X-Men: First Class

When I was a kid, I loved comic books. I still do, though I no longer collect them. The first comic that deeply touched me was The X-Men. I wished that I had a better power than being smart and annoying, and I desperately wanted a school where all the kids had special powers--and I did, too. Typical dreams of a young comic and SF reader, I know, but they were mine. Even though we were poor, the first comic book for which I saved money and mail-ordered a back issue was X-Men.

Clearly, I'm in the middle of the bulls-eye of the target for this film and all the other X-Men pictures.

Despite that, I have not liked them all equally, and I have found some, notably the last Wolverine picture, rather tough to watch.

Not X-Men: First Class. I loved it. It's the best X-Men film yet and one of the better movies I've seen this year.

What's interesting about my affection for this movie is that it comes in spite of the film sharing a huge flaw with the Pirates film I somewhat panned just recently: I knew exactly where the plot in this one was going. Through great execution, however, in this movie that flaw never bothered me. I cared about the characters. I greatly enjoyed the special effects. I just had a grand time, and I did because the filmmakers here simply did their jobs better than those who made Pirates 4.

If you have no special affection for the X-Men or comic books, you'll probably still have a good time at this movie, so don't feel like you have to know the comics to enjoy the film. I still recommend it for you.

If, however, you are an X-Men fan, then I expect you will absolutely love this movie. I sure did.