s (aside from a couple of brief introductory scenes, including one where we see the young Magneto having his powers tested by Kevin Bacon in full-on Nazi-villain mode) Vaughn has a wonderful opportunity to up the sense of camp that suits Marvel so well, without losing any of the adventure and propulsive action that make well-crafted superhero films something really special.

This ‘vintage’ feeling permeates the whole film: from props to sets to gadgets to costumes (including a nifty leather ensemble closer to the original X-Men threads than have been seen in any of the previous films), everything has a wonderful retro aesthetic which suits the escapades of these plucky young mutants incredibly well. The comparisons with Mad Men are, given the sharp suits and slick hair, inevitable, although not completely accurate. X-Men: First Class feels far more like The Avengers or an early Bond film than the tales from the dark and cynical world of Sterling Cooper.

The overall feeling when watching this movie is that of a silver-age comic book, brought up-to-date for modern sensibilities with a nod and a wink. This is all but spelled out during one montage – corny, but incredibly fun – where scenes overlap and burst on to the screen like panels on a page. As a whole, the movie is accessible enough to not overwhelm newcomers to the characters, whilst still feeling like a rich and immersive world. Being an adaptation of a series as long-running as X-Men means, of course, that certain liberties have to be taken with regards to continuity, however there is enough gentle fan-service to pacify all but the most hardened X-Men buff.

Names are dropped and hints are made, although the stand-out moment is unquestionably that one cameo, which had the entire audience in stitches. To give away any more would be a crime, but it’s fair to say that anyone with even a passing interest in X-Men would feel that they’d gotten their money’s worth from that scene alone.

Naturally, there are still kinks, albeit minor ones. Some of the CGI can look rather shabby at times (this is by no means the norm – a lot of the effects are very, very good, but this means that the patchier moments do stand out all the more); the dialogue is occasionally awkward and there are one or two characters who were criminally underused.

That said, these are the only real flaws that I can find with the film. There is some genuinely funny dialogue, the actors all seem to be relishing their parts and the 60s-chic makes it stand out from the crowd of be-costumed do-gooders clamouring for our attention.

Unusually, there was no hidden treat at the end of the credits, which suggested to me that X-Men: First Class was to be a one-off – a brave move on the part of its creators that, I feel, shows great confidence in the work they have produced. However, it appears that a sequel may be in store. I can only hope that the series-to-be doesn’t take the path of its predecessors and begin to change from smart, witty and fun cinema into a lumbering, ugly juggernaut [sorry].

See also:

London Comic Con -- X-Men: First Class panel

Lewis Bazley's earlier X-Men: First Class review

X-Men: First Class Clip: Here!

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