We all know there are films with a lot of characters but not all of them leave a lasting impression. X men First class stands out as one of those films where you walk away only remembering a few—and that’s me being generous—key performances. Magneto is the real star of the movie, and pretty much all following films. His relationship with Xavier is made front and center in the entire set of prequels but the two characters aren’t equal in quality. Naturally, it’s going to seem unusual for the villain supremacist, Magneto, be a stronger character than the hero preaching peace and equality—Xavier. But, as always, what you write the characters to work with is key. Take a closer look.

Set the stage:

· Plot is pretty straightforward, as is X-Men style. Depending on your heroes, the tone of the movie will change. I expect a darker tone for a Spiderman movie than for Fantastic Four. Spider man was inspired off of Hamlet. The Fantastic Four were supposed to be an arguing family made into New York celebrities/heroes. The story for X-Men First Class could literally be the plot of one of the old X-Men cartoon episodes. It’s a prequel, so we meet everybody for the first time. We see Xavier’s journey to making a school for gifted youngsters—an idea that initially Raven (Mystique) and Erik (Magento) are on board with. Naturally, if you know X Men—Erik and Charles have very different ideas about how mutants should interact with the world. Charles wants to coexist peacefully and defend the world. Erik believes mutants to be superior to the normal world and wants to take power over it. There’s a split between the two and the students Charles presently has choose between which ideology they wish to pursue: Charles or Erik’s.

How is it a Magneto movie and not a Charles Xavier story?

When it comes to writing characters, don’t ever take for granted that your hero will be more compelling than your villain. It all depends on the way you write it and details matter. Naturally, we can acknowledge a villain is wrong and a hero is right ideologically speaking, but how you present them helps with who the audience is rooting for or more taken with. The film opens with Magneto’s backstory, we sympathize with his tragedy, he’s the most driven and motivated, and the villain is a ghost from his past. Let’s contrast Magneto and Xavier as characters:

·  Backstories:

• In 1944, Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr at the time), is a young Jewish boy in a German concentration camp. He’s separated from his mother and his mutant ability shows but he can’t control it. Nonetheless, it takes about a dozen guards to hold onto him. Young Erik is taken to a Nazi scientist named, Schmidt, who tells him to use his ability to control metal and move a coin. When Erik can’t, Schmidt shoots his mother. We see the horrible ordeal Erik has been through and the kind of prejudice he faced before even knowing he was a mutant. We sympathize with him and see where he’s coming from—a horrific place of hate and oppression. Erik’s history in Nazi Germany shows why he takes the oppression of mutants in present day so seriously. He comes from a history of people who were dehumanized and killed simply because of their heritage.

• Around the same time, we meet Charles Xavier as a small boy who lives in a mansion because his parents are filthy rich. He finds a young Raven looking for food and takes her in. (It is never explained how he does this without his parents knowing). We aren’t given any insight as to where Charles’ parents are—they might be negligent but we don’t know, it’s never confirmed. All we know is Charles is a mutant, with compassion for others like him.

  None of that is bad as part of a backstory, but it isn’t too detailed or complex. Yes, not everyone needs to have the same level of tragedy in their backstories and two very different lives are certainly being contrasted, but it’s obvious who the audience feels more for. Which character backstory has our attention?

·  Current lives

• Erik is a grown man hunting down former Nazis, trying to find the man who murdered his mother right in front of him. He has a goal—revenge and we kind of want him to succeed. We want justice. There’s nothing wrong with wanting this man dead. He is a mass murdering Nazi. Erik’s motivation is consistent throughout the film and after witnessing the tragedy which motivates him, the audience feels it.

• In present day, Charles is partying and getting drunk in bars, flirting with girls and giving them all the same pick up line about “groovy mutations” because they have nice eyes or whatever. All the while, his surrogate sister, Raven, is forced to sit by and watch him act like a college frat boy. We get that Charles has taken care of Raven, but he hasn’t made her feel very comfortable about who she is. He doesn’t seem to listen to her or communicate with her. He seems to ask her more than once “What’s gotten into you?” but he never seems to finish the conversation. He’s interested in making mutants accepted but he doesn’t seem to take time to understand Raven whos’ been his lifelong friend. Charles isn’t a bad person, but he doesn’t have very strong or sympathetic motivations.

