“X-MEN: FIRST CLASS” EXCELS AT P71 MILLION MARK IN PHILS.

“X-Men: First Class” stirred the franchise anew as it exceeded fans’ and the general public’s expectations when it opened with a whopping P 71 million at the box-office nationwide on its first 4-day weekend (June 2-5, 2011) in the Phils.

            The movie delivered with flying colors, surpassing 20^th Century Fox’s estimates and is now 2011’s Biggest Opening for a Fox film so far, besting the studio’s recent box-office hit “Rio” at P 17 million on its opening weekend.

“X-Men: First Class’” P 52.2M opening weekend in Metro Manila overtook “Pirates 4’s” opening 3-day weekend of P 47M and that of “Thor’s” P 45.4M 3-day weekend. The fourth installment of the “X-Men” franchise is now the 2^nd Biggest Opening Weekend for the year so far succeeding “Kung Fu Panda’s” P 64M 4-day weekend.

Previous X-Men films have shown male comic book fans dominating the film's market share, but “X-Men: First Class” rebooted the franchise to an even wider demographic as it exceeded “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” gross that previously opened at P 35.4M in 2009 and now holds record as the 2^nd Biggest Opening Weekend of the franchise next to “X-Men: Last Stand” that opened on a 5-day weekend at P 58.8M in 2006. 

Also surpassing the studio’s “Star Wars: Episode III” at a P49.8M opening,  “X-Men: First Class” so far is now Fox’s 3^rd Biggest Opening Weekend All-Time following “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” at P60.9M opening and that of  X-Men’s “Last Stand.”

 So far recorded as the Biggest Opening Weekend for a Non-3D film, “X-Men: First Class” raked in more than 440,000 admissions in 228 screens on its 4-day Phils. debut.  With the movie reaping strong positive reviews, it will most likely hold strong in the coming 3 weeks more particularly in the following top grossing cinemas.

            Ayala Cinemas’ Trinoma climbed its way to the top of the list in “X-Men: First Class’” top grossing cinemas with its P 4.3million receipt. Next in line are  SM Mall of Asia P 3.8M; SM Megamall P 3.05M; SM North Edsa/The Block P 3M; Glorietta4 P 2.9M; Powerplant P 2.5M; Gateway Cineplex/Ali Mall P2.2M; Eastwood P 2.07M; Greenbelt3 P 1.8M and Alabang Town Center P 1.7M.

           

Still within the million mark’s top grossing cinemas are SM Cebu P1.7M; Shang Cineplex P1.69M; Ayala Cebu P 1.68; TheatreMall P 1.6M; Robinson’s Ermita P 1.55M; Newport P 1.53M; Robinson’s Galleria P 1.5M; Filinvest P 1.3M; Market!Market! P1.2M; SM Fairview P 1.1M and SM San Lazaro P 1M.

            “X-Men: First Class” is set in the 1960s – the dawn of the Space Age, and also the height of the Cold War, when escalating tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union threatened the entire planet – and when the world discovered the existence of mutants that unveils the beginning of the X-Men saga. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender star as Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr before they took the names  Professor X and Magneto.  Before they were archenemies they were the closest of friends, working together and with other mutants to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. As the first class discovers, harnesses, and comes to terms with their formidable powers, alliances are formed that will shape the eternal war between the heroes and villains of the X-Men universe.

            “X-Men: First Class” is still showing nationwide from 20^th Century Fox distributed by Warner Bros.

             

Mutant Genesis of X-Men: First Class

Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy

The first X-men movie started with the conflicting interests of Professor X and Magneto. Regardless of their individual differences, they still consider each other as close friends. When the X-Men comics first appeared, it already highlighted the conflict between the group and Magneto. But the conflict of Prof. X and Magneto is not between good and evil. It's about ideology. 1963 was the time when racism was an issue in the United States. This was the time of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. You can say that Prof. X is an embodiment of Dr. King and Magneto is Malcolm X. Of all the villains, you can't say Magneto was totally bad. This is the message Stan Lee was saying when he first created the X-Men. Even until now, the message is still relevant even to us Filipinos. Our history was also about racism. When our colonizers treat us differently that ideas were also developed. In our historical context, I can say our national hero, Jose Rizal shares similarities to what Charles Xavier was trying to do and Erik Lehnsherr was like Andres Bonifacio.

Havok: Movie and comics version

Like the first movie trilogy, there were also inconsistencies like making Alex Summers aka Havok older than his brother Cyclops, who appeared in the three X-Men movies and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But the movies were not consistent with the comics. Like making Iceman younger than Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and Angel which was the first X-Men team members. Even Beast was made older than all of them. 

