A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my ecstatic excitement over the forthcoming X-Men : First Class movie, because it combined two of my favorite things-- the X-Men, and dreamy man James McAvoy. So, on my first free afternoon, I headed to the theater...... and I was reminded that, much like chocolate and red wine, loving two things does not necessarily mean you will love them together. I found the movie overwhelmingly disappointing.
One of the better aspects of the previous movies have been a quick build up to the central conflict-- who are we fighting and why, with a healthy dose of tension between fighting other mutants and fighting the humans that hate mutants. Not so in this movie-- half an hour in, I was still wondering why the bad guy was wanted by the CIA. Forty minutes or so, and we finally get to actual conflict that requires cooperation of all the mutants and human.
There are gaping contradictions between the first four movies and this one, the acting was just OK. Kevin Bacon was good, and James McAvoy did a good job, but the character just wasn't Professor X. Their job was not aided by costume and set design that was just plain caracitureish. I frequently had to remind myself that I wasn't watching an Austin Powers movie.
I'm fairly new to X-Men (though of course an old fan of James McAvoy's) and was planning to see this one in theaters, but after all of the negative reviews I've been reading I think I'll skip it. I was also excited to see another performance of Jennifer Lawrence's, as she's playing Katniss in the movie of The Hunger Games, but I'll probably just watch Winter's Bone instead. Sad you didn't like it!
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