X-Men: First Class

After eleven short years and five cash-guzzling hit movies, the timeline of the "X-Men" franchise is well and truly knackered. Questionable continuity issues run amuck throughout the series started by director Bryan Singer as it tries to juggle a boatload of characters taken from the Marvel source material, sometimes clumsily dropping them and not knowing where to put them back again. Just like the cringe-worthy embarrassment that was Gavin Hood's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" of 2009, Matthew Vaughn's "X-Men: First Class" has taken a vast number of creative liberties, the continuity now beaten to a bloody pulp. But out of this has come a film with a story that is as captivating and fascinating as any other; narrative cohesion takes a few steps back for inspired filmmaking to take centre stage.

As the title suggests, "First Class" is the prequel to the original trilogy, telling the story of how the first set of X-Men came to be. It also explains the back-story of the relationship between Professor X and Magneto, an aspect of the previous films that was always clouded in mystery and intrigue. And by golly, is it intriguing here.

The film starts with a reshoot of the 1944 Poland-set opening scene of 2000's "X-Men," which may cause some to think the projectionist is playing the wrong film, but no, it's a lovely call-back to Singer's original. Young Erik Lensherr (16-year-old Bill Milner) is being separated from his mother by Nazi soldiers, angering the small boy so much he manages to twist and disfigure metal gates using only his mind. Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon, "Super") becomes interested in the metal-manipulator, and proceeds to cruelly experiment on him, callously killing Erik's mother in the process.

And then we're in 1960s England, where Oxford-graduating psychic mind-invader Charles Xavier (James McAvoy, "Atonement") has written a thesis on genetic mutation, a topic on which he is a genius. He is rarely seen without insecure shape-shifter Raven Darkholme (Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone") nearby, the two having been close friends ever since Raven broke into his mansion when they were both kids.

Charles and Erik soon cross paths when they coincidentally both go after Shaw at the same time. Charles is now helping the CIA after Agent Moira MacTaggart (Rose Byrne, "Insidious") seeks his help in tracking down Shaw, who is wickedly trying to spark World War III. Erik (now played by Michael Fassbender, "Inglourious Basterds") has angrily but carefully been out to avenge his mother's death and has finally been able to discover Shaw's location. The simultaneous attempts at taking Shaw down fail miserably (it turns out he and his buddies are rather powerful mutants), but it is through this that Erik and Charles meet for the very first time.

Soon enough, the two new best buds begin assembling a team of mutants together, using the device Cerebro to locate these extremely gifted individuals. As they train and develop their unique powers, America and Russia are on the verge of nuclear war, the world soon requiring the assistance of the shiny new team to obliterate Shaw and his loyal gang.

I take little hesitation in calling "X-Men: First Class" a masterpiece, the film now taking its place amongst the very best of its kind; yes, I'm looking at you, "The Dark Knight." This is a movie that gets every tiny little aspect of itself absolutely right, every single scene utterly jaw-dropping, leaving an incredibly miniscule amount of things to falter; even the shaky make-up jobs on Beast (Nicholas Hoult, "About a Boy") and Mystique look fine once one gets used to them.

This is a superhero blockbuster that pays close attention to its characters, to their emotions and to the drama at the centre of the plot. We have the revenge aspect, as Erik tries to do his departed mother justice by killing Shaw. There's Charles' attempts at making Erik see that vengeance will solve nothing, as a stubborn Erik fails to listen. There's also the slightest hint of a romance between Mystique and Beast, two young adults who have to hide their true forms to fit in with the rest of society. These are all very heartfelt storylines that interweave with each other perfectly to really emphasise these characters as people who we learn to care for. Amongst all the spectacle, it's the human (or mutant) touch that really makes this movie special, lifting it high above many others of the genre.

But the spectacle is still here, the film showing off some nifty special effects as our mutants battle it out for survival and show off their astonishing abilities. Amongst these freaks of nature are Havok (Lucas Till, "Battle: Los Angeles"), who can blast rays of energy from his chest; Angel (Zoë Kravitz, "It's Kind of a Funny Story"), who has insect wings attached to her back; Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones, "The Last Exorcism"), who can scream a hypersonic squeal; and Darwin (Edi Gathegi, "Twilight"), whose body can adapt to survive any situation he is in. And on the villain's side, Shaw has the ability to absorb all forms of energy (the more you hit him, the stronger he gets), Emma Frost (January Jones, "Mad Men") can read minds and turn her whole body into pure diamond, red-skinned Azazel (Jason Flemyng, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") can teleport, and Riptide (newcomer Álex González) can create tornados in the blink of an eye. Phew!

Their powers are all displayed in full force in the 20-minute epic finale, a big battle scene that is utterly stunning and exhilarating as objects explode and crash and go boom (well, I don‘t want to give too much away). There's also a scene in which Shaw breaks into the young mutants' lair, slaughtering bodyguards one by one along with Azazel and Riptide, a sequence that is nothing short of awe-inspiring. English director Matthew Vaughn of "Kick-Ass" fame shows yet again a speciality for scenes of the action-packed persuasion, giving us a more than satisfying extravaganza of blockbuster thrills.

While McAvoy is a wonderful Professor X, the Scottish actor playing Xavier as this charming egghead (who downs a yard of ale in a pub in one scene), it is Fassbender who steals the show as Erik, aka Magneto. There's a mesmerising sternness to his performance, giving this character a steely-eyed determination that's both intimidating but sympathetic at the same time. You know this character is out for revenge and that his actions are extreme, but you also know that the man he's after is pure evil (Bacon is fabulously menacing, and his sideburns are magical). His portrayal is intensely engaging, actually making me well up at one point when Charles taps into Erik's head and reawakens an old memory of Erik's mother for him. Shut up, I have something in my eye. Okay, it's a tear. Gimme a damn tissue.

"X-Men: First Class" flawlessly breathes new life into a dying franchise, making for a refreshingly intelligent comic book superhero flick, and what I see as the best in the series thus far (yes, even better than the masterful "X2"). Mixing in some aspects of James Bond with spectacular special-effects action, "First Class" is a monumental achievement, and the kind of blockbuster entertainment that we depressingly do not get enough of. I never thought I'd say this, but I want more "X-Men" sequels. Now.

10/10