First in Class

During my family's holiday in Philippines, we spared our time to watch some movies that aren't being released in Indonesia. One of them is X-Men: First Class directed by Matthew Vaughn of Kick Ass fame and starring James McAvoy (to me his most memorable role isn't the loser in Wanted but as the Tumnus faun in Narnia) and Michael Fassbender (Lt. Archie Hicox of Inglourious Basterds). The other supporting casts are also promising: Kevin Bacon (Hollowman), January Jones (Mad Men), Jason Flemyng (Benjamin Button's dad), Rose Byrne (remember Troy? no? Insidious then) and also Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence. There's also Lucas Till, Taylor Swift's boy in her VMA-winning-Kanye-West-interrupted music video. That's what you call promising.

The other title for this film must be X-Men Origins: Professor X & Magneto because this is the story of their origins. The story begins with young Erik/Magneto in a Nazi concentration camp, so similar to the original X-Men, the one where he moved the metal gates. This time, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) saw that event. Don't want to spoil the fun, fast forward to a couple years later, Erik (Michael Fassbender) went on a hunt for Shaw to France, Argentina until he end up at US. Meanwhile, Charles (McAvoy) was asked for help by CIA agent Moira McTaggert (Byrne) to help her investigate a mutant problem dealing with Shaw. Then, Erik and Charles met in an event and aided by the secret CIA facility, search for other mutants using beta Cerebro, a device which proved to be useful and dangerous later. They found a group of mutants and with this small army, trying to battle Shaw's even smaller, but more skilled mutants including the telepath Emma Frost, teleporting-red-skinned-version-Nightcrawler Azazel, and also the mute Riptide at the staged US vs Soviets nuclear war.

One word for this movie: amazing. The best X-Men movie so far. Especially Michael Fassbender. He stole every minute with his performance. The Argentinian bar scene is just so cool (knife/hand/stomach/hand! ignore this). He's menacing, human, cold and cool at the same time. That persona can't be matched by James McAvoy, but still Professor X's bigger role in this movie helped him a lot. Unlike in the original trilogy where the professor would only be preaching, teaching and sometimes used. The other members is just amazing as well. The effects are top class. The idea of combining history with X-Men universe is incredible. The only shame is that the X-Men movies are way to connected. There's Moira in X-Men: The Last Stand and she doesn't seem to age. Mystique/Raven also have something wrong with her age in later films. There's also Emma Frost but in different transformation in X-Men Origins, or maybe it's best if we just forget Origins. Nevertheless, as a stand alone this is the best superhero film of the year, and maybe the best of the summer. Just one wish: no sequels to this please. X-Men: First Class: rated A.

here's one of the coolest scene from X-Men: First Class