The first X-Men team

The uniform they wore for the mission were similar to the X-Men uniform in the comics. Even the details of Banshee was quite similar. Despite this minor inconsistencies, it was a redeeming movie for the X-Men franchise since the third movie, X-Men: The Last Stand which was the poorest movie considered by many fans. Expect cameo appearances from a couple of characters so don't blink while watching the movie. X-Men: First Class opens June 2 in cinemas.

X-Men team uniform pattern

BEFORE HE WAS MAGNETO...FASSBENDER IN “X-MEN: FIRST CLASS”

Michael Fassbender

Michael Fassbender is Erik Lehnsherr, the young Magneto, leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, Master of Magnetism and quite possibly the most powerful mutant on the planet in “X-Men: First Class.”

The Erik of “X-Men: First Class” is a very different, and arguably a more dangerous proposition – a man tortured by the ravages of his past, consumed by pain and a thirst for vengeance and a mutant just starting to grapple with the notion that humanity is something to be discarded like a used toy.  Exploring then a rich and rewarding friendship with the young Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), Erik has finally met an equal.     

 “There is a very strong bond between Charles and Erik, and a deep respect. But from the beginning, their ideologies are at odds. Erik is very wary of new elements in his life.  When Erik and Charles have their parting of the ways, audiences will realize that great things could have happened if they had joined forces forever,” says Michael Fassbender.

“X-Men: First Class” tracks Charles and Erik in their mid-twenties, during the height of the civil rights movement and the Cold War.  Both aspects of that period provided an exciting opportunity to explore events that would shape our modern world. One of the Cold War’s flashpoints was the Cuban missile crisis, during which the threat of sudden global extinction loomed large, and which provided the ultimate stakes for mutants to reveal themselves to the world and prevent a conflagration that would engulf the planet.  They are essentially cut from the same cloth, and both see mutants as potential subjects of persecution.  However, Charles lives to protect those who fear him while Erik lives to destroy them.  Each believes his side is right.  Neither is willing to compromise.

Erik is also hesitant to join Charles on his mission to save the world from itself.  “Erik is quite Machiavellian; he believes the end justifies the means,” Fassbender explains. “He has no regard for humans, and feels they’re inferior.”  Erik’s cavalier attitudes about humans stem from his childhood, which couldn’t have been more different from Charles’ life of privilege.  Erik had to survive without parents, and as a youngster was forced to endure unimaginable hardships. 

Erik is a force of fury and hate, hunting Schmidt and the other Nazi doctors whom he believes turned him into a kind of Frankenstein’s monster.  Even as Erik finds his first friend in Charles and is embraced by the other members of the team that will become the X-Men, he never veers from his mission.  “Erik is totally driven; if Charles or anyone gets in his way, he’s going to put them down,” says Fassbender. 

Director Matthew Vaughn had seen Fassbender’s critically acclaimed performances in “300,” “Hunger,” and “Inglourious Basterds,” and after Fassbender’s impressive audition, cast the actor as Erik.  “Michael gives Erik an interesting attitude, and Erik is really straight-up cool,” says the director. “Michael’s work in this film is reminiscent of Sean Connery’s interpretation of James Bond. Erik is like the ultimate spy – imagine Bond…but with superpowers.”

  “X-Men: First Class” opens June 2 (Thursday) nationwide from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros. Visit  20th Century Fox (Philippines) on Facebook and on www.youtube.com/20thcenturyfoxph for promos and latest clips.

CAUSING HAVOK: LUCAS TILL IN “X-MEN: FIRST CLASS”

Lucas Till as Havok

In the original X-Men trilogy, the field leader of Professor X’s mutants was Scott Summers, aka Cyclops (James Marsden), who also appeared briefly in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. With “X-Men: First Class” taking place in 1962, though, Scott has yet to be born. So the heroic mantle will fall to another member of the powerful clan – his brother, Alex.

Like Scott, Alex – aka Havok – has the ability to project beams of destructive energy, albeit from his body and not his eyes. And like Scott, Alex has trouble controlling those beams – trouble that puts him in a very dark place when he first comes to the attention of X-Men founders Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender).

Alex is played by relative newcomer Lucas Till, a 20 year old American actor previously best known for roles in the likes of “The Spy Next Door” and “The Hannah Montana Movie.”

