Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

Director: Michael Bay
Writer: Ehren Kruger
Starring: Shia Labeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, John Turturro
Release Date: June 29, 2011
Length: 2 hours 14 minutes

Michael Bay returns for the third and hopefully final installment of the well-milked action series, Transformers. It’s only been two short years since the good and bad robots fought on our lovely territory, earth, but this time we’re going back to where the discovery began. Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is one out of three films this summer that suggests the plot of the film is the reason for some part of history, the other two being Captain America with World War II and X-Men: First Class with the Cuban Missile Crisis. In Dark Of The Moon, we learn that in 1961, Kennedy initiated putting a man on the moon as a cover to investigate the far side of the moon where a Cybertronian (transformer) spacecraft called The Ark had crashed. What Neil Armstrong and his crew kept secret was the Cybertronian species found on the dark side of the moon. In present day, our familiar protagonist Sam Witwicky has been trying to find a suitable job for three months and has had no luck, much to his parent’s dismay. Sam never gets to see his beloved car Bumblebee anymore since the autobots have been helping the U.S. military and he is also unfortunately without his high school girlfriend, Mikaela (Megan Fox). Calm down boys, he still has an equally hot girlfriend Carly (played by Victoria Secret’s model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). When the wacky Bruce Brazos (John Malkovich) hires Sam onto his company, Sam is given information concerning The Ark by eccentric employee Jerry Wang (Ken Jeong), who is then quickly assassinated by decepticons. Through research done with the now rich Seymour Simmons (John Turturro), Sam finds out more about what Apollo 11 has been hiding. We learn that hundreds of transporting pillars have been stockpiled on the moon and this is how Megatron, the leader of the decepticons plans on making earth the new home of the Cybertronian race, by transporting the rest of the robots left on the moon. With the help of old friends USAF Chief Epps (Tyrese Gibson) and Lt. Colonel Lennox (Josh Duhamel), the arrogant Director of National Intelligence, Charlotte Mearing (Frances McDormand), Sam prepares for a full war as the decepticons attempt to take over the world. The first Transformers, which came out in 2007, was so much fun, and not in a cheesy guilty pleasure way. Alex Kurtsman and Robert Orci’s original script was clever, funny and served as a very good base for a film with a lot of action. The second film, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen for most people, bombed completely with a confusing never-ending story set in too many different countries and had more than one false climax. Unfortunately, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon falls somewhere between the two. There seemed to be a rumor or surge of hope that this film was going to perfectly wrap up the series and possibly be a better film than the first. I was one who suffered in that idea and can definitely say now after watching the film that it was a vast improvement from it’s predecessor, but did not rise to the quality of the original Transformers. Each film has had three consistent components: a funny script, great actors and too much action at the climax. Orci and Kurtzman created very clever dialogue and funny characters for the first two films and Dark Of The Moon’s screenwriter, Ehren Kruger (who also co-wrote Revenge Of The Fallen) does the exact same, to the point where you wondered if the first half of the film was a comedy. The dialogue written between