Movie Review: X-Men First Class

Movie: X-Men: First Class
Starring: James Macavoy, Michael Fassbender
Director: Matthew Vaughn


Let's start with the good: Lead actors Michael Fassbender, who plays a young and as-of-yet evil Magneto, and James Macavoy, who plays a young and as-of-yet paralyzed Professor Xavier, are two outstanding performers. The acting of these two as wary strangers, friends, colleagues, and inevitably enemies, is believable on all counts. Michael Fassbender plays Magento with just the right amount of smarm, intelligence, and angst needed to dreg up plenty of sympathy for his character, while at the same time, making it possible to see his turn towards a less peaceful path. His history as Jewish prisoner is a large part of the story and provides a backdrop to his personality that cannot be ignored or just dismissed by the audience as an excuse to be evil. His traumatizing experiences are actually quite valid in support of his developing philosophy. Professor X is realistically portrayed as a bit of ladies man (though not gratuitously or caddishly) but is also a bit naive and cold, especially to a young Mystique who is obviously in love with him. On merely the strength of these two performances, I would recommend the movie.

Now to the not-so-good: All the other actors. Jennifer Lawrence is stiff and wooden as Mystique and also saddled with cheesy and transparent dialog such as "mutant and proud". We are also supposed to assume that her whole turn towards evil is because of beauty issues (because, you know, that's the most important thing to a woman apparently). The younger actors that are gathered as the first class at Professor X's school are so generic and one-dimensional that I won't even bother to name them - except Zoe Kravitz who exceeded my expectations for terrible acting by simply being in the movie to wear skimpy clothes. Speaking of which, I'm just going to come out and say it: January Jones is also a terrible actress. Playing Emma Frost, she can't seem to muster up one bit of intimidation or darkness. She merely walks around the set in ill-fitting fembot 60's outfits and sparkles.

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Movie Review - Jane Eyre (2011)

Movie: Jane Eyre (2011)
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska 
Director: Cary Fukunaga












In Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, I personally found Mia Wasikowska to be pretty but a bit wooden. She definitely had an ethereal and delicate quality to her, but beyond that shallow surface, I didn't see much spark.

Nothing could be further from the truth in the latest Jane Eyre directed by Cary Fukunaga. Mia Waskiowska inhabits each scene with a calm ferocity that feels perfect for the complicated and, at times, hard to pin down heroine of Bronte's novel. Jane Eyre is the type of girl that we are actually all very familiar with - which is what makes her such an interesting choice of protagonist for a gothic tale. She isn't melodramatic or flighty. She isn't conventionally pretty or striking. She's not ever exceptionally brilliant. She's level-headed and rational and keeps her feelings tightly held to her out of necessity. This last part is where the difficulty comes in in terms of casting her character in a movie role. We have to have both - coolness and passion without being heavy-handed or engaged in annoying, fickle mood swings. Wasikowska manages to sit calmly and act with only her eyes.

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