X-Men: Erste Entscheidung (X-Men: First Class)
U.S.A. 2011

Opening 9 Jun 2011

Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Writing credits: Ashley Miller, Zach Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn, Sheldon Turner
Principal actors: James McAvoy, Laurence Belcher, Michael Fassbender, Bill Milner, Kevin Bacon

X-Men: First Class is a new film from 20th Century Fox, directed by Matthew Vaughn, leading actors James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr. The supporting cast features January Jones, Nicholas Hoult, Kevin Bacon, Jason Fleming, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Lucas Till, Zoë Kravitz, Oliver Platt, Morgan Lily, and Edi Gathegi. Writing credits for screenplay to Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn, story credits to Sheldon Turner and Bryan Singer. This is supposed to be the precursor of the X-Men trilogy. Right? Well, actually, this amazing film can stand on its own, and we will definitely foresee more of the same.

The story tells the beginning of mutants finding their own powers, led by Charles/Professor X, and Erik/Magneto. A piece of world history has been nicely combined into the history of X-Men. The interpretation of the characters has absolutely high standards, especially Fassbender (Magneto), McAvoy (Xavier) and Lawrence (Mystique). And if you grew up watching these cartoons, you will appreciate that the script is brilliant even when there are a few inconsistencies, e.g., like real persons, the superheroes have control problems and human debilities and are neither totally good nor bad. Like the cartoon there are also love stories, people growing and changing. The special effects are very well done and the narrative is entertaining and deep into human complexities, lots of action and nice dialogues. This film deserves to be a classic. (Amanda Watts)