Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

filmtogo Prequels can be good as First Class shows us. Michael Fassbender is Magneto or basically Erik Lehnsherr who calls himself Frankensteins Monster. Also we get Hank McCoys transformation into Beast what looks like a Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde moment. So this could also be called a classic monster movie. But that's the problem. Mutants don't wanna be seen as those monsters. Especially Mystique, here played by Jennifer Lawrence who never fits into that role as good as Rebecca Romijn. The best moments of the film are between Fassbender and James McAvoy as Charles Xavier. Director Matthew Vaughn understands perfectly that these two are friends who are stronger and better together but are divided by their different worldviews. Sebastian Shaw, the leader of the Hellfire Club, is a nice villain for this origin story. He works way better than anything that X-Men: The Last Stand threw at us. There is a little love story - i guess? - between Mystique and Beast that really doesn't work. X-Men: First Class is nevertheless one hell of a good X-Men movie with a formidable cast.

basyaehrman In essence this is a great film. Good script and really swell acting - all very well cast, specifically Xavier and Eric. Plus, a few unexpected story lines and character arcs. Fight scenes that made sense - like two flying mutants (though with different abilities) fighting in the air. There was a lot of international touches that made it authentic. Honestly, for someone just getting introduced to X Men, this would make a great first film to watch. It explains mutations and how to develop them (in the school in previous films, we've only seen them learn history and language arts etc) and you really get to see the mutants improving their skills. However: I'm tired of the trope that it's wrong to kill someone who's going to hurt other people. Nazis, and their doctors who experiment on people, deserve death and worse. There's no need to spare them and pretend it's kindness. And if someone kills someone who's about to start a nuclear war, they're a hero not a monster. And Xavier should have known that "they're just following orders" is the wrong excuse, especially to a broken concentration camp survivor. Also, Beast's face was subpar. Not good. And Magneto in a cape?Lastly, the continuity with other X Men films is bad. For example, from the first trilogy, I'd never have realized how close Xavier and Mystique once were. But on the plus side, this film is really good at showing how Eric and Mystique's relationship developed, as well as Eric and Xavier's - that's one of its greatest accomplishments, although I expected them to have been friends for many years, not months. On the down side, as much as it showed how the mutants became themselves - Eric's story was better than I could have hoped - it's hard to imagine from this that Eric would one day abandon Mystique in a truck, because she lost her mutation. Another glaring lack of continuity is that previous films showed an adult Xavier walking, but here he lost use of his legs way younger. Still, if you can ignore all that, it is a well done film I enjoyed watching.

rupak_speaking This movie started well for me but fell through midway and I simply did not feel eager enough to continue watching it, like OK, will see the next half some other time. The simple reason is that it was not offering me anything more than the other X-Men movies I saw, other than the fact that they were trying their best to conjure up a credible prequel. I was kind of surprised to see the high ratings it got and felt like the superhero comic strip movies get rated higher than they should be (another good example being Avengers), as if this particular genre loving audience is still in the hangover mode and liking the same old wine in new bottles. I am eager to see something refreshingly new like it was when this Iron Man first came on screen or the Ant-Man, though not well made with a weak script, but still worth an effort. For me the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy by Sam Raimi still stands out the best superhero franchise till date. Nolan's Dark Knight series I don't even consider here, that's a totally different league. For X- Men: First Class, it gets a 5/10 from me.

Thomas Drufke There are a lot of great things about First Class, but I think the one that sticks out to me the most (even after years and tons of viewings) is that it works as both a reboot and prequel. Even though the continuity has since been mingled with even more, this film did such a great job of resetting the universe without tarnishing what came before.In large part, the strengths of the film lie with Matthew Vaughn's direction. Up to this point, I liked most of the X-Men films, but even the people who have loved the series would say that there wasn't much "fun" to be had. The original X-Men trilogy took itself very seriously and rightfully so. But there's something to be said for a mutant story that poses similar thought provoking questions and themes like before, while also making a fun adventure out of it. Vaughn does a wonderful job balancing the two.Setting an X-Men film in the 1960's meant having to recast all of the recurring characters. Luckily, casting was something 20th Century Fox had no problem with. I don't think we could have dreamed of a better pairing to take over the roles of Professor X and Magneto than James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. Perhaps, some would say that the two of them have outdone their counterparts, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan (I, myself being one of those people). Much like the film itself, McAvoy and Fassbender put their own spin on the characters, but bring enough similarity in their performance to understand the connective tissue between the pairs.Something the new trilogy of X-Men films does incredibly well is use the decade the films are set in to enhance the overall story they were going for. First Class is set in the 60's, and uses the Cuban Missile Crisis as the film's climatic sequence. But it uses it in a way that doesn't exploit that event, instead, gives a reason for there to be tension between Charles & Erik. This film and Days of Future Past nail the relationship between those two more so than any X-Men film to date.Going back to the fun stuff though, the rest of the mutants are made up of mostly throw away heroes and villains. No one was really asking for characters like Azazel, Riptide, Angel Salvadore, Havoc, Darwin, Banshee, or even more Mystique. But even as much as these characters could have felt like throwaway characters, Vaughn managed to build them into the story in a creative way. Everyone has their own arc and moment to shine. In fact, my favorite part of the film involves Charles & Erik recruiting, and subsequently training everyone. It's classic superhero stuff.Overall, First Class makes good with its new cast and setting. Matthew Vaughn transitioned what was originally planned as a Magneto origin story into a wonderfully balanced comic-book adaptation. One that nails the characters motivations and mindsets in a refreshing but respectful and realistic way. +Charles & Erik+Recruiting & Training+Score+Vaughn's directing+Setting adds to the story9.4/10