X-Men: First Class – film review

It’s not all good, but, mercifully, it’s not all bad.

X-Men: First Class suffers from being a potential masterpiece of a trilogy crammed into one big mess of a single volume. It’s script is leaden with speech after speech after speech each more wearyingly poignant than the last and it’s characters seem robbed of pivotal bridges that end up opening holes in the film’s plot and logic. Narrative turns aren’t properly earned by what’s gone before it and characters fail to connect with one another due to great wads of dialogue seemingly left on the writing/editing room floor. In place of genuine emotion is an endless wave of two dimensional physical balletics and facial expressions that get carpet bombed by an exhaustingly overbearing musical score.

You’d probably get more nuance and feeling from a comic book, ironically.

Where First Class works is when it’s characters work. Meaning, when they stop making speeches and start doing things constructively like training each other to put their mutant skills to greater use or defending themselves against the bad/good guys. It works when it settles down after it’s busy first two thirds and starts telling a coherent story rather than throwing one character/plot introduction after another at it’s audience which gradually becomes torturous. It also works when it’s actors don’t trip over their clunky dialogue which would have benefited from a polish here and there.

The special effects are sturdy and impressive enough, however it’s the actors that are meant to be harnessing them that seem awkward when flailing their hands about in the air or striking a pose to concentrate their powers. It’s the Ministry Of Silly Stretches through and through, I’m afraid.

Elsewhere secondary actors are poorly choreographed (in place of actual acting) and can’t seem to annunciate the simplest of lines properly, often grinding key scenes of exposition to a halt and tearing a gaping hole in the reality of the film, such as it is.

There are a few surprises to enjoy though: James McAvoy is charming and seduces even me (a long-time detractor of his) with his natural warmth and charisma… he gives the film a sturdier base and keeps it from drifting off into space where it would otherwise have ended up; Kevin Bacon is cast wonderfully against type (I didn’t recognise him at first) as the single-minded ex-Nazi doctor out to throw the human world into chaos whilst still managing to maintain that groovy swagger of his; and Nicholas Hoult shows us that, should Matt Damon ever break, we have a spare ready and waiting.

I’d like to see a 3-4 hour Special Edition/Director’s Cut of this that feels more confidently paced and coherent, but for now it remains a pretty looking mess with steady but cheesy thrills.

3/5

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) - film review

A riveting “nuts and bolts” espionage thriller that enjoyably wallows in it’s many layers of finely written detail and plot, generating a haunting atmosphere of paranoia in a world where even the simplest of gestures could get you retired/”retired” - never has being called in to speak to the boss in his (soundproof) office been so terrifying.

I just wish the whole thing had been directed by somebody with more experience who had a stronger idea of what type of film they were making, as all too often the film veers off-mark and wavers uncomfortably between having a docu-drama feel and the sleekness of a more mainstream thriller. The result of this fairly pedestrian handling is a distracting sense of imminent collapse under the weight of it’s own material and heavyweight cast. By the end it made me wonder why they’d bothered making the whole thing look as plain and ordinary as a television adaptation when there’s already a perfectly good television adaptation out there.

Worth a watch, though, if only to admire Benedict Cumberbatch’s fringe throughout, which seems to get more attention than anything else on screen.

3/5