X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence

ONE of the big summer blockbusters is upon us and it’s going to pull in the audiences without raising a sweat.

If you like the X-Men francise then you’ll be sold already.

Even if you’ve never seen Professor X (bald before but with a nice hair of hair this time), there’s still plenty of action to get you excited.

The story reveals how the professor (McAvoy) and Magneto (Fassbender) first met, became close friends and why they then became deadly enemies.

We also find out why The Beast is blue, the origin of the X-Men HQ and how the Cuban Missile crisis of the 1960s was, in fact, instigated by an evil mutant - who knew?

Kevin Bacon plays the aforementioned baddie and is convincing too.

In fact, for the most part, the acting is pretty good.

Also, watch out for a cameo from a favourite of the X-Men franchise which has seemingly been kept under wraps - so I’ll not spoil it either.

The effects, however, are the tour de force and we have all manner of mutations that are re-created well, from sonic screams, insect wings and big feet.

Only the most pedantic of Marvel comic readers would quibble at the Banshee character being transformed from a pipe-smoking middle-aged Irishman to a teenager with a strange accent.

Or Moira MacTaggert becoming American rather than Scottish and a CIA agent rather than a scientist.

So, overall, an action-packed film that rattles along. Though, if I had any quibble then it would be that the movie is a tad too long.

In fact, far too long for the guy next to me who ended up making owl noises with his hands and drumming sounds with his feet - or maybe he was just a mutant.

four out of five stars

Steve Payne

Screening courtesy of Cineworld Crawley.