The X-Men series, stories about the activities of a group of mutant superheroes, has been popular both as Marvel comic books and as blockbuster films. First Class, co-written and directed by Matthew Vaughn, is a prequel featuring the activities of Professor X, Magneto, and a band of young mutants who are just discovering and testing their extraordinary powers. The setting is the 1960s when Russia and the United States are playing out a dangerous cat-and-mouse game of the Cold War. Behind the scenes is the cold-blooded Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), a mutant who is pitting these two superpowers against each other in what soon escalates into the dangerous Cuban Missile Crisis. He is supported in his efforts to gain control of the world by his deputy, Emma Frost (January Jones), and a group of other violent mutants.
During World War II, Shaw was known as Dr. Schmidt, a scientist obsessed with gene manipulation to create mutant killing machines. When he puts Erik Lensherr (Bill Milner) to the test to see his mental metal bending powers, he makes the grave mistake of shooting the boy's mother in front of him. Erik (Michael Fassbender) grows up to be a mutant with incredible will power and a commitment to revenge. In contrast to him is Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), a charismatic Oxford scientist whose vision is one of harmony between the mutants and the rest of humankind. Xavier is blessed with phenomenal telepathic powers as a mutant and when Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), a CIA agent contacts him and asks for help in understanding genetic mutation, he is happy to assist her. Eventually, Erik and Xavier band together despite their different perceptions of mutants and their role in the future. They criss-cross the country and find the next generation of individuals with extraordinary powers including a shape shifter, a plasma-blaster, a sonic screamer, a scientific genius, and a woman who sprouts wings and flies.
This fifth film in the X-Men series does a good job in conveying the distrust of normal citizens of these strange new creatures and the difficulties the younger mutants have with being so different as outsiders. This motif plays out most vividly in the struggles of Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) who is ashamed of her blue skin.
The film also sets up the differences between Xavier and Erik. The Professor tries to convince the man who will be known as Magneto that he has a higher calling than allowing his rage to control him — he can operate from a place of serenity. But Xavier's hope for a future world of global unity is rejected by his friend the warrior who sees a future of "us" against "them." This is a palatable and appealing prequel to the other X-Men movies which are more rousing and robust.
Special features on the DVD include a theatrical feature: "Children of the Atom."
