Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon
Rating: PG-13

Michael Fassbender portrays Erik Lehnsherr, who has the power to control magnetism in X-Men: First Class. (Courtesy photo)

The posters for X-Men: First Class proclaim, "Witness the moment that will change our world." If you're like me, and you haven't read the X-Men comic books, you probably don't realize that the moment the posters are talking about is the Cuban Missile Crisis. Well, I wasn't expecting to see a historical fiction movie, but nevertheless, the latest installment in the franchise— and the start of a new branch of the series—is just as much fun as any of the previous movies. Of course, it's also part of the endless stream of action-packed but forgettable summer movies that come out to keep us occupied.

First Class follows the lives of Charles Xavier (James McAvoy, Atonement) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender, Inglourious Basterds), better known as Professor X and Magneto, as they grow up worlds apart, join forces as young adults, and eventually fall out because of, shall we say, irreconcilable differences. Xavier grows up wealthy, earns a professorship at Oxford, has fun with the ladies; Lehnsherr suffers through Nazi concentration camps, sees his mother killed, and sets out to avenge her. Oh, and by the way, they're both mutants; Xavier has powers of telepathy, mind control, and mind-reading, while Lehnsherr can control metal with his mind. Their paths converge when another mutant, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon, Mystic River) starts going from nation to nation in an attempt to get regular humans to escalate the Cold War into a nuclear World War III. Xavier, along with longtime friend Raven (Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone)—better known as the shape-shifting Mystique—agree to help the CIA find Shaw, and after a botched attempt to avenge his mother, Lehnsherr agrees to help them. And so, Xavier and Lehnsherr recruit more mutants and set out to stop Shaw, save the world, and convince everyone that mutants are actually pretty OK.

While the early '60s setting doesn't work so well with the high-tech heroes, I can't hold that against the writers, since the story comes from preexisting material. What I can hold against them is that they force-feed us generic dribble and beat us over the head with message. I forget how many times someone declares that society will never accept the mutants for who they are, but suffice it to say I expected Mufasa from The Lion King to appear in the clouds and offer them some advice. Then again, they don't make summer movies to show off eloquent use of language, so the writing team, which includes director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass), gets away with murder here, hiding behind flashy special effects.

To be fair, the movie's visuals are nice, even if everything looks too modern to be 1962. Unfortunately, they aren't good enough to make up for bland writing and so-so acting. And while I don't have anything against the actors, I can't say much for them, either. McAvoy and Fassbender connect well onscreen, and McAvoy establishes himself as the father figure for just about everyone else. Fassbender and Lawrence suffer from overly campy dialogue, which they treat with too much earnestness, so they can't help but sound preachy at times. Kevin Bacon, meanwhile, relishes being the villain, just as any actor would. No one's spectacular, and no one's spectacularly bad; they're all just there. And then there's everyone else. With appearances by January Jones (TV's Mad Men), Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids), and a slew of unknowns as the young team of mutants, there is always the possibility of a minor actor standing out. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen, since many of the minor characters do little more than strike a pose while the special effects show us their powers.

First Class is entertaining, as far as summer movies go, but too often it embraces the stereotype that people just want to see action without all that writing and acting and ingenuity stuff getting in the way. As a prequel, it efficiently and satisfactorily ties up all the loose ends and explains how all the characters got to where we've seen them in the other movies. But all First Class promises is more movies for the franchise, and I worry that those future movies are just going to be more of the same.

Danny Eisenberg is a 2010 graduate of the Bromfield School and is currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania.