Blog: X-Men First Class

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I went to the PICTURES on Friday after work - the Odeon on Tottenham Road, which is probably the GEEKIEST cinema in London, PERHAPS THE COUNTRY for LO! it is right next to Soho/Fitzrovia (FULL of computer types having to pretend to be Groovy) and Bloomsbury (FULL of academics and computer types, not even bothering to pretend to be Groovy) and thus home to at LEAST four comic shops all within ten minutes' walk of each other. And yet, ODDLY, i feel quite at home there. STRANGE.

I arrived (on my own - WHAT?) to find FIVE employees working in the foyer, NONE of whom were actually selling tickets. Well done team, much more important to keep the GUMMY SNAKES stocked up than actually let anybody in to BUY them! Eventually I got in and strode through to my seat RIGHT at the front. I love sitting right at the front at the pictures - what's the point of sitting at the back? If i wanted to view a screen that looked about the size of a telly i would watch TELLY. RIGHT at the front not only means everything is MASSIVE but you can also stretch your legs out and lean back. AND it's easier to go to the loo, if you are, just for instance, a Gentleman Of A Certain Age who ALWAYS needs the loo halfway through a film.

From this vantage point I looked back to see the room was filling up with blokes aged around 25-45, all wearing glasses, often on their own, looking all excited about seeing a superhero film. CUH! Geeks eh?

Then the film began and (REVIEW) was BLOODY GRATE! I didn't really like the other X-Men films - the first one was all right, but was still a bit PONDEROUS and seemed to spend most of its time going "AHA! LOOK! It's COLOSUSS! OOH!" and they all went on FOREVER. This one had LARFS in it (including best use of Wolverine EVER! in ANY medium!) and IDEAS and was FUN - it fair WHIPPED by with EXCITEMENT, i thought it was BRILL!

What was quite INTERESTING about it, to me at least, was they way it created its own version of X-MEN LORE. The BEST Superhero films (e.g. Spider-man, Thor, Iron Man) tend to cling Quite Tightly to the PROPER story, but this played fast and loose with it, moving all sorts of characters about to make it very very different to the COMICS, and it all seemed to WORK. Magneto being in the goodies at the same time as ANGEL? Why not? (YES YES i KNOW technically that HAPPENED in the Grant Morrsion run) Nightcrawler's rubbish Dad in the League Of Evil Mutants with Sebastian Shaw and someone from the '90's? OF COURSE! Quite apart from the fact that all these changes were done to get the best possible USE out of them for STORY PURPOSES, they managed to persuade GEEKS (er... and also me) that it was a good idea by doing those characters PROPERLY or, indeed, BETTER than in the comics.

But most of all it was FUN and a RIOT of GROOVY SUPERHEROES, which are pretty much my favourite kind. I do hope they make another one, I would LIKE that!

posted 6/6/2011 by MJ Hibbett

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