newjerseynewsroom.com

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

MOVIE REVIEW

The summer is saved! By mutants!

At last, there is a superhero movie that lives up to its name, "X-Men First Class," a riveting adventure whose characters are as good as its special effects.

If ever there were a series that seemed played out, it was Marvel's X-Men. Since Bryan Singer's interesting original in 2000, three increasingly dull sequels left the titular mutants as bloodless as vampire victims.

But neither Marvel nor 20th Century Fox was going to walk away when there was any chance to squeeze another drop from this downed cash cow. The early signs were not good. Director Matthew Vaughn ("Kick-Ass") is but one of four listed screenwriters, with two others credited with the story.

In Hollywood, "returning to the roots" of a series, that is, going with younger, cheaper actors, is always an option. The template is usually "Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach," with its useful pair of colons. Just look at J.J. Abrams' recent "Star Trek For Dummies."

In the case of "X-Men," though, the origin story takes us back to Auschwitz in 1944, where a young Jewish boy using the name Erik Lehnsherr is discovered to have a mental power to manipulate metal. That is not happy news, as Erik becomes the lab subject of mad geneticist Sebastian Shaw, a suavely creepy Kevin Bacon.

Meanwhile, telepath Charles Xavier has a much more comfortable upbringing, with his avenue to success leading to Oxford. Along the way, he has picked up a "sister," Raven, a secret shapeshifter.

Some of this tweaks the original storyline of the comics. But those comics that become classic are mutable tales, able to withstand updates and revisions. For the audience, it helps that this Charles Xavier is James McAvoy ("The Last King of Scotland") and this Raven is the excellent Jennifer Lawrence of "Winter's Bone."

For plot purposes, it is also important that Charles has also become a recognized expert on mutation. So he's just the man smart, skinny CIA agent Moira McTaggart needs to help explain some startling sights she has seen in Las Vegas in 1962.

As it happens, McTaggart, well played by Rose Byrne, is the only one in the company with the brains to realize there are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of by Director John McCone.

McTaggart has discovered a plot by that self-same Sebastian Shaw. As it turns out, he too is a mutant, one still dreaming of a master race. Shaw pits the impressionable military and intelligence apparatchicki of the Soviet Union and United States against each other.

Shaw has already recruited other mutants, notably the always welcome January Jones of "Mad Men" as Emma Frost, whose talents are as chilling as her curves are thrilling. But little Erik, now grown up into handsome Michael Fassbender, nicknamed Magneto, is on his trail.

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