Comic art of Havok

Riding and maneuvering one of the film’s most eagerly anticipated sets was the X-Jet, based on the XB-70, a prototype long-range, supersonic bomber developed in the U.S. in the late 1950s, the immense structure which measures some eighty feet in length is Havok’s ride in the movie which Till finds comfy.  “You could fall asleep in that thing, even when you go upside down,” he says of the X-Jet set.

 Stressing that Havok comes with a K and not a C, Till shares how his character found his way into the X-Men class, “In this movie, he’s found in confinement because he can’t control his powers and accidentally or intentionally has killed people. We leave that ambiguous. He’s a nice kid, but some things have happened and they haven’t been good. So he’s got a serious guard up in front, but he’s a hero on the inside.”

            “He’s the rebellious one. Definitely. And quiet. He’s a powder keg waiting to explode, metaphorically and literally. He’s always on the brink of destroying everything around him,” adds Till of his character’s temperament. 

            Till has a leading role in Battle: Los Angeles, and starred as young Jack Cash in the Oscar-winning film Walk the Line.   Recently, Till guest-starred on the high profile primetime series, House, with Hugh Laurie.

  “X-Men: First Class” opens June 2 (Thursday) in Phil. theaters from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros. Visit  20th Century Fox (Philippines) on Facebook and on www.youtube.com/20thcenturyfoxph for promos and latest clips.

A NEW BEGINNING: “X-MEN: FIRST CLASS”

Before Charles (James McAvoy) and Erik (Michael Fassbender) took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers.  “X-Men: First Class” brings together the epic scale and action of a summer blockbuster with a character-driven story that unveils the beginning of the X-Men saga.  As the first class discovers, harnesses, and comes to terms with their formidable powers, alliances are formed that will shape the eternal war between the heroes and villains of the X-Men universe.

            After Charles, joined by Erik, recruits the “first class” of young mutants, these gifted students learn to control and direct their powers for the greater good of mankind. But harnessing these powers is not easy, nor is their coming together as a team. 

In the first X-Men film trilogy, the mutants have long honed their abilities and were a smooth-running (well, mostly) team. But when we meet the young mutants in “X-Men: First Class,” their powers are untamed and unfocused.  Moreover, says screenwriter Bryan Singer, like most teenagers, the mutants are uncomfortable with being different from their peers.  “Their situation is a metaphor for how uncomfortable teens feel in their skin, and how difficult it is when you’re ‘different’ from the societal ideal.”

Charles’ first mutant ally is Raven, a blue-skinned shape-shifter with superhuman agility.  The two mutants had met as youngsters, when Charles discovered Raven rummaging through the kitchen of his family’s mansion.  Charles makes Raven a member of his family, and they grow up as a kind of brother and sister.  But as we know from the first films, their relationship will change dramatically.  Explains Bryan Singer:  “Because Charles is young and at times naïve, he sometimes doesn’t pay as much attention to Raven as he should, and she sometimes becomes resentful.  And that takes her on the path to where we find her in the original film trilogy [played by Rebecca Romijn], as part of Magneto’s Brotherhood.”

            Jennifer Lawrence, a Best Actress Academy Award® nominee for her breakout performance in the 2010 drama “Winter’s Bone,” portrays Raven, whose mutant name is Mystique. “Raven has learned to live with her secret, but much like most insecure teenagers who react to something they perceive makes them different, she hasn’t really faced up to her unique abilities,” she says. “Raven is mostly ashamed of them. She slowly starts to realize it is a blessing and becomes proud of her mutant abilities, as do the other young mutants of their powers.  At the beginning we are isolated and alone, and each mutant goes through a huge evolution.  We join together to become this iconic X-Men team, and then separate.  It is fascinating to see the journey each character takes and which side they ultimately join.”

            As Charles and Erik become aware of the existence of other mutants, they discover a plot that puts them in the middle of the escalating tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which is hurtling the world toward disaster. This, in turn, creates an uneasy alliance between the mutants and a covert U.S. government agency.  At the agency, Charles and Erik meet Hank, a brilliant scientist with only a few mutant features – until a serum unexpectedly unleashes the superhuman Beast within.

Hank, his mutant powers as yet unrevealed, works at the top-secret agency developing world-changing technology, like Cerebro and the X-Jet. Hank has been alone for much of his life, in hiding and embarrassed by his big simian-like feet and superhuman agility. When he meets Charles and Erik, Hank’s life takes an unexpected turn.  Explains Nicholas Hoult, a rising star who takes on the role of the mutant whom fans would come to love as Beast: “Charles tells Hank he must release his full mutant powers.  Hank has been trying to suppress his powers and convince himself they don’t even exist. He is too afraid of what he might be capable of if he unleashes them. Charles makes Hank confront his mutant abilities, learn to control them, and use them to help both mutants and humans.” 

