X-Men: First Class

Prequels, by nature, provide film-makers with an inescapable dilemma, which betrays one of my biggest bug-bares in cinema; predictability. With characters as well known as Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, the problem becomes all the worse - we've spent the last decade familiarising ourselves with their on-screen personalities and relationship, so trying to write a story that depicts where all that comes from is no mean feat.

Fortunately, X-Men: First Class doesn't let that difficulty get in the way of it's storytelling. Yes, there's a certain inevitability when we're introduced to the rather boyishly handsome Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy. Of course we know to expect the worst as soon as we realise that James McAvoy's Xavier is walking down the rather lavish streets of 60's Oxford. But there's a beautiful weaving of enough unexpected pleasures throughout the story to keep all of those things at bay - a drip feed of knowing references to future events that don't distract from the content of the film, but serve as loving reminders of the adventures to come.

Other than a couple of rather dubious green-screen flight sequences featuring Banshee, the visuals in First Class really are superb. Of particular note are the beautifully shot scenes in the submarine's mirrored nuclear reactor (below), with the cinematography made to look effortless, yet unutterably impressive.

Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) and Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) face off in one of X-Men: First Class' climactic final scenes

Overall, once you've grown accustomed to McAvoy's seemingly constant massaging of his left temple, First Class really delivers. It seems unfair to compare this to any of the previous X-Men incarnations, but given it's title, it's difficult not to. Happily, it more than lives up to the high expectations we have of the franchise, and in fact delivers quality over and above some of it's future-based cousins. Given the precedents, people will already be talking about filling in more of the gaps between 1962 and 2000, with a prequel trilogy well on the cards. Should that be the case, First Class seems an excellent spring board to launch from, but leaves a particularly high benchmark for the next instalment to reach.