New X-Men isn't first class, Ebert says


by Paul William Tenny

A scene from X-Men: First Class

 

Matthew Vaughn's written-by-committee X-Men prequel has great reviews from critics and fans, but Roger Ebert isn't biting. For $120 million, fans should be getting a lot more than just competent weekend entertainment, but may not be:

Director Matthew Vaughn gave us "Kick-Ass" (2010), in which an 11-year-old girl was hammered almost to death for our entertainment. This movie lacks comparable violence, but is louder. [...] It is not a great comic book movie, like "Spider-Man 2," or a bad one, like "Thor." It is not in 3-D, which is a mercy. The actors all embody their roles convincingly, if somewhat humorlessly, and the special effects cope admirably with those rockets changing directions.

That's not exactly in line with what other people are saying, but keep in mind that "other people" are not Roger Ebert.

Claudia Puig for USA Today:

Revives the flagging franchise with this globe-trotting iteration, infusing it with new life and dazzling visual effects.

Lisa Schwarzbaum for Entertainment Weekly:

McAvoy and Fassbender are a casting triumph. These two have, yes, real star magnetism, both individually and together: They're both cool and intense, suave and unaffected, playful and dead serious about their grand comic-book work.

Dana Stevens for Slate:

[Some] ludicrous but endearing moments of bro-bonding are all that sets this otherwise stock-issue superhero movie apart from its mass-produced brethren.

Richard Corliss for TIME Magazine:

Too bad that First Class torpedoes its lofty intentions with flights of idiocy so wrongheaded as to be almost endearing.

It's going to do well, and for that kind of money it damn well better or Marvel is going to be hurting and Disney is going to be pissed that it just paid $4 billion for a company that's already struggling with retreads.

in Comics, Film

Tags:



Related posts:



1 Comment

Roger Ebert? !! Somebody should remind Ebert that he "wrote " Beyond the Valley of the Dolls with Independent Film Icon Russ Meyer. The finale of this movie (Produced also by Fox Studios) saw a gun & sabre wielding transsexual murder and mutilate a group of Buxom coeds.?

Leave a comment



View more stories by visiting the archives.

Media Pundit categories