'X-Men: First Class': What the Critics Say

THR's Todd McCarthy describes it as "audacious, confident and fueled by youthful energy," while geek sites including Dark Horizons claim it's "the best adaptation of a Marvel title yet."

3:26 PM PDT 5/30/2011 by Borys Kit

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Marvel

X marks the spot!

More reviews of X-Men: First Class are hitting the Net today -- the movie opens Friday -- while THR's take appeared Sunday night.

Our illustrious critic Todd McCarthy compares the film to the recent James Bond movie Casino Royale in how it reinvigorates the tired franchise.

He says "roughly the first half of this massive and very well-cast origins extravaganza is arguably the best hour of Marvel Comics-derived filmmaking among the torrent of it that's cascaded across screens in recent years."

It's a sentiment that's been popping up on many geek sites, such as Dark Horizons, which calls it "not just the best of the series but the best adaptation of a Marvel title yet."

McCarthy calls the movie "audacious, confident and fueled by youthful energy" and gives props to Michael Fassbender's turn as Magneto as a young man, Kevin Bacon as the villainous Sebastian Shaw and Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique.

The entire review is here.

Variety, meanwhile, says the movie reclaims "much of the pop-operatic grandeur and insouciant wit so evident in the series' first two installments" and that director Matthew Vaughn "manages to invest this unabashedly commercial product with a unique stylistic identity."