The X-Men live action movies saga has had its fair share of ups and downs over the years, and back in the early 2010s, there was a lot of doubt about whether the X-Men movies would return to their former glory. X-Men made history. X-Men 2 improved greatly over its predecessor. X-Me: The Last Stand was lackluster. X-Men Origins: Wolverine dug a deeper ditch for the saga and all hope seemed lost. In fact, the studio's plan to focus on making origin stories for different characters was stalled due to the bad reception of Origins. The movie that was to be released after X-Men Origins: Wolverine was supposed to be X-Men Origins: Magneto, but it never saw the light of day. Instead, X-Me: First Class was made and incorporated elements of the Magneto movie into it. However, as with every prequel out there, there came continuity problems. This article will explore 11 inconsistencies in X-Men: First Class.
1. Mystique and Charles Growing Up Together
One of the first scenes of the movie shows Charles finding Mystique in disguise, raiding the refrigerator in his large mansion. He takes her in, seeing that she is a mutant, just like him. They end up growing up together. We watched the original trilogy that came years before this movie entered pre-production. In that trilogy, there was no indication at all that Charles and Mystique even knew each other. The only time we ever see Mystique in the mansion is in X-Men, when she poisons Cerebro so that Charles can't track Magneto using it. She does so with no remorse, no second thoughts, no concern at all over the Professor. It seems a bit odd, considering they grew up together and he wasn't antagonistic with her. They never share any screentime at all either. Charles never mentioned Mystique when he was introducing Wolverine (and the audience) to the larger world that was around. It is also worth noting that even when Charles died, Mystique never attended his service. Considering that they grew up together, she would at least attend the service as a sign of respect for all he had done and how much of an impact she had in his life. The X-Men would not have been antagonistic towards her, seeing as she apparently grew up with him. They would see her sit and pay her respects to him, and would let her go without killing him. Even if she were afraid of what they could do to her, she would have still found a way around it...regardless of whether she was still a mutant or not.
2. When Charles and Magneto Met
In X-Men, when Charles is showing Wolverine around the mansion and explaining to him what the audience needs to know about the world of mutants and the history of the characters, he mentions when he met Erik Lehnsherr. Charles said, "when I was 17, I met a young man called Erik Lehnsherr. He, too, had an unusual power. He could create and control magnetic fields. Believing that humanity would never accept us, he grew angry and vengeful. He became Magneto." As the quote explicitly says, Charles met Magneto when he was 17 years old. Considering that in 1944, Magneto seemed to be around 12 and Charles looked to be about 9 years old, that would mean that in 1962, Magneto would be around 30 and Charles would be about 27. However old they were in those scenes, the time gap between the explicitly stated years is 18 years. That already goes beyond what Charles said.
3. When Charles and Erik Parted Ways
In X-Men: The Last Stand, the opening scene shows us how Jean Grey was recruited to the School for Gifted Youngsters. The scene takes place 20 years before the events of the present in the movies. In that scene, Charles and Erik show up and are talking about the use and misuse of power as they enter the house. Going along with the notion that they met when Charles was 17 years old, and seeing them well into their adult years together, finding Jean Grey, it is clear that Erik still hasn't left Charles' side due to his different views on what humanity and its acceptance of mutants.
4. The First Lineup
X-Men: First Class showed us Charles' first lineup of X-Men. It was a very interesting lineup, and one that not many would be able to guess accurately. The lineup consisted of: Charles, Erik, Hank McCoy, Mytique, Alex Summers, Darwin, Angel and Banshee. This is not a bad lineup, but the problem comes when we take into consideration what Charles said in X-Men. When he was showing Wolverine around the mansion, he said that Scott, Jean and Storm were among his first students. This is heavily contradicted in the events of X-Men: First Class. Judging by the ages of the listed characters in the first X-Men movie, it is impossible that they were Charles' first students back in the 60s, and it is equally improbable that he didn't start his school for another 20 years or so, or that they could be called his first students after so long.
5. Alex Summers
This one goes more into comic accuracy. The Summers family is one of the most important famillies in the world of mutants. That family tree is a genetic goldmine for super powerful mutants with diverse powers. The main Summers is Scott: the leader of the X-Men. He has two younger brothers (three, if you consider the plans of the editorial team to make Nathaniel X the other Summers brother before the writer of the story was replaced). His two brothers are Alex Summers, most commonly affiliated with X-Factor. There is also Gabriel Summers, who becomes an intergalactic menace. X-Men: First Class shows us something strange...a divergence from the source material. It shows us that Alex Summers is not only alive, but in his late teens or early twenties as far back as 1962. They kept his surname, powers and everything, so he was definitely meant to be Alex Summers. So, what gives? Why did they make him so much older than Scott? We never got the answer to that. And in X-Men: Apocalypse, we see that he is Scott's OLDER brother. That still doesn't make much sense, seeing as he was already a young adult in 1962, and Apocalypse was set in 1983, where Scott was 17 years old.
