Day 186: "Beast, never forget: mutant and proud."

It's again becoming rare for a comic book movie to be any good.  X-Men: First Class falls into the excellent group of the genre.  As a sucker for an excellent origin story, First Class provides many origin tales, all very well done.  The story of the first group of mutants collected and organized into groups, both fighting for opposing political and moral ideals, the battle lines for the separation and control of mutant-kind are drawn early.  It is going to be almost impossible to go into any detail regarding story without spoilers tripping off of the tongue willy-nilly, but here goes.  A young Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr are brought together by the United States government in order to recruit and train a team of mutants to work for the U.S. to battle any superhuman threats that may arise.  They are also assembled in a veiled attempt to register them so that the government will be able to keep tabs on the mutants and their abilities.  Eventually the team is sent to stop the machinations of Sebastian Shaw, a former Nazi who himself has devastating mutant powers.  Note that Lehnsherr discovered his powers while in a concentration camp under the control of Shaw.  Like I said, this plot is deep and layered in ways that comic book movies usually are not.  This is the best installment in the franchise.

James McAvoy is Charles Xavier, the man who founds the X-Men proper and sets up the facitlity to properly train them and attempt to integrate them into society.  he does a marvelous job bringing Xavier's idealism and intensity for his cause to the screen.  Michael Fassbender portrays Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto.  His control of Magneto's unadulterated rage and need, yes NEED, for vengeance is remarkable, and goes well beyond the other portrayal of the master of magnetism (sorry Sir Ian, but he blew your performance out of the water.).  Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique, Nicholas Hoult's Beast, and Kevin Bacon as Sebatian Shaw also deserve recognition here for their performances as well.  Especially Bacon, his Shaw was a rendition I had never seen before, and was a brilliant villian.

I highly recommend First Class, especially if the bad taste of The Last Stand is lingering in your minds.  This is a magnificent reboot of a franchise that was going the way of the Adam West Batman series.  See it, relax and soak in all of the goodness and soul of the comic that was sucked out of the previous films.  I had a blast, and you will too.  9/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!