Sam and his parents always garners laughs while the writing for the overconfident loser Seymour Simmons is always humorous. The new characters in this film are perfectly written in with witty dialogue, without crowding the film with too many different people. However, these hilarious characters in the film might slightly be so great because of some of the greatest actors of all time like John Malkovich, Frances McDormand and John Turturro playing them. Say what you want about Michael Bay, but he knows how to pick a cast. Every film has been accompanied by an outstanding group of actors. Shia Labeouf carries Dark Of The Moon incredibly as he always does. Despite the material, Labeouf has always been able to show his remarkable acting skills and he is always by far the funniest actor in each film, proving he really shines best in comedy. When everyone heard Megan Fox was leaving the franchise, many thought, great, maybe they’ll actually hire a decent actor to replace her. Then we find out she was replaced by a Victoria’s Secret model. I was one of may too quick to judge that that was not much of an improvement, if any because Bay really lucked out on a beautiful and great actress. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley proved to be a million times more natural and charming than Megan Fox ever was in the series. Part of her natural acting made the chemistry between her and Shia Labeouf so much more interesting than his and Fox’s, which makes this film better overall. Completely believable and captivating from beginning to end, Huntington-Whiteley held her ground well as the strong female lead and I can’t wait to see her in future films. John Malkovich is crazily hysterical as Bruce Brazos while Francis McDormand is also very funny as the intelligently uncaring Director Of National Intelligence who butts heads with Labeouf’s character. Patrick Dempsey is terrific as Carly’s mysterious car collecting boss, Dylan Gould. Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel were great for their short returning roles and Julie White and Kevin Dunn are as usual, extremely entertaining as Sam’s parents. Ken Jeong is also hilarious for his small role in the movie, like every role he’s in. What get’s in the way of these fabulous actors and funny script is a problem that’s appeared in all three films. Unfortunately when anyone hears Transformers, they immediately think of pure action. There is a way to have a successful action movie, without letting the actual action consume it. The first half of Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is intriguing, romantic and funny like any great movie would have been. This film had the potential to be the best Transformers film and an exceptional film on it’s own. At one point in the movie, Decepticons attack Chicago leaving it looking like a real aftermath of a terrorist attack with Labeouf at one point, stating, “Chicago is Ground Zero”. There are realistic and strong elements of the script, but it loses its entire credibility when the second half of the film – supposedly the climax - is pure action. I’m fine with car chases, or buildings blowing up or even robot fights, especially with the outstanding 3D special effects this film has. However, a fight between two robots - who seem like the main characters of the last 45 minutes of the film - that just goes on and on and on, honestly just feels like a video game I can’t turn off. If the fight was between the main protagonist and antagonist Shia Labeouf and Patrick Dempsey, I might have cared a little more. Transformers: Dark Of The Moon is not a terrible film, but a major disappointment. If you’re looking to purely just see an action movie, go right ahead but if not, you might want to think twice before spending your money.

