Augusta, Kan. — Perhaps it’s misleading to say the best part of “X-Men: First Class” is a cameo appearnace by one of the more popular characters in the series, but it was just so funny that it deserves to be mentioned as such.
When you see the movie, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
Actually, there were several scenes that made “X-Men: First Class” one of the best in the X-Men series and one of the better “superhero” movies in recent years.
As the title suggests, the story is about how the X-Men first joined together as a team. The historical fictitious telling of the Cold War and a different perspective on the Cuban Missile Crisis made for some riveting drama and spectacular action sequences.
These events lead to the X-Men being forced to choose sides. Some of them want to help the humans while others want to turn against them. Suffice to say, the ending sets up the rest of the saga.
The story of Magneto (whose name is Erik Lensherr) and Professor Xavier was the underlying plotline. The two of them cultivate a friendship of sorts when they decide to ban together for the common good. But the motives behind Magnetor’s and Xavier’s actions are very different, and that forces them to cross an uncomfortable bridge that begins the end of their relationship.
Watching the two interact actually added more depth than anything else in the movie. It was a shame there wasn’t more of it, because Xavier (played by James McAvoy) and Magneto (played by Michael Fassbender) complemented each other well. From seeing Xavier teaching Magneto how to control his power by understanding his emotions to watching the two of them fight together and against each other along the way was enjoyable and well executed.
It was very frustrating to see which X-Men were chosen to be in the movie. Not so much because they weren’t cool, but because some of them weren’t actually the first X-Men in the comics. Sure, that’s just semantics, but still. The door is sort of left open for another installment, but they’d be better off continuing storylines from the other movies, particularly “X-Men: Origins”.
While there were some unrealistic stunts, even for an X-Men movie, the action scenes were top notch. Kevin Bacon (yes, you read that right) plays a great Sebastian Shaw, the movie’s protagonist who uses his powers to pit countries against each other as part of his evil grand master plan. His sidekick Emma Frost, who had some inexplicable powers, proves to be quite the foe, as well.
The movie had great sound and special effects that have come to be expected with these movies. Overall, it was directed nicely and dabbled enough into the characters to satisfy. It’ll be interesting to see where the saga goes from here.

Edited by Carmeline A.