"X-Men: First Class"

     During the Cold War a U.S. government agent, named Moira MacTaggert, believes that a group known as the Hellfire Club, headed by the enigmatic Sebastian Shaw, is trying to start World War III by heightening the tensions between Russia and the U.S. Unbeknown to the world, the Hellfire Club is actually a group of mutants intent on destroying the lesser evolved humans. In order to combat this threat the government employs the help of Charles Xavier, a powerful mutant who can control the mind, to assemble a team with which to combat this new evil. Along the way, Charles comes across Erik Lensherr, another powerful mutant with the power to control metal, who seeks revenge against Shaw for war crimes committed against him and his family. In a race against time ,this new team must learn to work together or else all will be lost, and the world will fall to ruin.

      Directed by Mathew Vaughn this film stars James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr, Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw, Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique, Rose Bryne as Moira MacTaggert, Nicholas Hoult as Hank/Beast, and January Jones as Emma Frost. This film finally got the X-Men franchise back on track, and with X-Men: Days of Future Past shaping up to be one of the best X-Men movies to date, I feel like people might actually forget about X-Men: The Last Stand....

     I love this movie. X-Men has always been one of my favorite Marvel franchises, but after all the fun and exciting but mediocre X-Men spin-off films, I was left hoping for a new start. And this film did exactly that. To me this was a great origin story with a great new cast. Just think, this movie came out before Jennifer Lawrence became a household name for her role in The Hunger Games. I think they did a great job with picking the storyline too. I love how in the X-Men series they are dealing with real life matters and actual historical events, but in an unreal and fantastical way.

     Something else I love about X-Men is the character are easy to relate too, because they aren't the perfect cookie cutter superheros. I mean besides the mutant abilities, they are not that much different than us. That is what I feel Stan Lee and the team at Marvel really wanted to put in their comics and movies was the fact that just because somebody is different in looks, abilities, lifestyle, ect....... doesn't mean they are any less human, or they require any less love and acceptance that we all long for. The comics and movies portray the fear and hatred we as a race have towards anything that is not "like us." Just look through some history books to find this exact fear and hatred towards things that are different littered throughout time. Now just like Magneto, some of those who aren't accepted turn to more violent ways to gain security and freedom, but still some are more like Professor X in that even through persecution and hardship they rise above all of it and still try to be kind and compassionate to the ones who reject them.

     Rant over! I would rate this film a 9 out 10! Make sure you check out my X-Men: Days of Future Past review that I will post tomorrow sometime! Follow me on Twitter and share my blog with all your peeps!

Peace,
Jake