A new species is being born. Help me guide it, shape it, lead it.

X-Men: First Class

(2011)

I expected to enjoy this, but I was surprised by just how much; a second viewing did nothing to lessen that, and this is easily the best X-Men film. Crucially, it really doesn't miss the previously pervading presence of Wolverine. Part of that is undoubtedly due to the vitality that McAvoy and (particularly) Fassbender bring to Professor X and Magneto. Singer's X-Men unfortunately relegated the characters to luvvie thesps trading intellectual ripostes; here there's real emotion underlying the action (and, really, McKellen always seemed like an old man playing a superhero; Stewart was always an ageless baldy).

The first 45 minutes is flawless as an introduction to the characters, and Fassbender is really the star. But mention should be made of the delectable Jennifer Lawrence, whose conflicting loyalties form the bridge between the disparate views of Xavier and Erik. Of the other actors, I'd definitely salute Nicholas Hoult as Frank McCoy, a rare example of a child actor who has seemingly effortlessly made the transition to rather superior adult thesp. Of the rest, Kevin Bacon enjoys being the big nasty, January Jones is well-cast as the remote, glacial crystal chick and Jason Flemyng (one of Vaughn's lucky charms) is quietly amplified as Azazel.

Much has been made of the Cuban Missile Crisis setting, but that's really a backdrop to the involving emotional drama (and it is involving). As to the too-much-too-soon climax, it does rather give you a don't-need-another-film link to X-Men, but I'd much rather see McAvoy and Fassbender at war for a couple of sequel/prequels. Even better, sign up Fassbender as the next Bond now, and get Vaughn to direct; the latter's come on in leaps and bounds since Layer Cake and I really wouldn't have been aware of the immensely tight production time on this if I didn't know about it. Kudos all round.

****1/2

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There are times when I miss the darkness. It is hard to live always in the light.

Blake's 7 4.12: Warlord

The penultimate episode, and Chris Boucher seems to have suddenly remembered that the original premise for the series was a crew of rebels fighting against a totalitarian regime. The detour from this, or at least the haphazard servicing of it, during seasons Three and Four has brought many of my favourite moments in the series. So it comes as a bit of a jolt to suddenly find Avon making Blake-like advances towards the leaders of planets to unite in opposition against the Federation.

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Vampire Academy (2014)
My willingness to give writer Daniel Waters some slack on the grounds of early glories sometimes pays off (Sex and Death 101) and sometimes, as with this messy and indistinct Young Adult adaptation, it doesn’t. If Vampire Academy plods along as a less than innovative smart-mouthed Buffy rip-off that might be because, if you added vampires to Heathers, you would probably get something not so far from the world of Joss Whedon. Unfortunately inspiration is a low ebb throughout, not helped any by tepid direction from Daniel’s sometimes-reliable brother Mark and a couple of hopelessly plankish leads who do their best to dampen down any wit that occasionally attempts to surface.

I can only presume there’s a never-ending pile of Young Adult fiction poised for big screen failure, all of it comprising multi-novel storylines just begging for a moment in the Sun. Every time an adaptation crashes and burns (and the odds are that they will) another one rises, hydra-like, hoping…

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Shakespeare in Love (1998)
(SPOILERS) You see? Sometimes Oscar can get it right. Not that the backlash post-announcement would have you crediting any such. No, Saving Private Ryan had the rug unscrupulously pulled from under it by Harvey Weinstein essentially buying Shakespeare in Love’s Best Picture through a lavish promotional campaign. So unfair! It is, of course, nothing of the sort. If the rest of Private Ryan were of the same quality as its opening sequence, the Spielberg camp might have had a reasonable beef, but Shakespeare in Love was simply in another league, quality wise, first and foremost thanks to a screenplay that sang like no other in recent memory. And secondly thanks to Gwyneth Paltrow, so good and pure, before she showered us with goop.

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Saving Private Ryan (1998)
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Aladdin (2019)
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Robin Hood (2018)
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Why would I turn into a filing cabinet?

Captain Marvel (2019)
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I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
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Have you always lived here, Mother?

I Am Mother (2019)
(SPOILERS) This Netflix science-fiction offering arrived with very solid reviews, always a surprise for a Netflix movie, even one they picked up at Sundance. For about two-thirds of the running time, I Am Mother seems to justify the (modest) raves. It boasts assured direction from Grant Sputore (making his feature debut), polished production values and strong performances from a very small cast (basically Hilary Swank and Clare Rugaard, with Luke Hawker in a Weta robot body suit and Rose Byrne providing the voice). It operates intriguing turns of plot and switches in sympathies. Ultimately, however, I Am Mother heads towards a faintly underwhelming and unremarkable, standard-issue conclusion.

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Game of Thrones Season Six
(SPOILERS) The most distracting thing about Season Six of Game of Thrones (and I’ve begun writing this at the end of the seventh episode, The Broken Man) is how breakneck its pace is, and how worryingly – only relatively, mind – upbeat it’s become. Suddenly, characters are meeting and joining forces, not necessarily mired in pits of despair but actually moving towards positive, attainable goals, even if those goals are ultimately doomed (depending on the party concerned). It feels, in a sense, that liberated from George R R Martin’s text, producers are going full-throttle, and you half-wonder if they’re using up too much plot and revelation too quickly, and will run out before the next two seasons are up. Then, I’m naturally wary of these things, well remembering how Babylon 5 suffered from packing all its goods into Season Four and was then given an ultimately wasted final season reprieve.

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Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

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