X-Men: First Class - Triple Play (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy)

I saw the movie at the cinema on the first day of release and was blown away, the DVD although very light on extras, just a few extended scenes, is superb.
Forget about the Marvel comics history and any time-line inconsistencies with the other X-Men movies and just enjoy it for what it is, a valiant attempt to knit together an original version of the birth of the X-men and what drove Charles and Erik apart set against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis.
It ties in well with several elements from the first movie, the concentration camp scenes and the fact that Charles and Erik were once close friends but to its credit it delves into the past of other major characters especially Mystique and Beast but also Banshee, Havok and not forgetting Emma Frost and Moira MacTaggert.
Kevin Bacon is well cast as Sebastian shaw, no Hellfire Club but a credible background story of an attempt to kickstart nuclear war in order to create mutations, the children of the atom. I won't grumble at the lack of others from the club as most of Emma Frost's appearances are quite memorable.
Not all the new to the screen mutant characters work but most fit into the movie fairly well.
There's lots of nods towards the X-universe with brief appearances by Cyclops and Storm as well as noteable cameos by Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn.
Not sure where the X-Men franchise will go from here but the way the movie pans out means that there is plenty of scope for a sequel with the emergence of a new Brotherhood.

Continuing on from X-Men Origins: Wolverine [DVD] in telling the back story of how characters in the X-Men [DVD] [2000] got to the point where they were at the start of that one, it's now time for the story of everyone who isn't Wolverine.

We thus start with the concentration camp scene from the beginning of x men, but played from a different angle. As a nazi who has a slightly different bunch of eugenics theories to his comrades takes an interest in the abilities of young eric.

Meantime in a big house in america young charles xavier and a young girl both find that they're not as alone in life as they thought.

Flash forward to the 1960s and a hirsute charles is on the verge of a professorship, thanks to his theories about evolution. Telepathy comes in very handy when youre trying to chat up the ladies.

Eric is all grown up and on mission to get revenge on those who did for his parents.

CIA agent Moira Mctaggart, a lone lady agent amongst men who think women should stay in the typing pool, is fighting hard to do her job and be taken seriously.

A certain nazi hasn't gone away. And has his own plans for the future of the planet.

And the Russians aren't taking kindly to nato putting missles into turkey.

A missile crisis is upon us. With hidden forces pulling strings behind the scenes, it might be up to charles and his band of special people to save the day. But not everyone may agree on the way to do that. Or think that humanity is worth saving.

This doesn't have as much exposition to get through as Wolverine did, although it does have to introduce a lot of characters and get them to a certain point. Plus be a good blockbuster at the same time. And throw in the usual moral debates about whether erik or charles has the best approach to the mutants v humanity situation.

It does all that it needs to do very well. James Mcavoy does command the screen very well as the young charles, making him a calm but commanding presence. And he plays off Michael Fassbender - barely suppressed anger throughout - superbly. All the claims that the latter might be a good james bond would, on the basis of this, appear to be justified.

A long film at 132 minutes but after a little while you will find it commanding your attention. If offers x men characters who both have and haven't been seen on the big screen before. And the final action set piece is one of those that does seem to go and on and yet in this case it doesn't feel stretched. It plays out exactly as it should. It also manages an excellent aerial combat scene that hardly has to resort to superimposiiton.

Kevin Bacon makes a superb villain. Some of the female characters don't quite make as much of an impact as most of the males. But that's the 1960's for you. It is also very good as a period piece. And the burgeoning attraction between shy science guy hank mccoy and mystique is delightfully and quite touchingly played.

There is one delightful surprise to be had about a third of the way through. You'll know what I mean when you see it.

But for once in a marvel movie there are no extra scene during or after the end credits.

Matthew Vaughn this finally gets to direct an x men movie. And he did a really good job.

The dvd has the following language and subtitle options:

Languages: English.

Subtitles: English.

English audio descriptive.

It has a digital copy that can be downloaded to other media allowing you to watch it wherever you like. A short piece about this at the start of the disc can be skipped via the next button on the dvd remote.

The only extras are five extended scenes. Four from the training moments in the middle of the movie and one character scene. All run a little over a minute each and can be watched on their own or all in a row.

Wildly entertaining "X-Men: First Class" works amazingly well as both a prequel to the trilogy (there are inconsistencies between this film and the third one but it's also been suggested by the makers of this that it is a reboot since Professor Xavier and Magneto are working together in the third film and Professor X can walk in the third film and "Wolverine")and on its own even if you haven't seen the other films. It's refreshing particularly after "X-Men: The Last Stand" which had some major dramatic flaws.

I'm going to skip the plot of the film because that's been well covered elsewhere except suffice to say that this is where Professor Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender)first meet and try to stop Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon)a mutant determined to wipe out humanity.

Evidently "X-Men: First Class" doesn't play on all Blu-ray players (most notably some of the 3D players and Samsung)so be aware that until they develop firmware updates it will be a problem for some players. I'd suggest shutting off your BD Live if it is Playstation related as that sometimes will also slow down the loading of the BD.

The image quality for "X-Men: First Class" is top notch with a brilliant, sharp and colorful presentation.

The Blu-ray features a number of cool extras including "Cerebro: Mutant Tracker" allowing you to track your favorite mutants and see exclusive videos, profiles, etc.

"Children of the Atom" a multi-part documentary on the making of the film focusing on the origin of the story and the obvious James Bond influence on many sequences of the film. We also get deleted and extended scenes (some of which if director Matthew Vaughn had been allowed to add them back in would have worked quite well for home video)and an isolated score by composer Henry Jackman.

There's also an "X Marks the Spot" enhanced viewing mode allowing one of eight featurettes to pop up as you're watching the film.

The film also comes with BD-Live enabled content including exclusive "proof of concept" footage of the aerial dogfight between Angel and Banshee, a digital copy of the film for PC's. You can also access 10 free X-Men comics in digital format online but you do have to register with Marvel.com.

Over all "X-Men: First Class" is a top notch film with a heck of a lot of plot packed into it's 2 hour and 12 minute running time. Part of the success of the film certainly can be attributed to director Mathew Vaughn's (who, interestingly, was originally to direct "X Men: The Last Stand" after Bryan Singer departed but before Brett Ratner stepped in) unique take on the material as well as Bryan Singer's involvement again (and let's not forget the producers and the scriptwriters, the original comic book creators, etc.)with the series.

The film manages to be both entertaining while also having a conscience a rare thing in a big Hollywood production these days.

After "X2" this is the finest of the series of films.

Highly recommended.