X-Men: First Class by Matthew Vaughn (Stan Lee)

X-Men: First Class is a much needed origin story to the X-men film franchise.  Beginning with the early stories of the X-men’s founders: Charles Xavier, an eager genetic scientist, and Erik Lehnsherr, a Holocaust survivor, bent on vengeance.  After the pair meet they are recruited by the CIA to create an army of “mutants” or people with special abilities.  Their target is Dr. Klaus Schmidt/Sebastian Shaw who is bent on sending the world in nuclear annihilation which will be catastrophic for humans but ideal for mutants.  The movie really begins to pick-up intensity when the Cuban missile crisis begins to come to a head and the power of Sebastian Shaw is revealed (he can absorb energy which has caused him not to age).  Shaw has set the crisis in motion and is about to sit back and reap the awards until the young X-men throw a wrench into the situation.

Included in the back story is the reason for Professor X’s name as well as his handicap, the reason Beast is blue and hairy, Magneto’s holocaust story and the formation of the Brotherhood of Mutants.  Also keep an eye for it a hilarious cameo from Wolverine (actually you won’t miss it).  Overall the film was great and another worthy addition to the X-men franchise.

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