Bad Teacher

Director: Jake Kadsan
Writers: Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake
Release Date: June 27, 2011
Length: 1 hour 32 minutes

Cameron Diaz returns to her raunchy comedy roots, terrorizing our young ones with constant cursing and drinking in Jake Kadsan (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story)’s Bad Teacher. Diaz plays 7^th grade English teacher Elizabeth Holsey, a superficial careless bitch, who’s just been dumped by her dorky rich fiancé, for spending too much of his money and not remembering his birthday. She finds herself back at the same job she can’t stand, but this year something is making showing up at John Adams Middle School worthwhile. The wealthy, handsome and idiotically pretentious Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake) is the new substitute and Elizabeth makes it her goal to win him over. Believing Scott prefers women with bigger breasts, Elizabeth has to figure out a way to raise enough money for the expensive procedure.  When she hears that whoever’s class grades are the highest on the state test receives a bonus, Elizabeth must face an incredible task she never dreamed of performing – her job. While working hard to make her class learn for once, she must deal with competition for Scott from the irritating polar opposite teacher of Elizabeth, Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch) and repeatedly refuse offers from the sweet but not as handsome gym teacher Russell (Jason Segel). After failed thrillers, action movies and dramas like The Box, Knight And Day and My Sister’s Keeper, it’s nice to see Diaz back in her home of comedy. Although unfortunately Bad Teacher did not have the strongest script, Diaz knows how to carry a film on her back from start to end. Screenwriters Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky create a truly hilarious and original fish-out-of-water premise that transmits through the entire film. They also give the film the most ridiculous extroverted characters flying in all directions. The only reason I say this was not the strongest of scripts was because it made clear room for a few clichés and unrealistic moments here and there that stretched a little too far. Sometimes however, those out of reach elements are what make a movie like Bad Teacher so ridiculously hilarious. Cameron Diaz is the real cause of laughter in Bad Teacher, though. Her blunt unsympathetic attitude toward talking to her students makes you laugh while always giving you the extra shock value that should come with insulting sweet children. Justin Timberlake is staggeringly hysterical as dense religious attractive weirdo that you can’t help but gawk at. Rising British actress Lucy Punch from Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, Dinner For Schmucks, and this summer’s A Good Old Fashioned Orgy is just perfectly annoying and detestable as the extremely childish and devious Amy Squirrel who as a villain, could not stop entertaining the audience as she too was crazy like Timberlake’s character. Finally Jason Segel of course never stops being funny, but his likable character makes him truly adorable as a constantly rejected nice guy who can’t stop being attracted to a total bitch. His comedic and romantic chemistry with Diaz is one of the most enjoyable parts of this film and shows the only sweet side you’ll get out of Elizabeth. Phyllis Smith from The Office is also funny as Elizabeth's much older shy naive friend - or someone Elizabeth uses to buy her lunches. This movie is not necessarily this summer’s best comedy, but from the strength of the brilliant cast, it should not be so easily swept aside. Bad Teacher is a cute film you should catch if you want a good laugh. 

