Ryan McNeil
With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence,
the moral and the intellectual,
I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth,
by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck:
That man is not truly one, but truly two.
– Robert Louis Stevenson
X-MEN; FIRST CLASS begins with the origins of Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). Erik was yanked from a Jewish concentration camp as a child and exploited by a Nazi doctor to further his research. The doctor, named Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) wants Erik to better understand his curious gift for being able to control and manipulate metal. However, Sebastian is bound and determined to exploit Erik’s understanding of his ability through methods that will suit his own gains. Erik eventually makes his way into the world, powerful, sad, and tremendously angry.
Charles Xavier on the other hand is very aware of his telepathic and telekinetic gifts from an early age. Making matters better is the fact that he is approached as a child by another gifted youngster: a girl named Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) who sneaks into Charles’ house and confirms to him that he’s not alone as a mutant.
Years later, the world seems poised for nuclear war, and little do the superpowers at the time realizer that they are being manipulated by Shaw for his own gains. Shaw is backed by a talented group of mutants, including a diamond skinned telepath named Emma Frost (January Jones), a teleporter named Azazel, and a man who can manipulate the elements named Riptide.
An American CIA operative named Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) is the first to put together how Shaw is pulling the strings, and it’s she who approaches Xavier – now a professor specializing in mutation – for help. Along with reaching out to the very angry and very powerful Erik for help, Xavier is quick to point out that in order to counter Shaw, the CIA will have to enlist young talent with mutated abilities of their own…and that Erik and Charles will have to be involved in helping them learn how to use their abilities.
It’s no small co-incidence that FIRST CLASS zeroes in on the theme of allegiance, after all every other X-MEN film to date has centred on that very theme. What makes it so omnipresent in the X-Men stories is the manner in which allegiance tends to shift so very often. This gives the fantastical story a true relevance, as it is human nature to sway our loyalty to whatever serves our interests best at any given moment. We like to believe that at heart we are people of conviction, but any conviction – good or bad – can be bent when the chips are down and someone on the other side looks to be the answer.
While the Stevenson quote deals more with instinct versus reason, it can also be applied to the struggle of staying true to what one believes versus caving in to what is convenient. It would be very easy for all of the newly minted X-Men to forsake Charles and Erik, and instead align themselves with Sebastian Shaw. After all if mankind is truly ready to align themselves against mutants, then it seems inconvenient for mutants to squabble amongst themselves, right? However, it is clear that Sebastian isn’t interested in bringing about peace with humanity, and with that he causes mutants to draw lines between each other, and decide just how much they care about doing what’s “right”.
Making the decision muddier, Sebastian Shaw throws down the gauntlet of “If you are not with us, then you are against us”. What’s interesting about this is how incorrect it really is. Often in life we find ourselves dissenting a cause, or a leader…and it’s not because we are opposed to what that cause or leader is supposed to represent. We choose not to stand “with” someone like Sbeastian, because we disagree with the method. In FIRST CLASS nobody seems to encapsulate that more than Erik. He might hate Sebastian enough to want to kill him – but he doesn’t neccessarily think Sbeastian is wrong about where humanity is headed.
The way FIRST CLASS builds upon these ideas is key to what makes it work, and what brings the franchise back to the excellence we first encountered in X2. With the exception of the particularly blank January Jones, the film features a wonderful cast – many of whom are given the unenviable task of channeling what we’ve already been given by other truly gifted actors. I didn’t necessarily need a subtitle telling me where every last scene was set, but that’s a minor flaw in the execution. The decision to use The Cuban Missile Crisis as the spine of the story is an inspired touch, and Matthew Vaughan guides the whole show with a subtle hand that one wouldn’t expect after a film like KICK-ASS.
I do find myself left with one question though, and that is the question of “What Now?”. While there is a sizeable story gap between where this film ends and where X1 begins (or likewise, where WOLVERINE ends), I can’t see more than one more film coming down the line with this cast of actors. If that’s the case, why did the writers choose to take this story as far as they took it…and end it where they did?
However, that is a question for things happening outside of the edges of the screen. What happens within the edges of the screen is something intelligent and well made. It’s a film about balance. The balance between what is right, and what is simple. The balance between what one stands for, and how to stand for it. The balance between raw talent, and honed ability.
Most of all though, the film represents a balance between fun blockbuster, and intelligent ideas.