X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
5 out of 5 stars

charles xavier: “listen to me very carefully, my friend. killing will not bring you peace.”

erik lehnsherr: “peace was never an option.”

as the brits like to say,”BRILLIANT!!” this movie is like the equivalent of the new star trek, where a fresh/young cast breathes life into the x-men franchise! with matthew vaughan (director of one of my faves- layer cake and another fave kick-ass) at the helm, actors who can actually act well i.e. james mcavoy and michael fassbender, this movie KICKS ASS... :)

the movie starts off in warsaw, poland in 1944. (i think many of you know where we’re going with this) young erik lehnsherr is separated from his parents at a concentration camp, and the gates to the camp begin to bend at erik’s will until a soldier knocks him out with the butt of his gun. sebastian shaw AKA klaus schmidt and nazi collaborator (an evil yet delightful kevin bacon) notices the young erik’s talent, and has him demonstrate his power in front of him. when erik can’t, shaw kills his mother. this sends him into a rage, inadvertently killing two soldiers in the process (they’re wearing metal helmets), and destroying all things metallic in schmidt’s kill room. in a nazi concentration camp, the anti-hero named magneto is born... fast-foward to 20 years later, and guess who is a nazi hunter (fassbender), traveling all over the world eliminating nazis, one by one? you guessed it, but erik isn’t exactly magneto yet. meanwhile, in upstate new york, a young charles xavier wakes up in the middle of the night to find an intruder in his gorgeous castle of a home. he finds a young raven in his kitchen, looking for food, and adopts her as his sister. later on, charles (mcavoy) becomes an expert on genetic mutation, doing his studies at oxford university, when the CIA recruit him to stop sebastian shaw from engaging the U.S. and then U.S.S.R. into WWIII. along the way, new recruits are introduced such as emma frost (january jones as betty draper in diamond form), azazel (this devil looking dude who teleports places), riptied (a male version of storm- maybe storm’s dad?! wouldn’t that have been awesome!), havok (army dude who can throw high-energy beams at people), angel (SHE CAN FLY! and spits fireballs...), a young beast, and my fave: banshee. (he can scream sound waves and shocks, allowing him to scream high-pitch frequencies AND FLY!)

like i said, if you liked the new star trek, you’re gonna LOVE this movie. the acting is really well done, and of course, the action sequences are pretty well produced as well. there are several plot holes, but i’m willing to forgive... also, the character of sebastian shaw needed to be fleshed out more, plus if he’s suppose to be magneto’s predecessor... kevin bacon makes a good villain, but they never explain why sebastian shaw wanted to destroy the world so badly. that’s why i think magneto makes the best villain OF ALL TIME because his hatred for humanity and his deep-seeded rage comes from the traumatic experiences of being in a holocaust survivor. james mcavoy makes the perfect charles xavier as the pacifist, and the two protagonists really make this one worthwhile... I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SECOND ONE. BRING IT. PLEASE. :D

P.S. BEST scene hands down is sebastian shaw’s demise. don’t want to give it away, but that scene brings it all together... and that is why, ladies and gents, he is MAGNETO. ;)