It's really been 14 years since the first X-Men mutant movie. Bryan Singer had already made the first episode in 2000. Unlike other movies based on comic books, this movie was a huge success. We won't count the Wesley Snipes movie Blade, he's buried himself underground/prison. We won't even count the original Batman, Superman, let alone Spawn. While these movies were relatively successful in the 70s – 80s-90s, unfortunately the quality of the movies declined exponentially.
Then in 2000, the first successful movie from Marvel was released. Stan Lee first began to warm his hands on the money from the movies. For the first time, Bryan Singer managed to combine story, action, character motivations and famous actors to create a complete groundbreaking film. To the classic Shakespearean actors he added several Oscar-winning, young and Australian actors. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart were for classic English acting, Halle Berry is for the Oscars (she got it two years later). Young/Oscar winning actress Anna Paquin was for Youth. And what about the Australians who populate American productions? Hugh Jackman was the man.
The second 2003 installment continued it all. By the third, in 2006, under Brett Ratner, the quality had stalled. Hugh Jackman rebounded with his solo films X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and Wolverine (2013). It wasn't until three years before this film's release that the X-Men bunch of films returned, with success. Matthew Vaughn returned with a story set 50 years earlier in the 1960s, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. For movie fans, he left the story of the rise of an entire mutant community. Xavier to Xavier, Magneto to Magneto.
The seventh film in this X-men mythology goes into cinemas worldwide and in the Czech Republic next week. Original director Bryan Singer is back again, bringing in Matthew Vaughn to write the screenplay. Together they completed the script, in which they decided to bring together both successful casts from the first films set in the present day, as well as the new line-up that starred in X-Men: First Class.
This combination and well-written script completed Heptalogy and returned to a successful beginning. Brian Singer is one of the few directors who can really guide his actors to give depth to their feelings. Of course, this is expected of some, practice in English theatres is forgotten, but the other actors handle their feelings perfectly. Even if perhaps the script has tiny flaws, the director manages to pull the whole film together, comedy, drama and of course clear action.
The new and old selves of the most important characters play exactly what is expected of them. James McAvoy plays exactly the young Patrick Stewart, and Michael Fassbender inhabits Gandalf, sorry Ian McKellen. Let's not forget Jennifer Lawrence, who plays the young Mistique/Raven. She's a young star who's already come out of the Oscars in 2013.
All of these actors are acting the life out of a story that could be in our universe. Luckily it's a comic book, but up until now I didn't know who killed J.F.K., what's behind his death, and other things that can only happen in comic books.
The filmmakers have managed to pull together the continuity of all the films very well, almost perfectly if it wasn't properly understood by fans, and it's explained in words that explain things that have been weighing on fans since the early 2000s. Why young Xavier is dating, what happened to Jane Gray, and more.
I will definitely be going to see this movie a second time with my girlfriend. I've seen the 2D movie with subtitles. I'll skip the 3D, but I'd like to enjoy the movie with dubbing so I don't get distracted by reading the subtitles. It's good that I already know who will dub who, that the oldest cast will be retained. Patrick Stewart – Pavel Soukup, Hugh Jackman – Zdenek Mahdal. Of course, Lumír Olšovský and Martin Stránský. I also appreciate Peter Pelzer, who will be heard for the first time on Magneto. After all, people have gotten used to the idea that Ian McKellen is just Gandalf with that voice.
What to end this review with? It worked very well, and it's just a great shame he won't make something for Marvel as well. I'd love to see the X-Men alongside the Avengers as they defend themselves against the world's worst adversaries. But it's good that Xavier's gang is only fighting for the country against itself and against the people. The gang around Nick Fury has to fight back against alien invasions. I don't want to see Spider-Man in this select group, because to me, the character is just a hero for kids who only expect a spelling machine.
Rating: 95%
Review written by: 16. 5. 2014
Original release January 20, 2019 – Kritiky.cz
