X-Men: First Class

'Origin' movies are interesting because they presume the audience knows a bit about the characters.
X-Men: First Class is no exception and while it isn't as action-packed as the other films in the series it is a quality introduction to the X-Men.
A large part of what makes this one watchable is an excellent cast and, particularly with the two leads, you could see them growing up into the characters of the original trilogy.

James McAvoy, one of my favourites, is Charles Xavier who is a rather cocky character and an expert on genetic mutation. We also see how he ended up in a wheelchair.
Michael Fassbender, who I admit I wasn't familiar with, was excellent as Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto).

We're shown how Erik came to be such an angry and vengeful character and why he adopted his 'us and them' mentality about mutants. Xavier had a much more prim and proper upbringing and it was interesting to see that it was he who befriended Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) before she turned to Magneto's side.

We're introduced to a number of new mutants (and a couple we already know, including a juicy cameo) on both the good and bad side of the equation.
Kevin Bacon seems to relish playing Sebastian Shaw, the man responsible for Erik's anger while Mad Men's January Jones does what she does best as Emma Frost.

I thought Nicholas Hoult was exceptional as Hank McCoy (Beast), who we saw in X-Men 3 played by Kelsey Grammar. Hoult of course is the kid from the fantastic film About A Boy.

It seems likely that there will be more X-Men films to follow from this cast so where they head will be of plenty of interest.

I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would when I first heard about it, the cast does help it along when there is a lot of plot and less action than you'd expect from an X-Men film. An 8 out of 10.