Prequel and Proud

X-Men First Class
This should have been the first X-Men film ever made.  More than just a prequel, it bridged the comics and films by taking place in the same time period as the comics and providing an engaging backstory for some of the staple characters.  James McAvoy (Charles Xavier) and Michael Fassbender (Erik Lensharr) had some big shoes to fill and both played their roles well beyond expectations.  The film prioritizes its comic origins, which buoys it against the other X-men films, but creates a few flaws along the way.  The more vibrant colors and less serious tone actually made the film more believable than the more serious predecessors.  However, this loyalty to the roots do work against the film in some areas.



A production element that constantly brought the house down was the lower third titles that described the location.  They were fine at first, but when "Covert CIA Facility" and "Secret Russian Airbase" popped up, I just laughed.  These titles would not be out of place in a comic strip since a reader only gets a single frame to orient themselves and the words help fill in the blanks.  In a movie, the viewer sees 25-30 frames per second, so they get more information about the location right away.  As such, any location titles need to be more specific than just what's seen on screen.  It's an odd priority where some unnecessary aspects of the comic are favored. 

Emma Frost's presence really bothered me.  I understand Marvel's desire to be true to their character (Frost being a member of the Hellfire Club), but the bottom line is that she was already used in Wolverine, which took place about about a decade later (during which time she somehow regressed several years).  January Jones didn't really help improve the role either.  I really wonder why the producers didn't use one of the other sexy telepaths, like Psylocke, to fill the same role without creating another continuity error (of which there are many).

I suspect that, although the film was officially designated a prequel, it may end up being a reboot of the films.  The ending clearly set up more stories to tell and there are a number of continuity errors that keep it from meshing well with the other films.

1. First Class ended with Xavier becoming crippled, yet he was seen walking in both Wolverine and The Last Stand, which suggested his paralysis was relatively recent.  Now, the scene where he became crippled was very well done, so I have a tough time saying whether it should have been removed.  
2. In The Last Stand, it was shown that Erik was originally part of Xavier's Mutant Academy, as the two recruit Jean Grey together, but in First Class, they go their separate ways prior to the formal foundation of the school.  
3. In X-Men, Xavier said Erik helped him build Cerebro, but we don't not see any such incidence in First Class.  In fact, it was Beast that designed the Cerebro prototype and presumably rebuild it in the mansion later on.  This error could have easily been fixed.  We could have seen Erik helping to rebuild Cerebro at Xavier's mansion as a practice of his powers instead of his moving a strategically placed satellite dish around.  
4. In X-Men, Xavier says he met Erik when he was 17, but in First Class, they didn't meet until Xavier was in his mid-twenties.  Maybe they bumped into each other at Oxford.  
5. A sharp eye will spot Stryker in the film, but he seems to be getting older and older each time we see him, despite going earlier and earlier in the timeline.  
6. Emma Frost I've already talked about, but to be fair, the Emma in Wolverine doesn't display any telepathy and we never hear her last name.  
7. Mystique was often nude in the other films presumably so she could easily create the clothes of the person she's assuming, which implied her chameleon abilities didn't apply to clothes, but in two scenes of First Class, she morphed the clothes she's was wearing into those of the disguise without difficulty.  
8. Moira MacTaggert appeared in First Class as a young CIA agent and in The Last Stand as a middle-aged physician.  I suppose it's possible the latter is the daughter of the former. 

Despite these errors, the film succeeded where most of its predecessors failed.  It kept the number of mutants to a reasonable number, unlike The Last Stand and Wolverine, which both had excessive mutants that were mostly there to show off their powers rather than be actual characters in a story.  The curbed number allowed each character to have at least a little meaningful screen time in addition to using their powers.  The presence of Mystique was a little left field, but her story was handled pretty well, and it looks like the origin of Nightcrawler was being set up.  (For those who don't know, Nightcrawler is the progeny of Mystique and Azazel, both of whom appear in First Class).  I am hopeful that there will be sequels to this film in the future, some of which could fix the continuity.  Perhaps Erik and Xavier will reconcile briefly to run the school together, recruit Jean Grey and rebuild Cerebro.  They can then have another falling out, possibly over Xavier's brainwashing of Grey, and Erik would leave.  I'm sure a reason can be concocted for Xavier being able to walk during this time.  If they really wanted to, they could bring Stryker in again and we could get the full story on his son.  There's a lot of potential and I look forward to seeing what comes next.