X-Men: First Class (2011)

Entertainment Rating: 4 of 5

This is probably the best of the five X-Men movies made, with Wolverine coming in a close second. I didn’t really get into the trilogy, though maybe watching it again I might enjoy it better. The story of X-Men has always intrigued me, a story about fitting in with humanity. The story depicted in this film was thoroughly interesting and exciting, giving good insight (though I’m not sure how true to the original) on a lot of the characters’ origins. This is worth catching in the theater.

Moral Rating: 4 of 5

I loved how well they tied in this piece of fiction with actual historical events. The movie spliced in speeches by John F. Kennedy and footage of the Cuban Missile Crisis and fused these factual pieces with the mutant storyline fairly well. There’s a constant moré through the film urging the young mutants to learn to be happy with who they are and not try to conform to societal norms for other people’s comfort.

Erik’s moral struggle with his own conscience and the guidance of his close friend Charles Xavier is also very powerful. Erik shows us that it is much easier to give in to rage and anger than to learn how to calmly control yourself like Charles. However, the film doesn’t paint Erik as a complete bad guy; we know that his observation of humans’ new-found hatred for mutants will not be easy (if not impossible) to quell, and might even be somewhat justified. Erik tends to choose the easy battle of not working to establish peace at all and forces himself and others to choose sides and create enemies of the humans. While Xavier knows there is some truth to Erik’s belief (that the humans want to kill the mutants because they feel threatened), Charles feels that peace is worth pursuing, even if it is an uphill battle.

Besides the good, thought provoking story, there is a small amount of language (not totally out of place, fitting right in with Logan’s character) and several scenes with scantily clad women.