After leaving X-Men: The Last Stand shortly before production was to begin, one might find it interesting to learn that director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) has come back to the franchise. Not to helm a sequel mind you but to deliver an origin story. Suffice it to say, if you're unfamiliar with the comics or the films, you might find yourself completely lost while watching the overstuffed but enjoyable X-Men: First Class. Not only will you see how Charles Xavier (James McAvoy)and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) first met, but you'll also see how many of this series' most vital relationships were forged. More importantly, you'll see how Professor X and Magneto came to be. X-Men: First Class doesn't waste any time. There is no crash course lesson on whose human and whose a mutant. You'll discover whose who as the characters do. There's quite a bit of ambition at the heart of this comic book adaptation.

Look know further than the dramatic opening (which is, more or less, an extension of the Holocaust opening in Bryan Singer's first X-Men film). What I liked most about First Class though is how it takes these fantastical characters and drops them smack dab in the middle of real history (The Cuban Missile Crisis). Some of the cast members don't quite pull it off (Jennifer Lawrence has proven to be quite the actress--see Winter's Bone--but as Raven, she never really finds her footing), but leads Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy are sensational both individually and as a team. An energized Vaughn can't resist taking some moments over the top and I'm still a bit confused by a scene early on in which a key character channels his rage into destroying everything but the one individual who truly deserves it (entertaining baddie Kevin Bacon). Still, by and large, I was entertained by First Class. And props to the art direction team for their breathtaking 60's production design. Vaughn gives this film a hip tone that might remind one of an early Bond picture and while the movie could have been tightened a bit, there is no doubt that X-Men: First Class is far superior to X-Men: The Last Stand and Wolverine.