  Again, which character seems to be driving the plot and who do we sympathize with?

·  Goals

-Erik wants revenge on Schmidt (now going by Shaw) who has managed to stay young all this time due to being an energy absorbing mutant whose powers de-aged him. Shaw wants to start World War III and put mutants in power. The villain is directly connected to Erik, not Charles.

-Charles is simply partying and getting his degree until the CIA come to him needing his help to stop, Shaw. It looks like the only reason he listens is because the CIA sends an attractive woman. Then, he starts recruiting mutants and he forms a strong bond with Erik after saving his life.

Charles isn’t a bad character, it’s just clear why this is a Magneto movie.

·   Relationship with their ladies (Raven and Moira)

-Erik pretty much leaves Raven alone the entire movie, except for popping up to stop her from kissing Hank(thank goodness) and giving her the occasional advice about being more confident in herself. You can tell he views her as a child as doesn’t want anything romantic from her until she kind of grows up (acts like an adult). Erik doesn’t pursue her while she’s throwing herself at beast. When they do get together it’s her lifelong insecurity and his mutant pride that seal the deal. I also know we needed a reason for her to be naked because she is in the original movies, but Erik’s reasoning is absolute nonsense. We don’t see Beast or Red demon guy going around naked to show their mutant pride. *Rolls eyes. I like Erik’s relationship with Raven, as much as I can enjoy a relationship between flawed villains. It lines up with both of their character arcs for this film. Raven has felt ignored and unnoticed most of her life, even her friend Charles doesn’t seem invested in what she wants or thinks. Erik finally gives Raven acceptance and validation for who she is which is all it takes for her to change sides. It gives a reason for her attachment and fierce loyalty to him in the original movies (because he found her special and basically gave her self-confidence and worth). It was fast, but I’m the kind of person who can read into things with very little.

-Xavier’s relationship with Moira is non-existent. They don’t talk or have any pivotal interactions. He thinks she’s pretty and she likes his accent. We’ve seen Charles hit on everything female the entire film. Whenever there’s a guy character that seems to just flippantly chase women and then magically meet one who’s “not like other girls” and change his mind, its a hard sell. Charles and Moira have no special interaction. And she has nothing spectacular as a character to recommend herself.

Where did the movie fall short?

·  Beast (Hank McCoy) was completely ruined. The Beast I’m used to is a Shakespearian quoting, lover of Literature, who’s simultaneously gentle yet animalistic. What I got was a nerdy little pervert. I hate it when people think nerds are harmless just because they’re emasculated and wear glasses. This doesn’t mean they can’t be perverts. Raven spends most of the movie throwing herself at him and he has no reaction, it’s like he expects her to. He only wants to cure himself of having big feet. I also won’t give a guy credit for liking Jennifer Lawrence in a mini skirt. It’s obvious why he stares at her. Duh. He gives Raven dumb guy speech how he likes her better in her non blue form and can cure her of having to be sooo ugly. Yeah right, like any guy thinks Mystique is ugly because she has blue skin. Give me a break. We don’t like the humans because they’re supposed to be racist. I think we should stay away from you, Hank. Hank also turns himself into Beast by using his “cure.” I wonder if that was the case, couldn’t he turn himself back and just have big feet again?    

·  Raven didn’t really have much of an arc, other than being desperate and then going with Magneto. She didn’t do anything this whole movie other than act like a fun college girl and wear ridiculously short skirts. In the original films, she’s an excellent fighter and very good at undercover work. I kind of liked and was confused by her relationship with Charles. She seemed to like him at the beginning of the movie, probably out of mere desperation and lack of options. It’s an understandable character flaw for Charles to be selfishly oblivious to Raven’s desire for attention and validation, but it made their relationship a confusing one.