The Tree Of Life

Director: Terrence Malick
Writer: Terrence Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn
Release Date: June 17, 2011
Length: 2 hours 20 minutes

Visionary director Terrence Malick of films The New World and Days Of Heaven is one that many describe as an acquired taste. His off-the-wall films can either be perceived as innovative or nonsensical.  Such is the case with his latest project The Tree Of Life, starring Brad Pitt and rising star Jessica Chastain. Even the title gives off a pretentious air about it, without knowing at all what it is. When it comes down to it, it’s hard to describe just what this film is about. It focuses on the creation of the universe, the start of life on earth and family but what The Tree Of Life is really about is what the title infers; the growth of life in every possible way. That may seem ridiculous, but it is completely true and understandable after experiencing the film. The center point of the film is a middle-aged man named Jack O’Brien (Sean Penn) who recalls memories of childhood in 1950s Texas. We go to the beginning of his parent’s relationship and the growth of the O’Brien family with Jack, and his two younger brothers, R.L. and Steve. Jack slowly grows to an age of 11, where the most of the film then takes place. He shows us the friendships he has with his brothers and neighbours in their small community, his hate for what we believe is a very unstable father (Pitt), and his love for his beautiful helpless mother (Chastain). We go back and forth between past and present, while countless shots of the Big Bang and space, evolution, and life are shown to us to put together the theme of the film. The Tree Of Life was the winner of this year’s Cannes Film Festival’s grand prize the Palme d’Or proving to many people to be one of the best films of 2011, while proving to others to be one of the worst. As someone who usually does not get or care for extremely bizarre films, I was surprised to find that I was one of the people rooting for it. That doesn’t mean I didn’t suffer though. Knowing this was quite a lengthy film, I felt I was in for a painful experience at the beginning of the film when most of those endless Cosmo shots took place. I may have nodded off without knowing during those 15 minutes and I wondered are the actors just there for a few shots of people, but the important part is that right after that, the plot picked up and my worries disappeared. Malick creates a very slow moving film in a groundbreaking way in that you surprisingly develop a patience you never knew you had within you for The Tree Of Life. It literally feels like you are going through a real family’s day-to-day life but with tremendous power and emotion that is so simple. Watching the family grow from day one is why you have that patience and why you feel like you know the children and Jack so well. It almost feels like you’re not watching a film at all, but being a bystander to a quietly very complicated family. The script is so well crafted to slowly pull you into their family, that by the time you are completely invested in everything the characters do, you’ve forgotten if you’ve ever doubted this movie. For me, the family was my core, my understanding of the film. So when we saw shots of Sean Penn when Jack is older or Space or anything else, I slowly felt myself coming back to reality and pulled out of a deep dream. The few shots of Sean Penn that were there were in fact very important to the story and reminded you that we were watching his memories. As much as I was infatuated with the 1950s O’Brien family, the older Jack added balance. Everything about Malick’s story is just perfect. The way the family acts around their manic father, the way Mrs. O’Brien is so loving to her boys and the way the boys sometimes playfully and sometimes malevolently act towards each other all hits you beautifully. To bring Malick’s peculiarity to life was an all around phenomenal cast. Brad Pitt pushes his boundaries as what seems like a possibly bi-polar father. Sometimes he is cold and strict and yet sometimes he acts very needy and possessive, asking his children - who he usually scares and intimidates away - if they love him. This might possibly be Pitt’s best performance because not only does he play an unlikable character for the first time, but an extremely intriguing one.  No one thinks of Brad Pitt when they think of a hard working, psychologically abusive father of three boys, in the 1950s, but he rises right up to the complexity of the character and gives by far, one of this year’s best performances. His is accompanied by a much younger actress that is right in his caliber of acting, Jessica Chastain. There aren’t words to describe Chastain’s unbelievable performance in The Tree Of Life. She makes us almost immediately empathize for her position as such a loving but unfortunately powerless mother when it comes to her husband. She, by no means though, acts pitiful. She plays a strong young woman who is unfortunately under circumstances of wanting to protect her children without getting herself hurt. Sometimes when I see an extraordinary performance from a newcomer in an independent movie, I hope they aren’t forgotten after it. I have nothing to worry about with Chastain though. She looks to be in almost every movie about to come out including two more this summer, The Help and The Debt. In September, she’ll star as the main character in Al Pacino’s Wild Salome and after that play Ralph Fiennes wife in his directorial debut, Coriolanus. I’m mad this promising actress didn’t appear earlier in Hollywood. However, the real star of the film and the one who spoke to the audience the most was Hunter McCracken as the younger version of Jack. As the carrier of the film, he entrances us into the story from his distressingly confused perspective. McCracken amazingly makes us feel and experience everything he sees, hears and touches so subtly. He is exceptional as a boy who can’t understand how he feels toward his strange father. This is when I really can say I hope this young actor is not forgotten after this film and he continues to perform as greatly as he did in The Tree Of Life in future films. The young perspective is what makes the film so melancholy and bittersweet sometimes. Although I personally did not enjoy the length of the shots of the universe, they were absolutely beautiful as were all the artistic visual effects in the film done by no other than special effects supervisor of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Douglass Trumbell. Trumbell astonishingly did not use any CGI for the Cosmo shots but it doesn’t matter how he did it because they looked breathtakingly real. Unfortunately, Malick used much too many of those shots for my liking but quickly made up for it. Its easy to say that The Tree Of Life left an incredible effect on me that no other film has. This is the best film of 2011, so far and one of the most powerful films of all time.

