Marvel meets Mad Men: A First Class Review

When I first heard that X-Men: First Class was being made I was more than a bit skeptical. After Origins: Wolverine and Last Stand to say I was a bit down on X-Men movies would be like saying Rebecca Black got a lukewarm reaction.

People started getting riled up about this when production pictures started hitting the net. But that's just stupid. Every superhero movie these days is going to look great in pictures, with the massive budgets thrown into these movies making them look pretty is the least they could do.

It wasn't until I saw the first trailer that I took notice to how unique the visual style of the movie was. Mainly set in 1962 the movie uses the 60's style to some extent, yet at the same time it ups the grittiness of it all by not playing up the era to an Austin Powers type level.

The movie's mood carries itself rather seriously. Kind of like the first X-Men movie, just not as dark. Ironically enough the best way to look at this movie is by comparing it to the AMC show Mad Men, which also stars January Jones (shwing) who plays Emma Frost.

I mostly agree with the cast selections, especially the adult roles. James McAvoy does a good job with Prof. X, but it's obvious that the show stealers are Michael Fassbender as Magneto and Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw. That's right, finally a good outing for X-Men villains. I'm not saying Ian McKellen didn't do a good job in the first three movies, I just think the Magneto character was misused in those movies. In FC, he shows why he is considered one of the most bad ass villains in comic book history.

-Insert MCR meme joke here-

Kevin Bacon does a great job as one of the great, yet underrated villains in the Marvel universe. I can honestly say that every time that Shaw is on screen he really does command a certain amount of fear/respect. The sharp contrast between mutants just learning to control their powers and Shaw, who constantly shocks them with his abilities is very well used to build him up as a villain.

Plus, he does it with style.

 The other characters seem to fall under these three, and with good reason. January Jones, while fun to look at, plays the exact same character as she does in Mad Men. She plays the hot bitchy blonde pretty well.

I also thought that Jennifer Laurence was slightly underutilized as Mystique. She seemed rather prominent at the beginning, just to slowly fade into the background bit by bit. I did like how they switched up her history to pair her up with Xavier. Most die hards might be angry at the switch up, but I believe that Mystique's history is ambiguous enough to make the change believable.

There are other slight changes to the comic book canon. But they are barely noticeable. Yeah, they switch up Havoc and Cyclops' ages, making Havoc older. But really, who cares? It's just a minor detail.

That leads me to one of my slight problems with it. Some of the cast looks way too young. And this is me nitpicking. But if I was in Charles Xavier's shoes, and I was told to assemble a team of mutants to fight a real bunch of badasses. I sure as hell wouldn't chose a bunch of kids like he did. Banshee and Havok looked like fifteen year olds, and they were going up against the likes of Azazel, who looked totally awesome and kicked all sorts of ass.

"I have to fight him?! But I'm only twelve!"

The movie also feels like Mad Men because it ties in directly into a historical event, something that Mad Men has done repeatedly during it's run. But unlike Mad Men, our characters aren't just innocent bystanders to history, they're there as it happens, turning the Cuban Missile Crisis into somewhat of a conspiracy mid movie.

The one thing that really pissed me off about the movie is a certain cameo which I will not spoil for those who haven't seen it yet. It was just unnecessary, which I guess is what makes it a cameo... But it just pissed me off nonetheless.

It is a very new direction for X-Men movies, a fun new direction. First Class is visually appealing and oddly enough, historically intriguing. As rumors for a sequel start to stir I can only say that it is a rare occasion when a movie franchise has two seemingly limitless pools of material from which to draw ideas from. In this case they have both, historical events from the sixties to the present, and the entire X-Men universe. The possibilities are endless, and from what we've seen already, they could be spectacular.

8/10

From the bargain bin: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (the game)

Lets get this out of the way: I hate the movie. I really, really hate this movie. It slaughters a good handful of great Marvel characters and reduces them to cameo appearances at best, right before either killing them off, or causing irreversible character damage to the point where a total franchise reboot is needed.

The only thing that sold me on this game was the fifteen minute demo I played when it came out. I saw promise in the fighting system and in the almost RPG-ish leveling up. But most of all, I saw what every X-Men movie and cartoon was missing: Blood and gore.

That's right parents, this isn't the superhero game you buy your six year old. It's bloody as hell. I'm talking Mortal Kombat level gore here. I mean, there are trophies for dismembering your victims.

Don't believe me? I don't blame you. Here, watch this...

The game is far from perfect though, but I can actually blame most of the problems on the movie. The parts that actually stray from the plot are pretty much great story-wise. But the rest of the time it's just a slightly extended version of the crap movie, with the same characters, and the same actors voicing them.

For the record, no, I do not like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine... But that's a story for another post.

The gameplay is slightly repetitive. I do assume it will get tiresome on my second playthrough (because I do intend to get that Platinum) but up until now the it just looks so great and gory that it just feels satisfying to carve someone up.

Also, most of the bosses are just way too easy. They are built up nicely but they go down way too fast. In an attempt to make these fights cinematic they really took away from the difficulty of the game.

The real star of the game is Wolverine's regeneration factor. Logan gets his ass kicked in this game. He falls from the sky at least five times... He then gets up and flashes his ribcage and internal organs at us just in time for us to see his skin grow back.

All in all, not the best game in the world, but for $18, it made for an interesting weekend.

6.5/10

Marvel does anime!?: Wolverine anime review

Did you know that Marvel started doing twelve chapter animes?! Because I had no fucking clue!

Wolverine is actually the second one they've done, it just finished last month and I happened  to have stumbled upon it right here.

First of all I need to warn you... You might have to throw most of your Wolverine knowledge out the window for this one. There are a lot of very well placed nods to those who know their comic book history, but really, you're supposed to just look at this as a whole new experience... Which is what I tried to do.

The first thing that really bugged me is the animation style. Wolverine is not a pretty boy (and I'm already failing at what I stated in the previous paragraph, but fuck it), he doesn't wear oops-I-did-it-again red leather jackets, he doesn't have a cutesy jap mullety haircut... He's fuckin' Wolverine... Rugged, and badass... And that's all you need. Then again, I've never seen anime Wolverine before... So maybe this is what he's supposed to look like. I guess I just don't like it.

On the other hand every thing else is pretty nice. Totally ignoring the comic books, the story stands well on it's own and it's actually very well told over twelve episodes. The dialogue is bearable, with it's obvious couple of anime-cliches thrown in, but it's not repetitive and I love that.

The action is good and well spread out. Every episode has it's own fight scene, some better than others. And for a twelve chapter anime it has a lot of bad guys, which is fun.

Being anime, it know it's advantages too. Biggest one being the blood. I love the fact that you actually see Wolverine draw blood with his claws this time around. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was tired of the gore-less stabbings in the movies... Well not this time. There's not as much as I would have liked (Elfen Lied style!) but there's enough to keep me satisfied.

All in all, it could have been better. But honestly I enjoyed it. It may be the fanboy in me, but as long as they don't totally fuck up the characters a la Origins with Deadpool, I'll be fine with it. I look forward to watching more Marvel Anime soon... Next up... Iron Man.

6/10