MANILA, Philippines - Before Charles (James McAvoy) and Erik (Michael Fassbender) took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers. X-Men: First Class brings together the epic scale and action of a summer blockbuster with a character-driven story that unveils the beginning of the X-Men saga. As the first class discovers, harnesses and comes to terms with its formidable powers, alliances are formed that will shape the eternal war between the heroes and villains of the X-Men universe.
Charles, joined by Erik, recruits the “first class” of young mutants, but harnessing their powers is not easy, nor is their coming together as a team.
In the first X-Men film trilogy, the mutants have long honed their abilities and were a smooth-running (well, mostly) team. But when we meet the young mutants in X-Men: First Class, their powers are untamed and unfocused. Screenwriter Bryan Singer says, “Their situation is a metaphor for how uncomfortable teens feel in their skin, and how difficult it is when you’re ‘different’ from the societal ideal.”
Charles’ first mutant ally is Raven, a blue-skinned shape-shifter with superhuman agility. The two mutants had met as youngsters, and he makes her a member of his family, and they grow up as a kind of brother and sister. But as we know from the first films, their relationship will change dramatically. Singer explains, “Because Charles is young and at times naïve, he sometimes doesn’t pay as much attention to Raven as he should, and she sometimes becomes resentful. That takes her on the path to where we find her in the original film trilogy (played by Rebecca Romijn), as part of Magneto’s Brotherhood.” Jennifer Lawrence plays Raven, whose mutant name is Mystique
As Charles and Erik become aware of the existence of other mutants, they discover a plot that puts them in the middle of the escalating tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. This, in turn, creates an uneasy alliance between the mutants and a covert US government agency. At the agency, Charles and Erik meet Hank, a brilliant scientist with only a few mutant features — until a serum unexpectedly unleashes the superhuman Beast within.
Hank, his mutant powers as yet unrevealed, works at the top-secret agency developing world-changing technology, like Cerebro and the X-Jet. Hank has been alone for much of his life, in hiding and embarrassed by his big simian-like feet and superhuman agility. When he meets Charles and Erik, Hank’s life takes an unexpected turn. Hank is played by Nicholas Hoult, a rising star who takes on the role of Beast.
The rest of the first class of X-Men are Lucas Till as Alex Summers, a.k.a. Havok, who can emit concentric rings of super-heated energy waves, causing his targets to burst into flame — and whom Charles and Erik free from solitary confinement in a penitentiary; Caleb Landry Jones as Sean Cassidy, aka Banshee, whose unique sonic blasts carry him into flight; and Edi Gathegi as Armondo Munoz, aka Darwin, whose “reactive evolution” enables him to adapt to any situation or environment.
X-Men: First Class opens June 2 (Thursday) in Philippine theaters from 20th Century Fox, distributed by Warner Bros.