X-Men: First Class

Movie Title--  X-Men: First Class

Release Year--  2011

Running Time--  2 Hours and 12 Minutes

Director--  Matthew Vaughn

Cast--  James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Alex Gonzalez, Jason Flemyng, Zoe Kravitz, January Jones, Nicholas Hoult, Caleb Landry Jones, Edi Gathegi. Lucas Till, Bill Milner, Laurence Belcher, Morgan Lily, Glenn Morshower

In 1962, a group of mutants are recruited to work for the United States Government to stop a fellow mutant from starting World War III.

In Poland, Nazi Germany scientist Dr. Klaus Schmidt (Kevin Bacon) is observing a young prisoner, Erik Lensherr (Bill Milner), destroy a metal gate with his mind after being separated from his mother in a German camp in 1944.  Erik is then brought to Schmidt's office and Schmidt asks the boy to move a coin off the desk.  When Erik tries but can't, Schmidt calls for Erik's mother to be brought in.  He tells Erik that if he doesn't move the coin by the time he gets to three, he is going to shoot his mother.  When Erik fails, Schmidt kills his mother.  Erik's grief and rage unlock his magnetic powers which causes him to kill two guards and destroy the room.  

Meanwhile in Westchester County, New York, Charles Xavier (Laurence Blecher) a child telepath goes into his kitchen to find his mother there.  When she asks him if she wants her to make him something, he questions who she is, saying his mother has never set foot in the kitchen before.  She then tells him her name is Raven (Morgan Lily) and shape shifts into her normal self; a little girl with  scaly blue skin.  He is filled with joy when he sees someone who is "different" like him and invites her to stay in the mansion as his sister.  

Eighteen years later, Erick Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) is tracking down Schmidt while Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is graduating from Oxford with a thesis about gene mutation.  At the same time in Las Vegas, CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) goes undercover and follows Colonel Hendry (Glenn Morshower) into the Hellfire Club.  Once inside she sees Hendry with Dr. Schmidt now going by the alias Sebastian Shaw and three mutants; Telepath Emma Frost (January  Jones), cyclone creator Riptide (Alex Gonzalez) and teleporter  Azazel (Jason Flemyng).  Shaw threatens Hendry and then makes Azazel teleport him to the War Room where Hendry votes for the deployment of nuclear missiles in Turkey.

MacTaggert goes to get advice from Charles on mutation.  She takes Charles and  Raven back to the CIA and they convince the director John McCone that mutants exist and that Shaw is a threat to the world.  A different CIA officer sponsors the mutants and they create the "Division X" facility, a secret group that would work for the government made up of mutants.  Charles and MacTaggert find Shaw and at the same time find Erik attacking him.  Erik is determined to take Shaw down so to save Erik from drowning, Charles jumps into the water and urges Erik to calm his mind.  Charles then invites Erik to join "Division X".

The group is brought to meet a young scientist named Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hault).  Charles accidentally reveals that Hank is a mutant, he admits that he is and shows the group his prehensile feet.  Seeing Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) he believes that the cure for their appearance can be found in her DNA sequence.  Hank lets Charles use his mutant-locating device, Cerebro, to seek out new recruits to help defeat Shaw.  Together, Charles and Erik recruit Angel Salvadore (Zoe Kravitz), Armando Munoz (Edi Gathegi), Alex Summers (Lucas Till) and Sean Cassidy (Caleb Landry Jones); code names Angel (Angel), Darwin (Armando), Havok (Alex) and Banshee (Sean) and Raven calls herself Mystique.

Using his powers, Charles learns that Shaw is going to meet with a Soviet general in the USSR, so taking Erik with him they go to capture Shaw, only to find that he has sent Emma Frost in his place.  The two capture her and find out that Shaw plans on starting World War III.  

Back at Division X, Azazel, Riptide and Shaw are looking for the mutant and they go on a killing spree.  Shaw invites the young mutants to join him and Angel goes with him.  Knowing it is no longer safe where they were, Charles takes the mutants back to his childhood home to help them to develop their powers so they can try to save the world from Shaw.

This film is just excellent.  I was nervous when I first saw it though because I was a fan of the original X-Men films and I wasn't ready to see those films be pushed to the wayside and started over again from the beginning (as more and more superhero films are these days.  I was very pleasantly surprised by this film.  I am a fan of a great origin story and this counts as a great one.  Instead of focusing on the younger and better known generation (Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey ect) we got to see with fresh eyes where Erik and Charles come from and how exactly their relationship with each other plays out, from rocky to the same side back to opposite sides again.

I think that Fassbender and McAvoy play very well together.  The screen time they share together is very pleasant to watch.  It is a good working relationship without one trying to outshine the other one.  They make the characters of Erik and Charles absolutely believable and throughout the film you can actually sympathize with their plight and you root for them through their ups and encourage them to get back up when they fall.

There is some violence and some bad language but I think this film is a good one for an older family, so teenage kids and older would probably be best.  I say, have an exciting night in with the mutants and Don't Forget the Popcorn!