The ‘X-Men’ film series is very much like a roller-coaster in terms of quality. The original film that started the series was great, and the series continued its upward transition with the even better ‘X2’, arguably the best of the trilogy and one of the best superhero films in the past decade. With the entertaining, yet shallow ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’, and the relatively unimportant Wolverine prequel, the series’ quality aimed straight towards the ground and hit rock-bottom. With ‘X-Men: First Class’, the series returns back to form, rivaling ‘X2: X-Men United’ as possibly the best film of the franchise.

‘X-Men: First Class’ is a prequel of sorts, as well as a reboot, to the original ‘X-Men’ trilogy. Some of the major characters from the original trilogy appear in younger forms in ‘First Class’ and their pasts are explored. It’s captivating to see how much changes between this new film and the original trilogy, with Professor X and Magneto starting off as best friends and ending as rivals. Yes, we all know the basics of the relationship between the two of them, but exploring this relationship in depth in ‘First Class’ is a trip worth taking.

Replacing Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier is the wonderful James McAvoy (‘Atonement’), and Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto is now played by the just-as-wonderful Michael Fassbender (‘Jane Eyre’ & ‘Inglourious Basterds’) instead of Ian McKellen. McAvoy and Fassbender portray their respective characters to the fullest extent, and the chemistry between the two of them is great, generating a convincing friendship-rivalry.

The film explores the early lives of Charles and Erik in a great fashion, showing how polar opposite their lives are, and how their specific experiences shaped the two into who they are. Erik loses his mother in a Nazi concentration camp as a child, whereas Charles resides in a wealthy estate and meets a young Raven, aka Mystique. Erik grows up to be a vengeful man hunting down ex-Nazis in an entertainingly “James Bond” fashion, whereas Charles flirts with women and is a recent Oxford graduate. The two men cross paths when Charles is recruited by Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne from ‘Bridesmaids‘) and the CIA to combat Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and his team of sexy mutants, the Hellfire Club. Shaw is also the main person Erik is tracking down, for he’s the one who’s influenced Erik and his powers the most.

The Hellfire Club consists of a telepathic, diamond-bodied Emma Frost (January Jones), the teleporter (and an even more interesting version of Nightcrawler from ‘X2’) Azazel (Jason Flemyng), and Riptide (Alex Gonzalez), who can generate whirlwinds from his hands. Along the way Charles is forced to form his own team of young, teenage mutants, including a younger Beast (Nicholas Hoult) than from ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’; Banshee (Caleb Landry Jones), who has the ability of supersonic screaming and flight; Havok (Lucas Till), with his ability to generate energy discs; Darwin (Edi Gathegi), with the extremely amazing ability to adapt to his environment; and Angel (Zoe Kravitz), a different and more interesting version than the Angel from ‘The Last Stand’. Oh, and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence of ‘Winter’s Bone’ fame) is also on the team, having grown up with Charles as best friends.

The plot of ‘X-Men: First Class’ involves nuclear warfare and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Sebastian Shaw plans to use the impending World War III and nuclear devastation to his advantage and for reasons I refuse to explain, as to reveal as less of the film as possible. The film blends the 1960’s time-period and history of the Cuban Missile Crisis into its storyline seamlessly, and it’s actually quite refreshing experiencing an ‘X-Men’ film in a different setting and time-period.

Director Matthew Vaughn (‘Stardust’, ‘Kick-Ass‘) has done something truly special by bringing back greatness to the ‘X-Men’ film franchise. Vaughn directs ‘First Class’  with unique style, and the film also benefits from the strong and briskly-paced script. For the most part the acting is solid throughout, with some notable exceptions (er-hum, January Jones). James McAvoy and Fassbender are, again, truly remarkable as the two leads in the film, and as some of the most famous comic-book characters of all time.

Three and a half out of four Kents.

Extra Notes:

• ‘X-Men: First Class’ features a couple of brief, but great cameos by actors/characters from the original trilogy. The first notable cameo is one of the best cameos in a film I can think of, and it also features the only F-bomb in the film, humorously.

• The transformation scene for ‘Beast’ in this film is pretty amazing. It’s presented from Hank McCoy’s actual point of view, which is pretty interesting and great.

• Matthew Vaughn was actually going to direct the third ‘X-Men’ film in the original trilogy before dropping out just weeks before filming. He’s one of the major critics of ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’, and after seeing how great ‘First Class’ is, I can only imagine how much better the third ‘X-Men’ film would have been if Vaughn ended up directing it.

• This film is both a prequel and a reboot to the franchise because (1) it’s a prequel by exploring the past of major characters from the original trilogy and (2) it’s a reboot because some events from ‘First Class’ are different from those of the original trilogy (such as the exact time-period Charles Xavier becomes paralyzed, and exactly who created Cerebro).

• Seeing how close Mystique is to Xavier and Hank McCoy/Beast in this film makes the original trilogy all the more tragic, seeing as how she is a deadly antagonist in the trilogy.

• Bryan Singer, the talented director of the first two ‘X-Men’ films (and also ‘Superman Returns’), is back in this film as producer. But he’s currently in talks to direct a fourth film to the original trilogy. Hopefully that works out! But I also can’t wait to see what they do with future installments after ‘First Class’, which is supposed to be the first film to a new trilogy.

• I honestly believe ‘X-Men: First Class’ is one of the best comic-book/superhero films ever made in recent memory. Of all the superhero films this summer (‘Thor‘, ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, ‘Green Lantern’), ‘First Class’ is probably going to stay as the best of the bunch. I have no doubt.

• I have no idea why this film has good trailers, but terrible movie posters. Really, they’re reaaaally bad.