For the record, when two guys fly all over the country to speak with teenagers, stripper teenagers, about joining a secret club that should raise some alarms. I mean, there’s got to be a limit to the weird that Professor X’s powers and the CIA can compensate for before some parent down the road catches wise and calls the police.
Despite these occasional oversights, X-Men: First Class is rather excellent. I can see why some people are upset, the treatment of a few of the canonical characters is a bit abusive in it’s treatment of the timeline. A Havok who’s old enough to be Cyclops’ father is a good example. But as a movie about super-powered people rubbing each other the wrong way, it’s really spectacular. The pacing is excellent and the full on mutant mammajam toward the end of the film is engaging, well-planned, and actually moves the story along.
Part of that story is a more than occasional focus on how Mystique went from a shy but well-meaning young mutant to the human wrecking-ball we met in the two other X-Men movies that count. As a fan of the comics, it’s refreshing to share some of the sympathy the character has built up in print with the movie-going audience. It’s like when a family member gets married and you get to fill a new in-law in on their spouse’s embarrassing stories.
So brilliant action in harmony with a good story. Go see it, and maybe they will make more.
Ja.