One of my favorite movies of 2010 was the anti-heroic superhero movie, KICK ASS, which was written and directed by the same team – Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman – who went on to X-MEN: FIRST CLASS.
What I loved about KICK ASS was that the story was told from an ordinary teen’s POV. You may have a keen sense of justice, but what if you don’t have any superpowers? As one of the teaser posters proclaimed: I can’t see through walls but I can still kick your ass. It was a refreshing sneer at bloated, self-important super hero movies that ny reason of their franchises and marketing budgets are too big to fail.
How disappointing it is to see the Vaughn/Goldman team turn in X MEN: FIRST CLASS which is… a bloated, self-important super hero movie. Early X-MEN movies milked mutant alienation as teen alienation very well, but FIRST CLASS whips through an origin story at such a breakneck speed that the audience can barely savor a moment. 
Can’t fault the excellent cast with Scottish actor James McAvoy doing a very light imitation of Patrick Stewartisms (he’s not as heavy handed as Ewan McGregor’s version of Alex Guinness’ Obi Wan Kenobi). Michael Fassbender, as the young Magneto, wonderfully personalizes the beginnings of an arch rival – not foe. And the ageless Kevin Bacon becomes an interesting focal point as the evil Nazi doctor who experiments on mutants.
All the ingredients are there, but FIRST CLASS races from WW2 to the Cuban Missile Crisis with a couple of nudge-nudge-wink-wink cameos for some continuity with the earlier X-MEN movies. It’s all fast food Cliff Notes to the glorious history of the X-MEN, checking off every box as we go
Official X-Men First Class website: http://www.x-menfirstclassmovie.com/
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