Super 8

Director: J. J. Abrams
Writer: J. J. Abrams
Starring: Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning
Release Date: June 10, 2011
Length: 1 hour 42 minutes

The extraordinary J.J. Abrams delivers another massive Sci-Fi hit with this year’s Super 8, a story set in 1979, where a group of 13-year-old friends witness a train wreck while filming a movie on a Super 8mm camera. The main character of the film is Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), a boy who’s just lost his mother to a tragic industrial accident where she worked and lives with his strict dad, Deputy Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler). When school lets out for the summer, his best friend, Charles enlists Joe’s help for making his zombie movie and also tells him he got their beautiful classmate Alice Dainard to star in the movie, much to Joe’s happiness. Along with Alice, are their three best friends Preston, Martin and Carey who go along to the train stop to shoot their first scene. At the stop, Charles is in the middle of filming a scene, when Joe sees a car coming fast toward the train. The train erupts, sending fire and metal everywhere. When everyone has recovered and the tumult has come to an end, the group realizes this effect couldn’t have come from a regular crash. All of them being baffled by what just happened, go looking around the scene to figure out what’s going on. They find their schoolteacher, Mr. Woodward in the car that hit the train, miraculously still alive in his half of a car. When the kids see armed officials beginning to arrive though, they make a quick run to flee the scene. Although they make a pact to not tell anyone of what they saw, it becomes difficult when weird disappearances keep occurring in their town and the air force imposes an entire evacuation. Super 8 is similar to films like Stand By Me or E.T., where the very grown up story has a group of young kids as the main characters, who all create entertaining dialogue from their unique dynamic that adult actors cannot pull off. For whatever reason, having 13 year olds lead an adventure story for the audience has a refreshing effect on you. Putting yourself in their shoes truly makes everything a hundred times more electrifying in a bittersweet nostalgic way while being constantly bowled over by the sharp humor of the young actors and the brilliantly clever dialogue. This being Abrams’ first film he wrote the script for, you can feel his own childhood radiating through the film. As we know he was a 13-year-old filmmaker in 1979, he makes the characters and the setting wonderfully authentic. The humor that comes from these kids causes you to go from screaming to laughing within seconds in an exciting scene. That is what truly set Super 8 a part from the other action or sci-fi movies this summer. The only thing you need with a fantastic script is a cast to back it up and when it comes to a film led by 13 year olds, the cast can make or break the movie. Abrams’ acquired a hell of a group of kids to make Super 8 what it’s worth. Newcomer Joel Courtney leads the pack of kids as the intelligent, slightly serious Joe Lamb and he was a wonderful choice to carry the film. Courtney makes ed us sympathize for the loss of his mother and adore his relationships with both his best friend Charles and his sweet crush Alice with his natural performance as a sorrowful introverted kid. What I like about the way Abrams’ wrote the relationship between Joe and Alice is that it’s not made to just be adorable. They are not little kids you dote on for having crushes on each other. The way their friendship and adoration grow for each other is realistic and complex, showing that thirteen year olds are more like young adults than children. Elle Fanning from Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere and soon to be in Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixtwas exceptional as Alice Dainard, a beautiful girl who’s truly perfect for Joe. Playing a child who continuously must care for her drunken father, Fanning’s performance is perfectly complicated and poignant. Fanning is one of the many young actresses along with Kick Ass’ Chloe Moretz and True Grit’s Hailee Steinfeld that we can look forward to in the years to come. Joe’s best friend Charles, the adorable as the slightly chubby wannabe zombie filmmaker is hilariously played by Riley Griffiths with his leader-of-the-pack director attitude on the film and the group. His friendship with Joe is quite sweet and together they lead the pack of uproarious kids. Ryan Lee is fantastic as the tiniest friend Cary obsessed with explosions and firecrackers, while Gabriel Basso is also entertaining as the cowardly aspiring thespian always worried about his lines and finally Zach Mills is very funny as the precocious intellectual Preston. Together the kids make a perfect ensemble but much of the movie is carried by the few adult actors, most importantly Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights as Joe’s father. Chandler is heartbreaking as a widower who is very confused about raising his son alone, whom he was never particularly close with. His failed efforts at creating a relationship and recovering from the tragic death are pitiful and you completely empathize with him despite his severe nature. Ron Eldred also gives a great performance as Alice’s deadbeat father and Noah Emmerich is mysteriously worrying as Nelec, the head of the air force supposedly helping the town with their disappearances. The visual effects of the film are - no surprise - exquisite with J.J. Abrams as the director and Steven Spielberg as executive producer, but the setting of 1979 rural America was also extremely well done and made for a perfect backdrop for the exciting sci-fi plot. Many argue that this film is a copy of E.T. or unoriginally too alike to Spielberg’s films, but I believe Abrams’ created a mysterious and creative story that is more of a retro throwback to Spielberg’s adventure film’s like E.T. Super 8 wonderfully covers everything you could possibly feel in a movie. It is melancholically sweet, constantly humorous, and terrifyingly exciting. With Star Trek and Super 8, Abrams’ just keeps growing as an innovative filmmaker and I cannot wait for what he has in store next. By far one of my favourite films of the year, Super 8 is this summer’s must-see. 

X-Men: First Class

Director: Matthew Vaughn
Writers: Ashley Edward Miller, Jack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn
Starring: James McAvoy,  Michael Fassbender
Release Date: June 3, 2011
Length: 2 hours 12 minutes

