WEEKEND PREVIEW: There are a couple new films I haven’t covered coming out if you live in New York or LA (Beginners, Submarine), but for most of us, it’s just X-Men: First Class (and Tree of Life and Midnight in Paris, but I covered those last week and the week before). But good news, blue titties.
X-Men: First Class: An ungodly combination of prequel, reboot, origin story, and Fox project, but from the director of Kick-Ass.
RottenTomatoes: 88%
Gratuitous Review Quotes:
“The movie feels smarter and more ambitious than many of its brethren, not to mention more thrilling and flat-out fun. The central performances by Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy are unusually nuanced for a superhero flick, somehow vulnerable and badass at the same time. This is how it’s done, folks!” -Eric Snider, Film.com
“The best acting in “X-Men: First Class” is by President John F. Kennedy, who in his Thanksgiving 1962 message to the nation, expresses gratitude for the successful end of the Cuban Missile Crisis while suppressing what he surely must know, that American and Soviet missiles spent a great deal of time flying back and forth while mentally controlled by the awesome powers of mutants.” -Roger Ebert
“I suppose a ridiculous yarn about how a group of superhuman genetic mutants in silly costumes intervene to resolve the 1963 Cuban missile crisis (after starting it in the first place) fits the bill, somewhat. But I’m pretty sure that those who are claiming that “X-Men: First Class” is actually good are engaged in the kind of brainwashed magical thinking that goes along with a culture where the entire media and most of the public have to behave like savvy insiders all the time.” -Salon
I can’t even remember the last time I agreed with Ebert. I enjoy the guy’s writing, but I think I agree with Armond White more than him.
ARMCHAIR ANALYSIS: Well, you already know what I thought of it. Probably more than you ever wanted to. There were some plot holes and it gets major negative points for stealing a dumb subplot from X3, and January Jones had that bitchy, non-facial expression that she always has the entire time, but overall it was pretty entertaining. Best superhero movie since, well, Kick-Ass. Plus Michael Fassbender is dreamy.