Not Oscar Material

X-Men: First Class
starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence
directed by Matthew Vaughn

Official movie poster

This movie is all top-class special effects and comic-book atmosphere. If you're a fan of the X-Men franchise you'll probably like it. I'm not. I thought it was over-the-top silly and a bald-faced and cynical product designed to separate the general public from their money in five-to-ten dollar increments. If I had it to do over again, I'd wait for it to hit the second-run houses.

Most of the cast did what they could with the material. The notable exceptions were January Jones, who did nothing with her character, and Kevin Bacon, who managed to avoid outshining his co-stars. I must have faith that he did this for the pleasure of playing a comic-book villain, and a fat, fat paycheck.