6. Beast Being Blue
This one is a bit tricky because it involves a little information from X-Men United that many may not be aware of. In X-Men United, there was a scene with Officer Laurio in a bar where he was having a drink and Mystique came to seduce him. During that scene, there was a television set in the background showing the news and there was, of course, mutant discourse, and none other than Hank McCoy was speaking on screen. He was played by Steve Bacic. He appeared in human form. We then see him in X-Men: The Last Stand and he is in beast form, and there is a scene that shows that he, deep down, longs to look like everyone else. However, in X-Men: First Class, it is shown that he turned himself into the blue beast in the 60s. How could this be?
7. Magneto's Helmet
This is another one of those infamous things that are missed because of dialogue that was misheard, misinterpreted or just ignored. This time, it wasn't something Charles said to Wolverine in the scene when he was showing Wolverine around the school. This is after he fails to retrieve Rogue from Magneto and tells Wolverine that he couldn't figure Magneto out because of the helmet, which is somehow designed to block his telepathy. In the beginning of X-Men, he says that he can't find Magneto and doesn't know why, saying that somehow, Magneto has found a way to shield himself against Cerebro. In First Class, Charles knows exactly how and why Magneto is immune to his telepathic powers. How does this hold up?
8. Beast Builds Cerebro
In X-Men, Charles shows Wolverine around the mansion and gives us a lot of the backstory behind the established lore of this world. But, we already know that. We've covered that a lot in this article. During the exposition scene, after Charles says that he can't find Magneto using Cerebro, Wolverine asks him how he would know how to do that. It's a natural question, and one the fans would be asking as well. Charles then reveals that Magneto helped him build it. It makes sense. Putting together that huge structure would take a very long time, and the master of magnetism would be a very huge help in getting the matter resolved in minutes. It even became a major plotpoint in X-Men United when Magneto helped stop Cerebro from being used to destroy mutantkind. First Class shows us something different. In this movie, it is revealed that Hank McCoy was the one who designed and built the first model of Cerebro. Secondly, it wasn't even Charles' idea.
9. Wolverine
Everybody loves a good cameo, especially when they're by people we know and love and will recognize instantly. Most of them are just for fun and gags and shouldn't be taken seriously, like Stan Lee's cameos in almost every Marvel movie. But then we have a problem when it comes to Wolverine making a cameo appearance in First Class. In the original trilogy, it is made more than absolutely clear that neither Charles or Erik had met Wolverine before. In First Class, it is shown that he was a candidate for the first iteration of the X-Men. While defenders may say that it makes sense because he is that old and very skilled, it doesn't make sense in the grand story, because Charles did not know about Wolverine in the original trilogy. As manipulative as he could be, it would be very strange for Charles to leave out the fact that he once met Wolverine in the past, especially because he wanted Wolverine to stick around and learn more about his past. Telling him that they met long ago would get Wolverine to stay and shed some light. Even if it was just for a few seconds, Charles would tell him that there wasn't anything noticeable except his attitude. A simple line line like that would have sufficed... And Magneto would have definitely mentioned having met Wolverine before if he did. Magneto isn't as subtle as Charles. By the way, Cyclops and Storm appear in the movie as well, when Charles searches through Cerebro.
10. Charles Getting Crippled
Remember when we mentioned that Charles and Erik recruited Jean together? Remember how we talked about how that was well into their adult ears and 20 years before the events of The Last Stand? Charles was walking in that flashback, and his powers were working fully. First Class shows us that Charles was crippled in 1962. How does that explain him walking in the flashback scene in The Last Stand?
11. When did the Government Find out About Mutants?
This is more of a nitpick, but one that makes sense. In X-Men, we see that the government has only just begun to notice the emergence of mutants in the community. Jean Grey's debate with Senator Robert Kelly in X-Men shows us that. The government is aware of the ways that mutants come about, but they are still having trouble with understanding them and what they are exactly, despite, according to First Class, having known about them since the 1960s.This is at least 40 years sitting with information that still has yet to be deciphered. It is just a bizarre thing.
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