Cinematically, 2011 has been comic-heavy. I don’t claim to be a master of comic book lore, but I am intrigued by the story lines and try to follow in whatever media format I can. This summer marked the opening of X-Men: First Class starring James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as the enigmatic Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto. The story chronicles Xavier’s early life, the creation of his school for mutants, and the period of time when Xavier and Lehnsherr were good friends before Lehnsherr chose the path that would lead him to become Professor Xavier’s greatest foil.
The things that intrigues me the most about any type of story are the relationships between characters. I’ve been a fan of the X-Men ever since I watched the Saturday morning cartoon in the 90’s and some of the greatest battles of wit and mind I ever witnessed were those that occurred between Professor Xavier and Magneto. Magneto found humans disposable and was convinced that mutants were the next step on the evolutionary chain while Xavier was in favor of goodwill relations between humans and mutants. Their opposition was always tinged with mutual respect which made the question of peaceful co-existence between mutants and humans a definite gray area as opposed to an issue that could be defined as black or white.
As the movie began, I hoped director Matthew Vaughn could portray the intricacies of the beginning of this relationship in just over two hours. I was pleasantly surprised. There was definite chemistry between McAvoy and Fassbender as they explored the emotions of these characters. 132 minutes is not a lot of time for two characters to meet, become fast friends, and then separate based on different ideologies, but the combination of scriptwriting, directing, and acting makes it not only believable, but intriguing.
This movie is a great look at how racism can affect all of us in different ways and the different methods that are used to combat discrimination. It also explores the difficulty of maintaining friendships with individuals who have entirely different ideologies than your own.