Review: X-Men: First Class

In a prequel to the X-Men, Erik "Magneto" Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) work together to stop a mutant group from starting WWIII in X-Men: First Class (20th Century Fox, 2011).

The last time we saw mutants on the big screen, it was the disappointing third installment in the X-Men trilogy, appropriately titled X-Men: The Last Stand. What had begun as a promising franchise under the steady hand of director Bryan Singer turned to crap under the watch of replacement director Brett Ratner. As Joel Schumacher had done with the Batman franchise, so too had Ratner done with the X-Men.

Now, after five years, the mutants are back. Instead of trying to resurrect the franchise by fixing the problems of the previous film (which included killing off two of the main characters), the new franchise is starting over at the beginning with a prequel. Now we have a chance to look at two different beginnings for the X-Men franchise and see which one works better.

Read the entire review over at MovieSmackdown.com »