X-Men: First Class

At a glance, it’s easy to read X-Men: First Class as a cynical attempt to wring money out of a license after The Last Stand more or less scorched the earth you’d been building on. But the prequel is one of the most concise depictions of the X-Men mythos that it felt like a proper reboot before the bad sequels came in and fucked it all up.

First Class is all about the founding of the X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants, with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender taking on the younger roles of Professor X and Magneto. Jennifer Lawrence also starred as Mystique before she was ever in The Hunger Games, and seeing a younger generation of actors bring new life into those roles made for a compelling origin story that could have easily felt trite and unnecessary. The film is elevated by McAvoy and Fassbender’s chemistry, who both had huge shoes to fill after Stewart and McKellen had become so embedded in the public eye as Professor X and Magneto. They manage to capture the conflict bright-eyed hope and beaten-down cynicism that fuels the X-Men franchise, and even when the future movies fell short of First Class’ promise, that fire never goes out. — Kenneth Shepard