Flashback: X-Men First Class movie review

Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy

The first X-men movie started with the conflicting interests of Professor X and Magneto. Regardless of their individual differences, they still consider each other as close friends. When the X-Men comics first appeared, it already highlighted the conflict between the group and Magneto. But the conflict of Prof. X and Magneto is not between good and evil. It's about ideology. 1963 was the time when racism was an issue in the United States. This was the time of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. You can say that Prof. X is an embodiment of Dr. King and Magneto is Malcolm X. Of all the villains, you can't say Magneto was totally bad. This is the message Stan Lee was saying when he first created the X-Men. Even until now, the message is still relevant even to us Filipinos. Our history was also about racism. When our colonizers treat us differently that ideas were also developed. In our historical context, I can say our national hero, Jose Rizal shares similarities to what Charles Xavier was trying to do and Erik Lehnsherr was like Andres Bonifacio.

Havok: Movie and comics version

Like the first movie trilogy, there were also inconsistencies like making Alex Summers aka Havok older than his brother Cyclops, who appeared in the three X-Men movies and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But the movies were not consistent with the comics. Like making Iceman younger than Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and Angel which was the first X-Men team members. Even Beast was made older than all of them. 

The first X-Men team

The uniform they wore for the mission were similar to the X-Men uniform in the comics. Even the details of Banshee was quite similar. Despite this minor inconsistencies, it was a redeeming movie for the X-Men franchise since the third movie, X-Men: The Last Stand which was the poorest movie considered by many fans. Expect cameo appearances from a couple of characters so don't blink while watching the movie. For more throwback/flashback movie reviews, follow this blog or like L.E.N.S. blogs on Facebook.

X-Men team uniform pattern

Originally posted last June 2, 2011on my movie blog.