X-Men First Class

After the success of the first two Brian Singer directed films, the X-Men frachise took something of a nosedive through the messy Last Stand and the hugely disappointing Wolverine prequel. Once again we return to prequel territory with this origins story. On paper there was reason to be optimistic - the director's chair was taken by Matthew Vaughn (fresh off the success of Kick Ass) and the cast includes Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones and Kevin Bacon.

So, does this film work to heave the franchise back on track. The answer would be an almost unqualified Yes. Almost unqualified in that it has some faults - it probably tries to introduce too many characters so that some are poorly served - Riptide has little to do and less to say and some of the new characters' powers are either a bit derivative of previous characters (Havoc) or just a bit naff. But on the whole it works very well.

Vaughn, re-teaming with Kick Ass scripter Jane Goldman, has delivered a film which combines a bit of wit and humour with some good characters and some great action set pieces. The final battle of the coast of Cuba is one of the best handled and most thrilling finales to a superhero movie for a long time. In fact, the period, the tone and setting in the Cuban missile crisis gives this the feel of something akin to a Connery era bond movie, only with mutant superpowers and echoes of the Anakin/Vader plot from Star Wars.

As for the cast, the stand-out is Fassbender who makes a startingly good young Ian McKellen and brings some depth to the role. McAvoy struggles a bit more to live up to Patrick Stewart (hence repeated jokes about not wanting to lose his hair) but generally holds his own well enough. Of the others, Winter's Bone's Lawrence makes for a sympathetic Mystique, Nicholas Hoult brings pathos to the role of Beast and Mad Men's January Jones makes a great Femme Fatale as Emma Frost. It goes without saying that Kevin Bacon also makes  superb villain. Also watch out for brief cameos from Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romjin from the first films.

Overall - 7.5/10 First Class superhero flick and franchise firmly back on track.