Reviews@24 Panels: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS (2011)

The opening of Bryan Singer's X-Men (2000) signaled its intentions as a weighty and serious comic book film, especially compared to the frivolousness the Batman franchise of the 1990s had become. That film's prologue, showing a young boy in a concentration camp being separated from his mother, is particularly effective and rather shocking. Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class opens exactly the same way – Vaughn painstakingly recreates the scene from Singer’s film right down to the camera angles and editing. It’s a bold, curious move and its intentions aren't exactly clear, but with it Vaughn's prequel essentially reboots the franchise (Preboot? C'mon people, help me out).

Reviews@24 Panels: X-MEN (2000)

[To sort of piggy-back on the episode of X-Men: The Last Stand, I thought I would go back and revisit all five of the X-Men films.]

The X-Men comics have long been one of the most politically-charged series, giving the film franchise the potential to do the same. Released in 2000, Bryan Singer's X-Men focuses on the origins and introductions of a handful of characters familiar to comics readers: Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Cyclops (James Marsden), Storm (Halle Berry), Jean Grey (Famke Jannsen), among others. The plot of the film hinges on a plan by Senator Robert Kelley (Bruce Davison) to enact a Mutant Registration Act, whereby mutants are to be publicly identified or “outed,” if you will. Professor X and Magneto have opposing approaches on the advocation of mutant rights, echoing Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the civil rights movement of the 1960s.