X-Men First Class - Spoiler Free

This film hadn't really crossed my radar.  Then I heard an interview with Jane Goldman.  The plot sounded interesting and I'm a sucker for origin tales.  The deal maker though was that Michael Fassbender was in it and to make things even better, so was James McAvoy.  How had the details of this film totally pass me by?

I had heard nothing but good reviews of this before I went to see it.  Both from the critics and the real people whose tastes I trust more.  Before I carry on I must inform you that I've never even been in the same room as an X-Men comic.  My only knowledge of the stories comes from the first 3 films.

This has an impressive and attractive cast.  Most of whom did themselves proud.  I have never been a Rose Byrne fan, I find her a little wooden.  She wasn't a distraction in this.  Though I would have preferred to see someone else in the role.  The film is set off to a great start by the fantastic Bill Milner.  That lad just keeps getting better and better.  He's surely destined to become one of our greats.  I did get a little thrill of pride at the strong Euro-presence on the cast.  I'm assuming this was helped by Vaughn directing.  Fassbender as usual was magnetic to the eyes, no pun intended.  That man fills a screen better than most.  McAvoy was, as uusual, a warm, nice presence on screen.  January Jones was good and looked absolutely gorgeous.  The camera loves that woman.

The youngsters recruited seemed truly out of their depth but mostly matured within the story.  Only one character I felt was a little weak with no real truth to her performance or the actions of the character.  That was Angel.  We were never told what had made the 'baddies' in the film bad.  There was no back story to the villain's henchmen and woman.  I want to know more about some of those.  I'm hoping we get a sequel to this film with some of those answers.  My main question was what made them follow the villain in the first place?  Running time certainly meant that no more could have been squeezed into this film.

There are a couple of great cameos in there.  A nice nod and a wink, without straining to fit them in.  I'm wondering if I missed some as I caught two but one was a blink and you'll miss it.  Towards the end of the film an old favourite of mine appeared as a Naval Captain, I'm sure his presence will please most people who lived through the 80's.  I guess he's kind of a cult hero now. 

I enjoy origin stories, I know that makes me weird.  This is one of the better ones I've seen.  It was certainly helped by the fantastic 60's period atmosphere set up by the sets.  The sets were beautifully stylish.  I wonder if there's a little Mad Men influencing fashions here?  The plot was the fantastical fun that you require from a comic book movie.  There were dark scenes but they were limited.

This has set the bar high for sequels.  It didn't re-write over the previous films which was a good idea.  It paid homage while setting up 30 years worth of stories to tell without damaging either.  I hope there is a sequel, as long as they keep the cast.  This film worked for me because it was well written with a fantastic cast.  The main cast members made the roles their own and I don't want to see anyone else in them.  A sequel will also have already fleshed out most of the back-stories so hopefully we can cut down the running time.  I couldn't tell you what I'd have cut from this story but 2 hours and anything past that is usually too long.  It didn't spoil the experience but I was glad when it finally ended.

4 out of 5 pawprints

Wittertainment Rules of Conduct Score 3/10  For full explanation of these click here.

No Eating - FAIL, stinking, noisy nachos

No Slurping - PASS

No Rustling - FAIL, the entire row behind has rustly sweets

No Irresponsible Parenting - FAIL, a baby that was taken in and out as it wailed, yes it's a 12A

No Hobbies - PASS

No Talking - FAIL, people like to whisper don't they.

No Mobile Phone Usage - FAIL, people must check their phone 10 minutes into the film

No Kicking of Seats - FAIL, not all the way through luckily just every now and then

No Arriving Late - FAIL, no excuse when Cineworld don't start the film until 20 minutes late anyway

No Shoe Removal - PASS

Iron Man 2 - Solid or a flop? (spoiler free)

I wasn't over-excited to see this film.  I thoroughly enjoyed the first one, a fun film with lots of bangs and flashes.  I wasn't sure I wanted to see it all again. I seem to prefer origin movies to their sequels.  I think filmmakers dump all the character exposition into the origin film.  Filling the second with another enemy to provide bigger and better explosions.

I have never been a comic book fan so I'll judge this film as a film that's a sequel to a film.  I know of nothing before the first film.

The cast doesn't bring any worries.  Sam Worthington is nowhere to be seen thank the Lord.  Robert Downey Jr did a sterling job in the first and I expected similar here.  I really didn't like his character in this film.  I think this was the desired effect though.  He'd lost any charm he had and was just a smug, arrogant git.  Not great really as disliking the main character lost me most of my emotional involvement with the film.  Sam Rockwell gave a great showing in his role.  Totally and utterly predictable but that was only to be expected with such a character in such a film.  Gwyneth Paltrow gave a pretty good performance.  I just have little respect for her character.  She should just tell her boss to piss off and go work somewhere less stressful.  She gets a lot less than she puts into that relationship.  A bit sappy really.  Don Cheadle's character is very similar.  I couldn't see what Tony Stark had to make those close to him so emasculated and a tad pathetic.  Mickey Rourke was great as his character.  One of the best roles in the film.  I didn't like the way the story panned out near the end but that wasn't Rourke's fault at all.  Scarlett Johanssen played my favourite role in the film.  I don't think I understand her character properly yet.  I'm hoping we see more of her.  She definitely played the least obvious character in the whole film.  Samuel L Jackson was used perfectly.  Just enough to make him interesting.  Little enough not to make us want more.

Overall I thought the story was a little too obvious in places.  Most of the characters were paint by numbers types.  Tony Stark needs to be a little more likable if they make another.  He just needed a slap in this one.  I found him completely unsympathetic, even with what he was suffering.  The scene on the Monaco circuit was just totally ridiculous.  Yes, I know I was watching a comic story but it just felt ridiculous.  As did the usual against all odds climactic final scene.

It was enjoyable though.  It was fun.  It would have been much more fun had it been 40 minutes shorter.  Please filmmakers contain yourselves when it comes to running time.  It shouldn't be a relief to get out of the cinema.  A shorter run time would maybe have me watching this again.  Maybe we could get 'cinema-goers cut' editions of films.  Trimmed down so they're better paced.

Marvel, it's a lovely idea to get a teaser for your next release.  Just don't make me sit through 5 minutes of credits for 10 seconds, it's arrogant and bloody annoying.  please just put them on Youtube.

3 out of 5 pawprints.