Hoult understands how Hank’s feelings about his unique abilities are so relatable:  “Everyone has been embarrassed or felt like an outsider, at some time in their life.  The feelings these mutants have about their powers are no different.  When they find each other, and can share their talents, they can finally be proud of who they are.”

Rounding out the team that become the first class of X-Men are Lucas Till as Alex Summers, aka Havok, who can emit concentric rings of super-heated energy waves, causing his targets to burst into flame – and whom Charles and Erik free from solitary confinement in a penitentiary; Caleb Landry Jones as Sean Cassidy, aka Banshee, whose unique sonic blasts carry him into flight; and Edi Gathegi as Armondo Munoz, aka Darwin, whose "reactive evolution” enables him to adapt to any situation or environment.  

  “X-Men: First Class” opens June 2 (Thursday) in Phil. theaters from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros. Visit  20th Century Fox (Philippines) on Facebook and on www.youtube.com/20thcenturyfoxph for promos and latest clips.

“X-MEN: FIRST CLASS” IN PHILS. THEATERS – JUNE 2 (THURSDAY)

2011’s most anticipated prequel “X-Men: First Class” strikes high in amperage as its opening approaches – June 2 in Phil. theaters!

            “X-Men: First Class” refracts to the time when Charles Xavier aka Professor X who can control minds and Erik Lensherr aka Magneto who has the power to control magnetism are close friends who have started to discover their powers the first time.  They began as closest of friends working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new) to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. Made to work together in a forthcoming globally critical event, a rift between them ensued in the process. Thus began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-MEN that puts an end to their friendship, marking the beginning of their lifelong rivalry. 

             Matthew Vaughn directs the movie from a screenplay by Bryan Singer where we meet the young subhumans with extraordinary powers that can both save and destroy the world.   Rose Byrne also joins the powerful cast as Dr. Moira Mac Taggert. Meet some more of “X-Men: First Class’” extraordinary subhumans:

Sebastian Shaw played by Kevin Bacon is a force of incalculable evil who can absorb energy and re-channel it. A former Nazi collaborator whose early research altered the life of Erik Lensherr, he will stop at nothing to start a war to ensure that mutants inherit the earth.

Emma Frost played by January Jones is a telepath and close ally of Shaw. With an indestructible diamond-like skin, she can as well project her thoughts and will into another’s mind. 

Raven aka Mystique played by Jennifer Lawrence is a close friend to Charles Xavier who is a metamorph – or shape-shifter – she can assume the form of any humanoid creature she chooses.  The mutant teen works hard to lead a “normal” life and hide her gifts, but the battle between Xavier’s mutants and Shaw’s forces leads her on a different path.

Hank McCoy aka Beast played Nicholas Hoult (who beat Twilight’s Taylor Lautner to the role) is a brilliant scientist with only a few mutant features until a serum unexpectedly unlocked the superhuman Beast within.

Azazel played by Jason Flemyng can teleport by opening a portal into another dimension. He is a key player in Sebastian Shaw’s plans to make sure that mutants inherit the planet.

Armando Munoz aka Darwin played by Edi Gathegi can adapt to any situation or environment – when plunged underwater, he grows gills and gains night vision in the dead of the night.

Alex Summers aka Havok played by Lucas Till (who is best known opposite Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana movie) is a fearless mutant who has the ability to absorb cosmic energy and discharge blasts from the energy. The handsome, athletic mutant has difficulty with his impressive powers, until Charles Xavier teaches him how to harness them.

Angel Salvadore aka Angel played by Zoë Kravitz is a beautiful ex-dancer who possesses a stunning tattoo of insect-like wings, which become actual wings growing from her back, giving her the gift of flight.  Her arsenal is a deadly acid, which she projectile vomits in combat.

Sean Cassidy aka Banshee played by Caleb Landry Jones has unique sonic blasts that carry him into flight.  Like other young mutants, Banshee’s powers reach their full potential only under Charles Xavier’s patient tutelage – and in a battle that will have global consequences.

Questad aka Riptide played by Alex Gonzales is also Sebastian Shaw’s closest ally, Riptide creates powerful whirlwinds that can demolish buildings – and challenge even the most powerful mutants.

“X-Men First Class” is a 20^th Century Fox film to be distributed by Warner Bros. in Phil. cinemas