MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

X Men: First Class   Rated PG-13

Directedby Matthew Vaughn.  Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender

Photo © 20th Centruy Fox
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

It’s summertime and the livin’ is easy and often overly predictable and filled with sequels of every shape and size.  So it is especially gratifying to discover that X-Men: First Class, the fifth film in the X-Men series, is as entertaining and as much fun as it is.  It’s a prequel that explains how the whole X-Men universe got started, with a band of mutants organized for training under the watchful eyes of Dr. Charles Xavier (McAvoy) and head mutant Magneto (Fassbender)
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The story begins very early on, during their mutual childhoods during the years of World War II.  Xavier comes from a family of privilege in the United States; the man who is to become Magneto is Erik Lehnsherr, a child in a German concentration camp.  Xavier will be motivated by compassion for fellow mutants and Erik will find himself involved in seeking vengeance for the tragedies of his past.  It’s fun to see how circumstances not only bring these two together, but how the whole idea of the X-Men slowly falls together, under the watchful eyes of some friends in the CIA (played by Oliver Platt and Rose Byrne). 

Most of the X-Men are teenagers when they are recruited, which allows this story to serve as a nice metaphor for the awkwardness of youth.  And the main storyline is played out in the early 1960s with John Kennedy as president and the Cuban Missile Crisis being orchestrated in ways you never read in the history books. The movie has a great deal of fun with the swinging sixties as well as the spy movies and TV shows of that era.

I don’t want to ruin any of the surprises (including some interesting casting choices) by revealing any more of the storyline; I’ll let you discover the film for yourself.  I will say that the violence is about as intense as it gets for a PG-13 film, but also that there is psychological justification for most of it, which is a refreshing change-of-pace from the mindless mayhem that is often on screens these days.  Keep younger children from seeing this movie; introduce them to the great 1978 Superman instead. 

X-Men: First Class is bold enough to suggest that there is room in the world for all kinds of different people, but also honest enough to admit that, even if there is room, the world may yet refuse to make room.  May Christ’s church lead the way in our acts of everyday hospitality in ways that can help widen the circle.

Pitchfork/Halo Ratings:

Three halo: An extremely entertaining comic book film with more than a few things to say about acceptance of others as well as the importance of ethical decision making.

Three pitchforks:Fairly intense off-screen violence; mild sexual innuendoes; Nazi death camp brutality; some swearing including one F-bomb that is also one of the movie’s bigger jokes to fans of the series.

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