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Movie Review: X-Men: First Class

    Hey everyone. Well, it is first class, in more ways than one. Call it 5 stars out of 5, call it two thumbs up and waving around like a sub out of water. Call it whatever you like, but don't call it one you didn't see. X-Men: First Class is one of those films that leave you walking out while doing addition. "Let me see. On rare occasions you find a film with wonderful special effects and it will make $400,000,000. Then you might find another flick that has a great storyline which is well acted. It will make $400,000,000. Finally, you find that movie which has all that, perhaps 10-15 times in a decade, and it makes big dinero. I think this blockbuster may net a billion dollars worldwide.
    Yeah, it's that good. Yeah, it's better than Thor. Here's the recipe. The year is 1962 and the cold war is at its height.  The Soviets are in the process of installing missiles in Cuba. As a guy who lived through this time as a young boy and remembers seeing older folks scared to death, this plot hit home.
    This is the prequel to the other X-Men shows. There are flashbacks at the front of it that go back to a young Magneto as a teenager at a concentration camp in Poland. The wicked Sebastian Shaw, well-played by Kevin Bacon, knows the lad has mutant powers and brings out those abilities in a truly diabolical way. It solves a riddle about a macabre souvenir which Magneto carries in his pocket. More on that later.
    While this lad is a P.O.W. Charles Xavier is fortunate enough to be born to wealth. He becomes a very young professor and comes to the attention of the CIA due to his knowledge of mutations. We are back to 1962 now, by the way. Sebastion Shaw, himself a mutant, wants to start a nuclear war so he can harvest a wonderful crop of newly mutated humans. (Kevin Bacon plays a crazy guy really well, as you know.) Xavier, wonderfully portrayed by James McAvoy, unites with Erik Lensherr (Magneto) to stop Shaw. Magneto, played by Michael Fassbender, signs on, just for the opportunity to kill Shaw. Will he succeed? Well, sometimes the flip of a coin determines one's destiny.
     My son said once, "The greatest part of comics and movies about superheroes are the origins." I thought of this today as we discovered the secret powers of a bunch of mutants in this film. It was great fun. We also learned about the complicated friend/enemy relationship between Professor X and Magneto. We learn how the professor came to be in a wheelchair. We learn how a blue-skinned lady with scales could look so fine (Raven/Mystique/Jennifer Lawrence) and how January Jones can look so chilling and so hot in white. (Emma Frost in the show)
    If you think you saw the bulk of the special effects in the previews when Magneto pulls that sub out of the water, think again. True, the climactic ending off the coast of Cuba is very impressive, but this movie is crammed full of eye candy. Speaking of impressive looks, how about Zoe Kravitch in black? Wow! She plays Angel Salvadore, a mutant with wings who chooses the dark side and Magneto.
     We see in this film the birth of the X-Men. We see the birth of The Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants. We see character development as is rarely seen in a sci-fi flick. We see a host of terrific young actors at the peak of their game. We see a movie franchise come back from its ashes and raise the genre to new heights. We forget about high gas prices and bills and e-pub and global warming. We become just like that kid we were back in the day. When he picked peaches and delivered papers for enough money to subscribe to X-Men. 'Nuff said.
    From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

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