X-men: First Class, No Strings Attached

I was a fan of the X-men comics when I was younger, reading them regularly through the first part of college. Therefore I attend every film iteration with a certain amount of apprehension. First rule of Comic Book Movies: this shit ain’t the comic books.

If you go in expecting a literal translation, you’re going to be disappointed. Sometimes it’s for the better (Watchmen) and sometimes it’s horrible (X-men Origins: Wolverine, Elektra, Daredevil, almost everything not Batman) and sometimes it hits the middleground.

Here’s what makes First Class great: McAvoy and Fassbender CLEARLY enjoying the shit out of their roles and playing the subtext (and the 60s) for all it’s worth and writing good enough that you feel free to ignore the shit that isn’t great. *cough*JanuaryJones*cough* Seriously, Fassbender was great. It was excellent to see Magneto precisely as bad ass as you always knew he was. And McAvoy’s Xavier is awesomely smarmy and elitest until he has to re-evaluate things.

I loved what they did with Mystique, I loved that they blurred the good/evil lines between Xavier’s school and the Brotherhood of Mutants. Kevin Bacon was kind of fantastic and yeah, January Jones played Emma Frost stony vs. icy (though to be fair, I think she played the only role she’s ever played) which was my least favorite part. In all, though, it was a FUN watch. I haven’t had that much fun in a reboot since Star Trek.

I can’t wait for Disco mutants, that’s all I’m saying.

We rented No Strings Attached from RedBox and I’m not going to lie, I wanted to hate it. I saw all the gross previews AND it’s got Ashton Kutcher but holy shit, I laughed out loud. It wasn’t just that, either. If you’re tired of the comedies where the dudes are emotionally crippled and the wives/girlfriends/love interests are naggy bitches you want to see this film. Portman does an admirable job as a commitment-phobic med student, making her character sympathetic and funny. Kutcher’s character is more dimensional than the previews would lead you to believe and we enjoyed it, despite all predictions.

Also in the rental queue was The American, a beautifully shot and incredibly boring film. Spouse made the mistake of getting up to get pizza in the last 10 minutes – where neither of us expected that all of the action would take place. To illustrate how boring it was, he was perfectly happy to have me recap it rather than skipping back to re-play it.

I boxed up a bunch of donation items today and with any luck will drop them off tomorrow. Then I get to start looking for more stuff to give away.