For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Hope that's OK.
Read on!
The
Breakdown - X-Men: First Class
The Impression:
The awesome Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, KICK ASS)
takes a swing at reinvigorating the X-Men franchise with a
prequel that no one asked for.
The Reality:
The movie is good. However, how "good" you'll think it
is will be based on what your nerd-love level is for all
things X-Men. Mine is probably a 7 out of 10, which
means I never really read the comics, but I liked the movies
(with the exception of the Brett Ratner-tainted third entry)
and the cartoon was one of my favorites as a kid.
Vaughn's film, however, requires you to be at a full 10 of
10 on that particular scale. It's not nearly as
accessible as Singer/Ratner's entries, and you have to be
ready for a full-on geek ride that will explain every little
bit of detail that filled the previous X-Men trilogy.
Want to know where certain characters got their nicknames?
Or where Magneto's helmet came from? Or how Professor
X ended up in a wheelchair? Done! And yes,
before you ask, that means the flick is a bit heavy on the
exposition and somewhat light on the action.
Fortunately, none of that is anywhere close to being a deal
killer. In fact, I highly recommend seeing the movie
this weekend. Just be aware that it's as pure of a
prequel as can be, so there's a lot of dialogue and nerd
happenings that you'll HAVE to buy into in order to fully
enjoy the X-Men geek-fest that Vaughn has created.
The Lesson:
Origin stories are still cool when done by the right people.
- John Laird
-
Unless
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by
John Laird under a
Creative Commons License.