When Wolverine: X Men Origins, a prequel to the original X-Men series bombed two years ago, many had doubts about yet another different kind of prequel being made for the X Men series. Director Matthew Vaughn of fantastic films like Stardust and Kick Ass, spearheads this new film (and possibly series) with a phenomenal cast, and a completely unique and clever plotline. The film takes us to the beginning of X Men history when Professor Charles Xavier (played later by Patrick Stewart) and Erik Lenscher, AKA Magneto (played later by Ian McKellan) first met. During the holocaust, when Erik was a little boy, a powerful man witnessed Erik moving a metal gate with his mind, when he had been separated from his parents, who were on the other side of the gate. The man was Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), and he demanded Erik move a little metal coin or he would kill his mother. Erik was unable to do anything and his mother was shot right in front of him. Almost twenty years later, Erik (Michael Fassbender) wants his revenge.  Contrary to Erik’s life, Charles (James Mcavoy), who is telepathic, had a wealthy upbringing in Upstate New York. It was there he made friends with fellow Mutant Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), who can willingly change her appearance, on demand. Now that he is officially a professor of the study of Genetic Mutations, CIA Agent Moira McTaggert (Rose Byrne) approaches him about his knowledge because she believes if mutants do exist, some of them are on the breach of starting a nuclear war between The Soviet Union and the United States. Once Erik and Xavier meet, they start recruiting mutants to join them, in hope of destroying Shaw’s plan or in Erik’s case, just destroying Shaw himself. Vaughn, along with his frequent collaborator Jane Goldman and screenwriters Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz come up with such a brilliant premise that it truly revives the X-Men franchise. This is just the opposite of another prequel or sequel that just weighs down an overdone series. X-Men: First Class puts an entirely different spin on the story of our beloved mutants. Tying real history is what possibly makes this film so intriguing. To think that mutants had any hand in the Cuban Missle Crisis makes the characters, the significance of the story and the importance of the ending incredibly genuine and intense for the audience. The clever script hits so many important levels of enjoyment. It’s funny, romantic, bittersweet and very dark sometimes. All you need to add to that outstanding script is a phenomenal director. Vaughn is a director that has a history of making films a hell of a lot  of fun to watch, without them being inanely childish. X-Men: First Class is no exception to his resume of amusingly exciting action movies. Paired with an exceptional idea, like Kick Ass and Stardust, there’s no stopping Vaughn. The film takes us straight into the enchanting setting of the mid-1960’s with beautiful cinematography by John Mathieson and exquisite production design by Chris Seagars. Sometimes the pure setting of a film can be the most fun part about it. The entrancing background of the film is what truly brought the comic book aspect out of the film as it was just as fun to view, as it was to experience. The hypnotizing images, landscapes and costumes impressively distracted the audience often from the lack of action in the action movie. One of the most refreshing aspects of what is possibly this summer’s best blockbuster is that there are numerous exhilarating and edge-of-your-seat scenes, however there is almost no violence. For someone who doesn’t take pleasure in people repeatedly getting beaten up and dying, it was nice to see only one scene of serious battle take place in the film’s climax at the end. Scottish actor James McAvoy leads the talented ensemble pack of actors in an action film that very much relies on the strength of it’s characters. As the young handsome and charming Charles Xavier, McAvoy wins over the audience within the first glance of his performance. He gives Xavier a new spin that doesn’t seem too strayed away from Patrick Stewart’s original portrayal of the professor. The same intelligence is still there with McAvoy, but with an arrogance and fun attitude that accompanies him in Xavier’s youth. McAvoy remarkably pulls the audience into the seriousness and gravity of a fictional action movie, something that seems impossible. Newcomer Michael Fassbender accompanies McAvoy in the lead as the tortured and disturbed magnetizing Erik. Fassbender is on a quick rise to fame with portraying one of the most well known literary characters, Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre and now giving a captivating performance in an extremely famous comic book franchise. The roots of Magneto’s evil plans are quite obvious throughout the entire movie but Fassbender gives the audience the ability to sympathize for him and understanding his intentions. Fassbender’s performance is oddly similar to Ian McKellan’s later portrayal of the character while being very much unique on his own. Erik has a much more independent attitude and an extreme lack of emotion towards others under Fassbender’s control while still being that smug clever Magneto we all love sometimes. Recently academy award nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence is also fantastic as Raven, while Kevin Bacon gives his most bloodcurling performance as the uncontrollably powerful Sebastian Shaw. Rose Byrne is wonderful as CIA agent Moira McTaggert, the most relatable character of the film as she is the adorable bewildered human involved in helping the mutants and Oliver Platt is hilarious as the amazed CIA agent, who is fascinated by the mutants’ powers. The wonderful performances continue from young actors Nicolas Hoult, Lucas Till, Caleb Landry Jones and Zoe Kravitz. The strong performances from the cast, with the authenticity of the story and excitement under Vaughn’s groudbreaking direction not only makes X-Men: First Class an incredible action film, but an exceptional film on it’s own. Along with continuously keeping us excited, X-Men: First Class is  a beautiful, funny and a breath of fresh air. That’s not something you can say about any superhero movie.