Trailer Rundown: X-Men First Class

Another day, another summer superhero movie trailer. Just days after the onslaught of summer movie trailers that were released during the Super Bowl, comes the final piece of the summer 2011 blockbuster puzzle. X-Men: First Class  a prequel/reboot of the X-Men film franchise, goes back to the beginning and explores the relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, the man who will become Magneto.
Since this is the first time I'm doing this, let's take a look at what we see, what we don't, and I'll give a final verdict on how this trailer stacks up.
What We See

• Clips of the very first X-Men film, which seems to show that this film will be tied to the previous films, at least loosely. 
• Some nifty new suits that hearken back to the traditional blue and yellow costumes of the comics rather than the leather getups of the first three films. 
• James McAvoy taking over for Patrick Stewart and testing what appears to be a prototype Cerebro.
• Beast, and then a guy turning into Beast, a bit of an odd editing choice.
• A red looking Nightcrawler that is supposedly supposed to be Nightcrawler's dad
• The X-Men seemingly getting involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis, look for this to be the main action in the second act of the film, rather than the actual climax.
• A mutant with some bug wings in what appears to be some type of gentleman's club

What We Don't See

• Kevin Bacon as the films villain, Sebastian Shaw, which is really quite disappointing, because, well who doesn't want to see Kevin Bacon play a super villain?
• Oliver Platt as the mysterious Man in Black character.
• January Jones in anything revealing.
• Any evidence of humor (I bring this up only because this film does not have someone like Wolverine in the wise-cracking tough guy role).

Verdict
A promising first trailer that finally gives curious speculators an idea of the direction this movie is taking. While the trailer seems to primarily focus on the relationship between Erik and Charles, there is evidence that this movie could suffer from the too many mutants syndrome that plagued X3. Overall a solid mix of grand special effects and dialogue that sets up the story. Hopefully future trailers can give us a better sense of the 60's James Bond tech director Matthew Vaughn said he was shooting for, and better idea of the rest of the supporting mutants, instead of shots of their faces.