Crow. Crow. Crow.

All weekend long I was thinking about how much of it I would have to eat after seeing X-Men: First Class. Instead, I thought I would just own up to it.

If you’ve been keeping up with the Bonus Materials blog here on the site (and if you haven’t, seriously, why not?) I’ve been crapping all over X-Men: First Class since the first promotional stills came out. The film just looked… goofy. And desperate. There was absolutely no indication that Fox had abandoned the slapdash “every obscure mutant and the kitchen sink” approach that made their last outing – Wolverine: Origins – such an abysmal failure.

How wrong I was.

I won’t go into all the details. If you want to read my review, I posted it online late Saturday night after watching the movie. But I will say this much: If I was going to rank the X-Men films, I’d still put Bryan Singer’s X-Men 2 at the top of the list. But Matthew Vaughn’s efforts with X-Men: First Class are a close second.

How good is this movie? It made me forget that Wolverine: Origins ever happened. That’s significant, people.

Some critics are wetting their pants and saying that X-Men: First Class is the best film in the series. That might be a case of lowered expectations talking. My praise doesn’t go that far. The film has some dead spots. Most glaringly, January Jones as The White Queen. You could have pinned a couple of water balloons to a 2 x 4 and been given a more scintillating performance. Kevin Bacon seemed to be having a lot of fun as the main bad guy. But Azazel and Riptide? Seriously? You couldn’t have gotten better henchmen?

There are also some contrivances in the plot that feel fine when you’re watching the movie, but don’t really hold water if you think about them. Like how Mystique and Professor X met as children, or how Charles Xavier somehow convinced his family to adopt her? It’s never really explained.

The one thing I expected to have the biggest complaint about – the characters included in the “First Class” – wasn’t really a problem at all. From the outset, it seemed weird that the film would sacrifice the First Class of the comic books – Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Iceman and Beast – for the totally odd assembly of Mystique, Havok, Banshee and Beast. But the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced it was a smart move.

Long-time fans of the comics might care about those characters individually (I know I’m a fan of Havok and Banshee) but they don’t really care about them as a team. As a result, it forces the focus on Professor X and Magneto, their relationship and where their paths separated. It’s very clever, really. Because if you had stocked the film with Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Iceman and Beast, I would have wanted to know more about them, their histories and how they got along as a team. Professor X would be almost entirely incidental.

So, in that respect, X-Men: First Class isn’t really about the First Class at all. And, truthfully, when you have James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as your leads, you wouldn’t want it to be. The movie is about establishing the X-Men as a concept and creating the context where they are necessary.

Making a film that featured Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Iceman and Beast would be pointless. Because, in the comics, the team was already recruited and the only reason given was because they were mutants. It wasn’t long before they were sent into battle with Magneto. But there’s never really any motivation give. “Here are the good guys and here’s the bad guy. Now fight!” is the context. X-Men: First Class gives us SO. MUCH. MORE. to sink our teeth into. Think of it as the prequel before the prequel.

With that said, did you see X-Men: First Class this weekend? If so, what did you think and how much crow did you have to eat? Maybe you were one of those smarties who thought it looked great all along? Either way, leave your comments below!