X-Men : First Class.

To put it straight forwardly this summers return to the X universe in X-Men: First Class is pretty much what it says on the tin. First Class.

This time around we're back in the '60s as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms and Charles Xavier is taking the first steps to creating his superhero team alongside his friend and ally Eric Lehnsherr. As from here it's very much the tale of how these two men who inspire others differ in their worldview and end up on opposing sides.

Both James McAvoy and Micheal Fassbender excels as Charles and Eric respectively. The first making Charles a cheery good hearted man (prone to a bit of partying) put into a position where he has to learn to lead and show the way whilst Fassbender's Eric is a bristling presence of anger, power and determination.

Backing them up is a decent cast (with extra points for having Micheal Ironside in it!) although with the number of characters floating around some of them don't get a lot to do. Standouts are Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique and Nicholas Hoult as Hank (aka Beast). It's their relationship and interactions with the lead pair that helps illustrate how people end up on either side of the equation.

In fact Eric's distrust of humanity is served well and it's almost his film in this respect as he struggles to be the man Charles believes he can be before being the man (villain of the piece) Sebastian Shaw as made him. A line of his late in the film is particularly telling "I'm been at the mercy of good men under orders before. Never again".

If there is one area where the film is weakest it is probably in it's villains. Kevin Bacon is nice and smarmy as Shaw but never really feels too threatening whilst his gang are basically characterless beyond January Jones' Emma Frost and even then her main characteristic appears to be her wardrobe (or rather lack of it)

Director Matthew Vaughn fresh off making a satire of comic book films here (and with the guiding hand of Bryan Singer) takes relish in making a real one and does a fine job of balancing the character driven drama (although one or two moments in the script are a little heavy handed) with bursts of comedy (including a smart little cameo) and the inevitable mutant power driven set pieces, with Eric pulling a submarine from the sea a standout moment.

There is also a dark edge running through the film which gives it something extra from Eric's early Nazi hunting (with a scene appropriately reminiscent of Inglorious Basterds) to a standout disturbing moment as Eric gets his vengeance through the unexpected death of one of the class.

And it's all draped in a wonderful '60s vibe that echoes the Bond franchise in it's prime with chic costuming and set design really giving a sense of time and place. Vaughn even takes it further by using edits and wipes reminiscent of 60's cinema during a couple of montage sequences.



For those concerned about continuity it all pretty much fits with the existing films and the one or two reworkings aren't major (and certainly no worse than those seen in the source material itself)

It won't surprise anyone to learn that things are left in place of another outing with this new generation of mutants and I for one do hope we see it, more so if they can make the same type of jump up in scale and quality as made between the first two films.

This may well be the best of the tentpole pictures this summer and certainly is up with the first two X-Men films in terms of quality and entertainment. Highly recommended.