·  Unnecessary smut! Why did we need two strip club scenes, and a gross mental seduction scene by Emma Frost to pervy old General? We even got sexy naked mannequins for the training sequences. The Director was trying to fill some kind of smut rating here, but we didn’t need it. Moira goes from being a respected CIA agent to being so ready to strip in two seconds. It makes her look sleazy and we suddenly don’t take her seriously. In Nikita, she often has to go undercover and wear revealing clothes or flirt with dirt bags, but you can tell she loathes it. Most women are forced to do that kind of undercover work. No one tells Moira to do it, she doesn’t even tell her partner to look away. It was one of those scenes clearly added for eye candy and viewer enjoyment that made no sense. Moira also just doesn’t have much of a character arc period in this movie.

·  The forced dislike of humans. Erik is a villain, he can be a hypocrite. He hates humans, yet the person he loved most, his mother, was a human. However, the movie tries to make humans look bad in the scene where the mutants are being protected by CIA. The CIA mock some of the mutant kids, but they are also the ones dying by the dozens to protect them when Shaw arrives. We then have one CIA agent beg for his life, offering to turn over the mutants, but that was one guy. I guess all the others who died protecting you didn’t matter. They were all racist humans. This is an example of seeing the trees instead of the forest. I also feel the recruitment of Angel was forced and Azazel shouldn’t be able to kill that many agents so easily.

The Finale…some good and some bad:

• The good: The plot was woven together well and the stage was set for all of our key characters to make a choice. Their mistakes and character flaws have led them to the position we arrive at in the finale battle so the audience knows what’s coming, but the characters don’t. Charles is blind to the fact his best friend is turning into a super villain who hates humans, and that Raven is being seduced into his beliefs of mutant supremacy. Charles trusts them on the final mission and as a result tragedy ensues. Charles wanting to defend the humans from Erik even when they’re about to fire on the beach and kill them all was a noble effort, showing he truly believes there can be peace between humans and mutants. Erik eventually turning on the humans, and Charles, has been coming the whole film and has been well led up to, as well as his executing Shaw with poetic justice by moving the coin.

• The bad:

  -I don’t understand Charles being so adverse to the killing of Shaw. He’s literally a Nazi—it would be difficult to find a worse human being on the face of the earth. Unless, Charles screaming dramatically was because his head was ringing from using his telepathy powers, the dramatic reaction to Shaw’s death makes no sense.

  -Mystique leaving Charles for Erik wasn’t treated properly. In the next film, “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” the writers must have realized this because Charles is drunk and depressed lamenting the absence of Raven. In this film, he tells Raven to go with Erik.

  What?

  Charles just saw Erik turn missiles on innocent people, and he wants his childhood friend/sister figure to leave with him? I question the decision making. It felt like he said that because the plot needed him to. Raven also seems unnecessarily sadistic (and this is coming from someone who isn’t Charles’ biggest fan) by kneeling next to Charles and talking as if her choice to go with the man who got him crippled is totally justified. Charles might not be perfect but he has taken care of Raven her whole life and he just got shot in the spine—he’ll never walk again, but Raven thinks that’s an acceptable loss and doesn’t even look guilty about leaving him. She has to go with Magneto, we know that by them being together in future films, but it could have been played differently.

  -Charles is supposed to believe there can be peace between mutants and humans, he’s suppose to have more faith in mankind than, Erik. But he erases Moira’s memory and doesn’t trust her—oh yeah, and its right after he kisses her. Charles sends her back to her superiors at the CIA with no memory of anything but the kiss (which wasn’t that awesome), and were supposed to think its funny. But, ultimately, it makes Charles look manipulative and untrusting. Later in the prequel series he needs help from Moira and we’re supposed to believe he “loved” her when he didn’t even trust her to keep his secret. I guess Charles had to leave the memory of the kiss for egotistical reasons.

Overall, the movie was entertaining and funny at times. Magneto was handled very well and the film basically followed his revenge arc/journey to becoming a villain. I did like his relationship with Xavier and Mystique. I liked how he kept her silly nickname for him at the end of the movie as his villain title. Some characters and scenes were lacking, but it was not a bad start into the mess that became the X-Men universe of prequals.

-Hannah