X-Men: First Class is already getting positive reviews.

Screenings for X-MEN: FIRST CLASS have already started taking place! Viewers who attended a recent screening on Friday were required to sign embargoes (full reviews can’t be posted until May 25), but that didn’t stop a few from giving their opinion on the film.

I Am Rogue, Obsessed with Film, Hey Guys, Blogomatic 3000 and Bleeding Cool share their thoughts on the film; we’ve posted few choice quotes below. Click links for the full articles.

Thanks to C-Saw and JP!

I Am Rogue:

The movie makes an attempt to connect to the previous films, which is nice to see but really X-Men: First Class is so good it almost doesn’t need it. I know it’s supposed to be a prequel but I’d rather think of it as a re-boot because I think it’s different and in some ways better than the others. I was really impressed with how much of the film is a character study.

There are two completely unexpected and brilliantly executed cameos in the film that I will not spoil for you but I thought they were very nicely done. The score is the same classic X-Men film theme and fits in the ‘60s setting well. I was just really impressed with this movie.

Obsessed with Film:

Simply put I loved it. It’s a superior, exciting, and intelligent comic book movie. McAvoy and Fassbender are brilliant (Fassbender in particular – he is if you’ll excuse the pun, magnetic), and beyond the movie’s expected grand action Vaughn has managed to instill X-Men: First Class with a real emotional core, complexity and a huge amount of style. Taking the X-universe back to its 60′s roots was a stroke of Bryan Singer inspired genius. There’s a classic cameo, and plenty of new faces.

Hey Guys:

With a mix of scantily-clad girls, nuclear threat, and a submarine-bound evil villain, the movie could well have veered into Austin Powers-style parody, but Vaughn manages to stay on just the right side of camp, keeping his tongue firmly out of his cheek, but also reserving the real sincerity for the relationships between the characters.

Indeed, it is in the treatment of the characters, and their relationships that the film really triumphs. Wisely Fassbender, McAvoy and Lawrence don’t even attempt to mimic the performances given by Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Rebecca Romijn in the earlier films in the franchise.

The other key relationship for the film is that between Singer and Vaughn, and frankly it’s seamless. Vaughn’s ability to direct action, and sense of humour run through the film, while the film still feels very much like a part of the world Singer created in his movies.

Blogomatic 3000:

After an original, two sequels and an offshoot, you’d be forgiven for assuming that you know what to expect when walking into a theatre to see the latest in the X-Men franchise. You’d be wrong. X-Men: First Class does not forget what came before, in fact there are nods to it throughout, both fun and terribly sad, but fresh faces have breathed new life into familiar characters and their battle for acceptance has an added touch of humanity.

Watching these superheroes, or superhumans, embrace their mutations with stumbles along the way, quite literally, makes for a fun first half of the film. And then we have the next act and everything reaches a whole new level. Responsible for this is Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw, whom Magneto met during Europe’s darkest days.

There is all the excitement, pace and spectacle that you would expect and want from an X-Men film, but what makes X-Men: First Class a film that I can’t wait to see again is the people in it.

Bleeding Cool:

Not only does this film fit very snugly into the continuity of Bryan Singer’s two X-movies (more snugly that we can even talk about, for now), it also seems to really belong in the same set. Which is to say, after I’d been bowled over by X2 and its blend of big fun and big ideas, I wanted more. And now, eight years later, I’ve got more.

First Class contains some of the briskest and most efficient storytelling I’ve seen in any recent blockbuster. An awful lot happens, and awfully quickly at times, but it’s all clear and while some nice moments might be over in the blink of an eye, this can only reward repeat viewers.

I don’t think you can really call the star of a film a scene-stealer, but McAvoy is the best thing in more or less every sequence he’s in, which translates to more or less all of the film. He even gets the opportunity to pull off some great little comedy bits and, when necessary, packs just enough emotional punch.