With Bryan Singer producing, and Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goodman as director and screenwriter respectively, I had a good feeling about this one from the start.  It's great to see my optimism being validated, as the new movie's riding on a wave of near unanimous praise.  It seems the curse that's been plaguing this film series is finally lifted.

I'm in for a viewing tomorrow evening.  Can't wait!

I've been cautiously optimistic regarding both Vaughn's abilities and the film in general but am relieved to see all the praise coming in and can't wait to see it myself.  I'll be avoiding all reviews and this thread till the film opens in Japan next weekend but expect to hear from me then.

There was no early screening for radio people for this movie... I am disappoint.   

But I do get screenings for Super 8 and Green Lantern... so yay!

I'll try to actually go to this one.

I enjoyed it, despite some sloppy writing (especially near the end) and inconsistent characterizations. Fassbender pretty much carried the film but McAvoy was also good and Kevin Bacon made for a delightful villain (as he usually does). The rest of the cast was either okay or terrible (January Jones). Nothing terribly deep (certainly not "The Dark Knight" level) but fun popcorn entertainment.

Henry Jackman's score was a mess. I'm getting really tired of these comic-book films all being scored the exact same way. There's supposedly a main theme in there somewhere but it was so unmemorable that I couldn't make it out.  In lieu of that, there's plenty of electric guitar, percussion and low strings chugging away endlessly. Come to think of it, I don't think I heard one single woodwind instrument. This makes Patrick Doyle's much-maligned "Thor" seem like a masterpiece.

I was quite pleased with this movie. It is the best of the 5 X-Men films and I want to see it again. X2 was my previous favorite.

I agree 100%.  Best of the 5.

I came away from X-Men: First Class feeling strangely apathetic.  I think James Berardinelli's review is pretty spot-on.  Says Berardinelli:

"The easiest way to summarize my reaction to X-Men: First Class is with a shrug. The movie is competently made (and not in 3-D, thankfully), has some nice action sequences, tells its story with workmanlike efficiency, and will probably please fans of the comic books. None of these things, however, could chase away the feeling of indifference that settled over me as I watched the movie unfold.  X-Men: First Class is not only a prequel to the popular cinematic series about Charles Xavier and his merry band of mutants, but it's an "origin story."  And therein lies the problem. Origin stories, by their nature, are less about telling compelling tales than assembling all the pieces. In road trips, the journey matters more than the destination - in origin stories, the journey is irrelevant as long as, when it comes time for the end credits, everyone is where we expect them to be. It's difficult to surprise, tough to become immersed in a narrative when there's a checklist in the back of the mind of things that have to happen. This impediment is not unique to X-Men: First Class. It's a universal prequel problem, and one of the reasons why superior prequels are hard to find."

That said, there's certainly stuff to be admired here besides the aforementioned.  The Cold War allows for an intriguing plot setting that blends real life historical events with political espionage fiction.  This was always going to be Charles' and Erik's movie, and McAvoy and Fassbender are terrific in their respective roles.  They play a critical part in selling the mythology, their opposing views sharply developed throughout the era's rising anti-mutant sentiment.  It's unfortunate how much momentum is lost whenever the story veers away from their relationship and the antagonistic clash with big baddie Sebastian Shaw.  (Played with villainous appeal by Kevin Bacon.)  The younger, 'first class' mutant characters are throwaways, as are Shaw's own henchmen -- though there are a few entertaining sequences involving the usage of their powers, particularly during an obligatory training montage, and the final end battle.  I do approve of the way they handled Mystique, though.  Interesting choices were made concerning her back story, and Jennifer Lawrence plays up her vulnerability and eventual resolve nicely.

I echo Wanderer's sentiments: outside of the track "X-Training," I found Henry Jackman's score to be woefully unmemorable.  The electric guitars make for an interesting sonic edge, but without a strong thematic knot, they're really only there for texture.  I don't want to write off Jackman completely for 2011 just yet; I'm still very much looking forward to Winnie the Pooh, which will hopefully allow him to flex his thematic muscles a little more freely.

