X-Men: First Class has been met with a lot of doubt and more than a few roadblocks throughout production, but finally we see our first trailer, which was released today. And I have to say, it's not what I expected:
Splashpage.mtv reports:
The preview unfolds while archival audio of former President John F. Kennedy plays, establishing the film's place in history at the dawn of the atomic age.
There's a lot to see here, so freeze-framing will be your friend. Among the many notable scenes are glimpses of Emma Frost (January Jones), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and what appears to be the transformation of Beast (Nicholas Hoult) into his furry incarnation.Xavier and Lehnsherr appear in their early bumblebee-themed X-Men costumes, while Angel (Zoe Kravitz) unfurls her wings and we get an oh-so-brief glimpse of Azazel (Jason Flemyng) doing his teleportation thing. There's also a shot of Havok (Lucas Till) discharging a red stream of cosmic energy from his chest.
Oh, and the Blackbird (a.k.a. X-Jet) makes an appearance too, with Beast -- fully transformed -- at the stick.
I've been pretty skeptical of this flick for a while now, but...well... that looked pretty good. Right? I mean, sure, it's not technically first class, but you still get some pretty memorable moments that still tie in to the X-Men mythology. I think Beast looks awesome, and seeing him piloting the X-Jet just seems right. Not to mention how cool the creation of Cerebro, Xavier's mutant detector, looks. I might be over-giddying a little bit, but I was just really surprised by this trailer.
I was not happy when I heard that Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, and Angel (4 out of 5 members of the "first class") were not going to be included, but when I really started to think about it, it was the only way this project would work. This movie sits in the reality created by the X-Men trilogy, where all 4 characters already have a detailed timeline, making it impossible for them to be a part of the team in this '60s era.
So we're left with a little bit of a ragtag crew, but that's not really the main point to the movie, is it? Xavier and Magneto is where the story lies, and I can't wait to see McAvoy and Fassbender play those roles. And I love the dedication to the timeline in this movie, from costumes to events. The backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis ties in perfectly to the creation of the X-Men, the so-called Children of the Atom.
This trailer has changed a lot of my perceptions of this film, and I think I might actually be excited. I didn't think that would ever happen for another X-Men movie.
Here's the full cast list from ComicBookResources, with a load of screen shots at the link:
The film stars James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in the lead roles along with Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, January Jones as Emma Frost, Jason Flemyng as Azazel, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Lucas Till as Havok, Zoe Kravitz as Angel, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw, Edi Gathegi as Darwin, Oliver Platt as the Man in Black, and Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee.
X-Men: First Class hits theaters 6.3.11
I'm reserving judgment for now, not sure how I feel yet.
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