X-Men: First Class

One of the seven thousand sequels or reboots bombarding a movie screen this summer.  The fourth (fifth? sixth? first?-- argh how reboots and prequels and side stories make it difficult to label) film in the X-Men canon goes back to the beginning, and is being directed by Matthew Vaughn, of Kick-Ass, Stardust and Layer Cake fame.  Vaughn famously almost directed by the third flick X-Men: The Last Stand, and was replaced by Brett Ratner, in what must described as the nail in the coffin for that particular aspect of the franchise.  The Wolverine flick that followed didn't help.  However, it's with a certain nod of generosity that the first two Bryan Singer-helmed productions were quite stellar for the superhero genre; Singer shares a writing credit here, so perhaps it will kick back in high gear, aside from my own personal distaste for franchise rebooting so shortly after the last one expired (see: Spider-man!)  The cast includes James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in the lead roles as young Xavier and Magneto, respectively, and they are fine choices in any production.  Surrounding them is where things get a little odd: Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, Mad Men gal January Jones, Rose Byrne, Nicolas Hoult (last seen seducing Colin Firth in A Single Man), Zoe Kravitz, and Kevin Bacon.