Did you have a favourite in the ensemble?
Vaughn - It's obvious, but Magneto. I sat down with Michael, and I said, "You know, I've always wanted to do a Bond movie. Imagine you're Bond, but you don't have to use gadgets. You can do s*** that other people can't. You're the ultimate assassin in the world that no one knows about." I've always loved Magneto. It's weird, because his power's bloody odd, if you think about it. It's not that great a power. But there's something about Magneto that I've always loved.
I've seen the movie twice and I love it. Love, love, love it. But I still can't help thinking that Vaughn and Fox should've gone with the Magneto - Origins idea, instead of using the X-Men to tell a Magneto Origins' story.
I mean, I wanted more Charles. I wanted to know more about him and his philosophy, I wanted to know a little bit more about his genetic studies. A little bit more about his relationship with Raven, maybe with a short scene of young Charles and Raven having a conversation, Charles telling her how he found out about his powers and what it meant to him, Raven talking about her fear of scaring people and people being mean to her because of her appearence, which would maybe give Charles this notion he should "protect" his adopted sister by making her look "normal", etc.
James talked a lot in interviews about Charles days at Oxord - the pubs, the girls, having nice conversations while having a beer. It seems a lot was cut out from the final movie. Even when they announced "Charles Francis Xavier, professor..." we don't get to see him.
And the idea of a romantic relationship with Moira was cut out too.
Charles' biggest character development, I thought, would come when he started training the kids. And using Cerebro. But then, there was a montage and it was all over too soon. I was frustrated to say the least. I mean, he was accessing other mutants all over the world for the very first time, discovering that there were hundreds, maybe thousands of them. Why couldn't there be a moment in which he talks about it? All this leads to character development after all.
I don't think it's necessary to put one character aside when you want to go Bond with the other. Eric's arc was amazing and very well done in this film. I expected Xavier to be the focus on the next. But since Vaughn already said he'll bring only one more mutant, and it's related to Magneto, (the school only has 3 students at the end of First Class, and no gilrs, and Magneto already has a cool group of mutants for his Brotherhood), and he since he never stops talking about Magneto being his favorite in every damn interview, my hopes are slowly going down.
All in all Xavier had much less screen time that I had imagined initially. But James made him shine even in the smallest and unimportant moments. What an actor. He never gives up on a character, really, even when he's not the main focus.
Anyway, this is just a general conclusion, based on my own expectations, for both the character and the actor. I understand a lot of people loved James in this. I loved him too, but the truth is, he wasn't given enough material to develop his Xavier. And then we have this stupid
Anne Thompson talking about "winners" and "losers" in First Class, and obviously Fassbender is the "winner" and James is the "loser". It's nice that a lot of the comments disagree with her. But unfortunately, that dumb notion of winners and losers in Hollywood tend to stick.
I still have A LOT more to talk about the film. Going to see it again this week, btw.
