Classy entertainment

As mainstream scriptwriters run out of original concepts (er, love retro narratives) and Hollywood retreats to old mainstays in an uncertain economy, origin movies, especially of superheroes, are all the rage. Arguably, Christopher Nolan is to blame for making the polished and highly successful Batman Begins but some retreads are threadbare.
X-Men: First Class seems to be one of the better of its kind, with many characters undergoing personal journeys (some shorter than others admittedly). As much as the movie is about the burgeoning relationship that fractures between Charles Xavier and Eirk Lehnsherr, it is also about the emotional journey of Raven who becomes Mystique. Jennifer Lawrence, who plays her, continues her good work that she did in Winter’s Bone (from what I’ve heard) allied with being explosively exquisite in her beauty, maybe drawn as such in order to provide a greater contrast with her blue ‘natural’ self (interestingly, we know from X Men: The Final Stand that blonde stunner is not her form were she human, but if you’re a shape-shifter, why not go for the best possible – she is a magnet to the eye in every scene, eclipsing Greatchester House, Xavier’s base).
Being the 1960s, the fashion enhances the characteristics of all the woman present (ugly woman seem not to have existed back then). Very close behind Lawrence, is January Jones’ Emma Frost who as a very sexy White Queen could quite easily pass as Barbarella’s villainous sister. Ms Jones has developed a habit of portraying villainesses in films after her turn in Identity, probably satisfying her range after being in Mad Men. Zoe Kravitz as Angel completes the trio of pretty mutants, with sterling support from Rose Byrne as the sympathetic CIA spook, Moira.
Michael Fassbender is a credible, beguiling Magneto as the anguished and vengeful Lehnsherr becomes. Lean and handsome, he beguiles before unleashing his ferocious fury. He is unusually multi-lingual, speaking at least four languages in German, French, Spanish and English, though he wasn’t born in an English-speaking country, so maybe that shouldn’t be a shock. James MacAvoy said he wanted to channel Patrick Stewart in his role and rare is the time you think ‘that’s James McAvoy’ instead of Charles Xavier. Kevin Bacon (after American Dad, he really does have a distinctive nose) has terrific fun as the chief baddie, Sebastian Shaw, a callous, manipulative monster who is not a little psychotic. Given that his mutation has stopped his outward ageing and his penchant for starting World War III, you wonder - through the prism of the Marvel universe – how long he has been around (indeed, what was his role in World Wars One and Two). Shaw talks about he and all mutants are ‘children of the atom’ – though Xavier, Raven and Lehnsherr seem to disprove his theory. Both sides have mutant compatriots, which means you don’t know which of these lesser-known mutants will survive (apart from Hank McCoy natch), though one who doesn’t join either is a smart, uncredited cameo by Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, who also gets to say the one f-word permitted by the rating given the film.
The historical setting in 1944 and 1962 adds extra interest to the proceedings, although the Poles may object to the location of a concentration/extermination camp as simply ‘Poland’ rather than with a qualifier such as ‘Nazi-occupied Poland’ – it is a sore point for people of that country to be lumped together with the atrocities. Even though Philip Larkin jocularly declaimed that sex wasn’t invented until 1963 (after the Profumo scandal), one gets a feel for the boundless opportunities and promise of that decade, before it turned sour from the 1970s. You can feel the freshness of the times. There is also tribute to Ken Adam with his design for the War Room in Dr Strangelove that I found most pleasing.
In the background is the Hans Zimmerish music as walls of sound whiz towards the ears, crashing like tides before building up again. Some think this is bombastic but I like it (cf. Gladiator, Enigma, etc.). I notice from the credits that Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men movies, is on board as producer. X2 is commonly agreed to be the best of the original trilogy, but I would say that this tops it in style alone. It is not a masterpiece but it is very good. They probably should leave the story ending where it did, but Hollywood being Hollywood, they will continue to flog it until the well runs dry.