June 3, 2011, - 6:24 pm
“X-Men: First Class” – So, Now, It’s Bad to Want to Kill Nazis?
You know times have really changed when the superheroes of yesteryear who were applauded for pursuing Nazis have been replaced by superheroes who deplore the pursuit of Nazis and men who are “arch villains” for killing Nazis. Maybe it’s because it might offend Muslims, Pat Buchanan, and Lars Von Trier. Sadly, that 180 in what makes one a “superhero” is stark in “X-Men: First Class,” the X-Men prequel, which debuts in theaters today.
I absolutely loved the first half of this movie. It’s the second half that completely ruined it for me. Not only was it a mess, but the ultimate message of the movie is that it’s a bad thing for a Holocaust survivor to want to go after the Nazi doctor who murdered his mother–that vengeance is bad. Huh?
Also, sorry comicbookland-cum-Hollywood, but your stories about the West and the Communists being coaxed into Cold War nuclear war by evildoers is getting old and very stale. Anything to avoid touching on a more current battle, like the West versus Islam, right?
We watch a young kid with superpowers to move things with his mind taken from his mother in a concentration camp into the offices of a Mengele-esque Nazi doctor, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon–hey, more connections for “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon!”). When Shaw cannot make the child do his mind-bending feats, he kills the kid’s mother in front of his eyes. The kid kills a few Nazis, but spares the doc, which I didn’t get. Then, the kid grows up with the numbers tattooed on his arm as a reminder. He goes to Argentina to hunt the Nazi doc. The scene, in which he encounters two immigrant German “farmers” in a Buenos Aires bar, is fantastic. And I love what he does to them.
Eventually this Holocaust survivor (played by the talented German-Irish actor Michael Fassbender) is recruited into the X-Men, which is originally assembled by a CIA doctor whose science fiction realities are pooh-poohed by jaded, chauvinistic CIA brass. The group is assembled by a female CIA agent (Rose Byrne) who discovers Shaw’s partner in crime, supervillain Emma Frost (January Jones), when she is spying on a wayward general in Vegas. Shaw has learned how to get super powers and consume energy, staying youthful and powerful, after years of training and watching the Holocaust survivor do his magic.
Now, it’s the Cold War, and Shaw and Frost are trying to get the U.S., Cuba, and the Soviets to start a nuclear war against each other. Why? They don’t say. They’re just evil, and Hollywood can’t come up with anything better when they try so hard to avoid Islam. Oh, and one other thing interesting (or not so interesting, depending on your take): Shaw’s devil-like co-villain, Azazel, has a name that is the anglicized pronunciation of the Hebrew word for “hell”: azazel. Hmmm . . . .
To fight these villains a scientist from England, Charles Xavier, and his transmorphic superhero female friend from childhood, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), help the CIA team find and recruit people with various powers to join the X-Men. But eventually, after some violent fights between the X-Men and Shaw and his henchment, one of them, Angel (a human fly played by Zoe Kravitz, Lenny’s daughter with Lisa Bonet), joins Kevin Bacon’s team of villains, with little explanation as to why.
Oh, and why put a naked superhero in a kids’ movie–a superhero movie you know young kids will see? Raven is shown topless. And while, apparently, her form of superhero doesn’t have nipples, the kids might as well be watching a topless blue stripper with pasties on. Same difference. Thanks, Hollywood, for the gratuitous breast reveal in a kids’ superhero movie. Every comic book geek weirdo fantasizes about what a chick superhero looks like naked. Wonder no more, kids. Kinky, right? … and more suited to Larry Flynt’s kind of X than the X-Men kind.
Like I said, the second half of the movie ends up being a mess of special effects, fighting, and useless left-wing peacenik-isms. Uh, no thanks. And again, eventually, the Holocaust survivor–who gets the name Magneto–is a “villain” because he wants to kill the Nazi doctor who murdered his mother. Absurd. What’s next, 50 years from now, they’ll be doing movies showing Navy SEALS as supervillains for killing Osama Bin Laden?
With the symbiosis of ever-increasing Islamic immigration to America and Islamo-pandering in Hollywood, don’t count it out. And, hey, it’s already been done. . . by Steven Spielberg with “Munich” (read my review).
Go to it to see the first half, then leave. You won’t be missing much. There ain’t nothin’ “First Class”–or, even, first–about this messy piece of leftism.
ONE MARX
Watch the trailer . . .
Tags: 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, Angel, Azazel, Charles Xavier, CIA, Cold War, Emma Frost, Holocaust, January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon, Magneto, Michael Fassbender, movie, movie review, Movie Reviews, Nazi, Nazi doctor, Nazis, Raven, Rose Byrne, Sebastian Shaw, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, X-Men, X-Men: 1st Class, X-Men: First Class, XMen, Zoe Kravitz
Right back @ JeffE…
You can still see the movie and judge for yourself. Just because 1 person was underwhelmed doesn’t mean that your mind has been made up.
As an added bonus, I’ll give DS a good shout-out on my vid.
For all the regulars here, you’ll get to see me in the flesh, just to let you know that I’m no bot.
You may have to wait awhile… I’m working ’til Monday. I’ll be going on Tuesday and have the vid ready on Wednesday. In the meantime, have a blessed weekend.
The Reverend Jacques on June 4, 2011 at 11:36 pm