X-Men: First Class [DVD]

Continuing on from  X-Men Origins: Wolverine [DVD ] in telling the back story of how characters in the  X-Men [DVD] [2000 ] got to the point where they were at the start of that one, it's now time for the story of everyone who isn't Wolverine.We thus start with the concentration camp scene from the beginning of x men, but played from a different angle. As a nazi who has a slightly different bunch of eugenics theories to his comrades takes an interest in the abilities of young eric.Meantime in a big house in america young charles xavier and a young girl both find that they're not as alone in life as they thought.Flash forward to the 1960s and a hirsute charles is on the verge of a professorship, thanks to his theories about evolution. Telepathy comes in very handy when youre trying to chat up the ladies.Eric is all grown up and on mission to get revenge on those who did for his parents.CIA agent Moira Mctaggart, a lone lady agent amongst men who think women should stay in the typing pool, is fighting hard to do her job and be taken seriously.A certain nazi hasn't gone away. And has his own plans for the future of the planet.And the Russians aren't taking kindly to nato putting missles into turkey.A missile crisis is upon us. With hidden forces pulling strings behind the scenes, it might be up to charles and his band of special people to save the day. But not everyone may agree on the way to do that. Or think that humanity is worth saving.This doesn't have as much exposition to get through as Wolverine did, although it does have to introduce a lot of characters and get them to a certain point. Plus be a good blockbuster at the same time. And throw in the usual moral debates about whether erik or charles has the best approach to the mutants v humanity situation.It does all that it needs to do very well. James Mcavoy does command the screen very well as the young charles, making him a calm but commanding presence. And he plays off Michael Fassbender - barely suppressed anger throughout - superbly. All the claims that the latter might be a good james bond would, on the basis of this, appear to be justified.A long film at 132 minutes but after a little while you will find it commanding your attention. If offers x men characters who both have and haven't been seen on the big screen before. And the final action set piece is one of those that does seem to go and on and yet in this case it doesn't feel stretched. It plays out exactly as it should. It also manages an excellent aerial combat scene that hardly has to resort to superimposiiton.Kevin Bacon makes a superb villain. Some of the female characters don't quite make as much of an impact as most of the males. But that's the 1960's for you. It is also very good as a period piece. And the burgeoning attraction between shy science guy hank mccoy and mystique is delightfully and quite touchingly played.There is one delightful surprise to be had about a third of the way through. You'll know what I mean when you see it.But for once in a marvel movie there are no extra scene during or after the end credits.Matthew Vaughn this finally gets to direct an x men movie. And he did a really good job.The dvd has the following language and subtitle options:Languages: English.Subtitles: English.English audio descriptive.It has a digital copy that can be downloaded to other media allowing you to watch it wherever you like. A short piece about this at the start of the disc can be skipped via the next button on the dvd remote.The only extras are five extended scenes. Four from the training moments in the middle of the movie and one character scene. All run a little over a minute each and can be watched on their own or all in a row.

The movie itself may not be perfect, it certainly has some great strengths, mainly the quality of acting we get from James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender who between them can take this franchise forward to hopefully new heights. I think the thing which stop's it from being as good as it could be was the decision to not reboot the series. Not to say that they should be rebooting a series which is hardly old at all, in a way it's good that they want to make everything fit in together with the later films but there it also stops this new series from doing whatever it wants. Personally the one thing I think most non hardcore fans would find dissapointing is the mutants, apart from the McAvoy, Fassbender and perhapss Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique and January Jones's (awful) Emma Frost there is very little chance of casual fans recognizing any of the X-Men. The fact is they used most of the good ones in the original series, so other than a few whose characters makes it possible for them to be around in the 60's when the movie is set, it means we won't get another chance to see the most popular mutants done again. In particular I'm thinking about the shoddy treatment Cyclop's got in the first 3 movie's, had this been a true reboot then they would have had a chance to make him a far more interesting character.The film is still very good though and is probably the best X-Men film yet, just narrowly better than X-2. The most important thing about the X-Men series in comparison to other comic book films is that the people with powers were born differently and didnt gain them from an accident with a radioactive spider or something. The conflict in the film between wanting to fit in and be accepted or to not fit in and be proud of what makes you different was lost a little towards the end of the last trilogy (not to mention the terrible Wolverine film) but it becomes the focus in this film again. For me that's what the X-Men have always been about and it makes them far more relatable than most other superheroes, not in that there are a ton of us running around with bone claws but the whole idea of having to fit in or not to when you're different. You don''t need to have super powers to understand that.The Blu-Ray edition of the film is absolutely incredible. I'm struggling to think of a better quality Blu-Ray I've seen lately, the picture is absolutely perfect, the sound is great and you get it on DVD too if you ever feel like not watching it in the amazing Blu Ray quality.Overall definitely recommended and I'm looking forward to seeing where they go with next year's sequel.

A 4K GEM, with its awesome array of visual excellence/special-effects that are hugely enhanced by the 4k upgrade.The story starts in 1944 when young Jew Erik Lehnherr (young played by Bill Milner later on by Michael Fassbender) is seen by Auschwitz Nazi Officer Klaus Schmidt later Sebastian Shaw played by Kevin Bacon bend fencing when separated at the camp from his mother.The Officer himself a mutant challenges Erik to move a coin on his desk using the powers he'd witnessed by holding a gun directed at Erik's mother who had been brought to the Nazi's office, when Erik fails Klaus kills Erik's mum.Erik will spend the next 18 years planning revenge.Meanwhile, we are introduced to a young Charles Xavier (young played by Laurence Belcher older by James McAvoy) who meets young shape-shifter Raven (young Morgan Lily older Jennifer Lawrence) Charles adopts young Raven as his foster-sister because she also has powers as has he.Some years on, Charles and Erik will become close friends after Erik is persuaded to give-up an underwater chase of 'now' Shaw in a submarine which in effect saves Erik's life.Shaw is stirring up trouble threatening nuclear war between Russia and the U.S, though mutants are not accepted by the 'human's' Charles and Erik supported by young mutant recruits will try to avert disaster.However, when the threat is quelled, Erik and Charles want different things, Charles wants to try and build an understanding with the so-called humans, whilst Erik wants conflict with them, the two with those among the young mutants that will follow go their separate ways.A superb watch, telling of how it all began, even better than I remember it to be when viewed a while ago.Worth another look especially on the 4K format