X-Men First Class - Movie Review

I'm not entirely sure where to begin with this movie. I went to see it last night and like I've mentioned before, I'm not a comic book geek so I really have no idea what is accurate and what is not. However i do have a friend who is and does and I gave him the synopsis last night when I got home and apparently there's not much in the way of accuracy in this movie. I'm going to pretend I didn't speak to my mate and I'm going to assume most people are blissfully ignorant like me. So, here goes...!

X-Men First Class endeavours to explain how the X-Men and more particularly Charles Xavier and his school and Magneto got to be who they are. The movie starts with a touch of dé ja vu as we see a young (Jewish) Magneto being separated from his mother in a Nazi camp. Shortly afterwards we meet Sebastian Shaw (played by Kevin bacon - think Footloose) who knows the young Magento has special abilities and employs some Nazi tactics to encourage him.

Next we meet young Charles Xavier in his somewhat less than modest abode (think massive manor/castle) who meets an equally young Raven/Mystique and the two strike up a friendship, well, really it's more of a brother sister kind of thing. Anyway, Cliff Notes version, the rest of the movie revolves around Magneto trying to avenge his mothers death, Sebastian Shaw (films bad bugger) trying to start WWIII and nuclear war between cold war U.S. and U.S.S.R. (think Cuba and missiles  etc.), Xavier trying to be the moral leader for the world (both mutant and human), The C.I.A. trying to utilize the 'good mutants' to fight the commies and the bad mutants, and finally 20th Century Fox trying to keep as far away from the true lore and history of X-men as possible.

Nevermind all of that, lets look at the positives. From a ice cream and popcorn point of view this movie is entertaining. From a cast point of view the cast is aesthetically pleasing, (thumbs up for January Jones and Jennifer Lawrence and Rose Byrne), From an effects point of view there's some pretty cool stuff, although nothing ground breaking and life changing and from keeping my attention point of view it did that just fine. We learned how the key characters came to be, we meet a few X-men we haven't met before, we learn why Magneto is mental, and why Charles Xavier is in a wheelchair. And, so long as you either a) Don't know the lore or b) don't care then this movie will be entertaining and worth the ticket price.

Worth noting that...
1. If you're an X-Men nerd then be prepared to be disappointed.
2. Do Not! I REPEAT DO NOT! Re-watch the other four movies prior to seeing this. It will only expose the plot and history holes even more.
3. Wolverines cameo in the middle of the movie is gold!

If you've seen this movie and want to add you 2 cents worth then feel free.