X-Men First Class : Stylish first trailer defies expectations

Matthew Vaughn is a very interesting filmmaker. With  the first look at X-Men: First Class now available online, I find myself caught between two reactions. The trailer both defies my expectations for the film and manage to deliver exactly what I should expect from a director like Vaughn.

It was only the other day in my post for the Superman Classic short film, that I commented on a desire to see more comic book movies with a period setting. I can't believe I'd forgotten all about First Class. If there is one thing this trailer does well, it's set up this alternate history Earth where Mutants got caught up in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

At the moment, this setup most echoes Watchmen, but like I've previously discussed, it's great that movies like this and Captain America are doing the period setting. X-Men was born in the 60s, and it deserves to start there. It provides a short hand richness to the world that makes it all the more believable than the 'few year from now' setting the first three movies used.

It's also exciting to see them sidestep a teaser and go straight to showing us all a good glimpse of the footage, while still keeping the movie close to their chest. We've got plenty of mutant action, the costumes look much better in motion (and every body bitching about the 'parachute straps' needs to shut up as they're on a jet during this scene. makes sense to incorporate parachute straps to me), we've got a few intriguing hints in regards to the Hellfire Club as well as a snippet of what appears to be Vaughn's largest action scene yet. (Magneto pulling a submarine from the water? wow).

Click though for the embed.

This is the sort of film making I've come to expect from Vaughn, who has thus far demonstrated an amazing capability to shift from genre-to-genre, deconstructing the tropes and formula of those pictures all while having his cake and eating it too. What I mean is that as much as hey might deconstruct those genres, they're also great examples of them. Layer Cake is one of my favourite British crime films (and helped launch Daniel Craig), Stardust is one of the best additions to the genre in nearly two decades and Kick-Ass has helped move the comic-book film past that stale and rote formula of origin tales (despite cleverly being one itself).

So if I'm expecting great things from Vaughn and co, how has this trailer managed to shatter low expectations? Simply put, this may be a Marvel property, but it's a Fox Studios film. Even a strong filmmaker like Bryan Singer had his hands tied (though that was early in the current comic-book film cycle) and Gavin Hood certainly got screwed during X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The less said about Ratner's entertaining if mind-numbingly stupid entry the better. There's been tales of interference and troubled shoots, really poorly received publicity photos and a weird bit of resentment towards Vaughn for abandoning X-Men: Last Stand in the first place. It's mostly the FOX thing, but we had a good reason to be wary of future X-Men movies.

What kind of weird mutant brothel bed sharing kinkiness is
going on here? Charles and Erik check out Angel. Fox Studios

I reserve the right to change my mind, but at this stage, I'd say any concerns are unfounded. Regardless of how you feel about McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender is inspired casting as Erik Lensherr (or any other role... ever). The vfx work looks solid, but it's a little strange how this film seems to be only partly taking place in established X-Men film continuity. The ages of all our main cast are a bit askew with their comic counterparts, but I've come to accept that sort of stuff with adaptations. It's just very exciting to see a period set X-Men movie with the classic blue and yellow uniforms that seems grown up enough to indulge in some Hellfire Club kinkiness. I have a really good feeling about how Captain America and Thor will turn out. The Spider-Man reboot I'm tentatively hopeful for. X-Men: First Class was in my 'we'll wait and see' pile of films, and it just got shifted to my 'can't wait to see it' pile. 

Dammit Vaughn, you've got me hooked.