X-Men: First Class (7/10)

The trailer looked really good. So good that I had so much expectations for it. And that could be one reason why I left with a little bit of disappointment.

It was a long movie. And it felt slightly longer. Yet, I still found some plots were rushed, such as the important relationship building between Charles and Erik. I didn't get enough of their bro-mance and I felt this was important because the whole movie was based on these two.

But what then did the movie put in instead? Action? Unfortunately no. Yes, there were action sequences; plenty, in fact. But none of them fantastic.

I personally felt that there were too many characters. Yes, even though it's "X-Men", but it may be better had there been less characters to focus on. Especially Sebastian Shaw's team like Alex Gonazalez's Riptide which didn't have much to do. Worse was, in the end he just got knocked around, literally. I don't think Zoe Kravitz's Angel was needed as well. If one character from each team were removed, maybe it would have been easier for Matthew Vaughn to tell this story.

I'm a big fan of Vaughn. But I thought Bryan Singer's X-Men and X2 were better in terms of direction for such a big cast. And perhaps this was why the younger actors such as Caleb Landry Jones and Lucas Till didn't shine. But that also could be due to lack of acting experience.

Don't get me wrong though, this was still a very, very good movie. The story was brilliant. The direction for everything else was really good. The acting between James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, and their take on two of the most iconic characters in Marvel universe were brilliant as well. And I'm very satisfied with how the movie ended, and how the end was just between Charles and Erik, battling on morality and integrity or surviving against all odds.

One thing I didn't get was, yet again, January Jones' acting. From everything I've seen her do, even in Saturday Night Live which I thought was horrible, her acting has always been the same. Worse is I don't find her attractive at all when everything on the internet has been saying this movie uses too much sex to sell - and by that they meant Jones in skimpy clothing.

But at the end of the day, I can't wait for the sequel. I think there's a lot more the characters can grow into, the actors can grow into; and see where the story takes us next.

P.S. When I used to read the comics, I always had an Scottish accent for Moira MacTaggart and Irish accent for Banshee. So in that nerdy fan-boy department, I was disappointed.