To quote Chud.com's Renn Brown: "The film comes from a solid place conceptually, but looking at the execution it becomes a much more complicated picture in which brilliant performances, painfully cheesy moments, energetic pacing, occasionally dodgy effects/action, and fun comic book sensibilities all collide together."  The pros certainly outweigh the cons, but again, that feeling of predictability is palpable enough to bring the film down a few notches in my book.  As a one-off prequel, X-Men: First Class should be considered a success, but I wish the filmmakers left things a little more open-ended, and to the imagination.

I liked it, best of the 5 for me.  I know prequels are hard to gauge, but in terms of film-making, I think it did the job just fine.

I really DISLIKED this movie. I thought the dialogue was terrible, plot was weak at best (and nothing, absolutely nothing, new), it was dull, too long, disjointed, and far too predictable (even for a prequel). I even though the special effects were dull, and frankly rather poor. After the movie one girl said she had fallen asleep during the film. I was jealous. Sleep would have been a much better use of time than watching the film. Surprised by the fact that I enjoyed Thor, I figured with the good reviews X-men should be decent too. Wrong, I was so wrong...

However, I hope to wash away the bitter taste that is X-men with Cave of Forgotten Dreams ...

I thought First Class was poorly paced and just altogether forgettable. It was also far too cheeky and "self aware" - I mean two jokes about Charles losing his hair? Really? Vaughn's a good enough director, I just think the rushed production schedule Fox forced upon him wound up hurting the film. I always love Fassbender though, and Jason Flemyng looked fantastic as Azazel.

Finally saw it and enjoyed it quite a bit.  Can't say if I'd place it above the first and second movies until I've seen it a second time but this is the first movie in a while I'm even planning to do that for (True Grit was the last).  It's certainly worlds beyond the badly directed X-Men 3 and the atrocious Wolverine prequel, as well as Vaughn's most recent effort Kick Ass.

I thought the "first class" characters were fairly well fleshed out for their limited roles (Beast and Mystique in particular; Havoc and Banshee were established as members of the team but that was about it).  Keven Bacon does indeed make a good bad guy and while the supporting villains mainly just look menacing and do bad things is that ever not the case with these movies?  And as mentioned this is meant to be Charles and Erik's movie and both actors fill those roles very well.

The two most interesting aspects of the movie to me were that the parallels to the earlier films are immense and that it really does establish pretty much every story element leading into the original film.  To what degree those are good or bad things is subjective but considering the film's status as both a reboot and a prequel it's hard to argue too strongly against them.

The effects - excluding the awful makeup for Beast - were up to snuff and the action was visceral and I thought pretty exciting, though I was more impressed by the first two big action set pieces than the final one.  And sure there were some cheesy lines in there spoiling otherwise respectable writing but again how many comic book movies are immune to that?  (Those who swear by The Dark Knight should notice that though the writing may rarely get comic-book cheesy it does get far too self-important and preachy at times.)

The score was serviceable until when in the third act the composer feels compelled to prove that he has composed a heroic main theme by blasting it at the audience at every chance.  Loved the use of the Gnarles Barkley song during the recruiting montage though and even found myself humming the end credits song (even if it sounds more like an '80s homage than a '60s one).

Certainly the movie could have been better in places but as a casual childhood reader of the comics who has always looked forward to the movie adaptations with great anticipation I came away both satisfied and hungry for more, which is more than I can say for the previous two installments.

Thems fightin' words, boss man.  Kick-Ass remains to be Vaughn's magnum opus in my eyes, and one of the most enjoyable superhero flicks in recent memory.  Direction-wise, I think Vaughn showed off far more confidence in Kick-Ass than in X-Men, thanks in part to little to no studio intervention.

Kick Ass without a doubt ranks in my top 10 of movies in the last... good 5 years at least.  I really just had a ton of fun with that one.  First Class doesn't come close to touching it in any way, shape, or form.

>Kick-Ass

Most of the appeal of that flick for me was just the little girl. I could watch an hour straight of her cussing and slapping people's shit. Mika's eponymous theme song didn't hurt none, either.

The parts where Magneto is searching for the Nazis were good. The slow panning from left-to-right to move from characters made me laugh. The entire scene where we have to listen to the "uplifting music" where each character learns how to use their powers was super cheesy and annoying. Some of the mutants were really lame (Banshee and Starscream or whatever).

2/5