Entertaining Bromance: X-Men

Bromance: a nonsexual, close friendship between two men. 

This new segment will be reviewing, with commentary and pictures, bromances in movies and TV shows that I happen to watch or hear about. There are many, many out there.

I'll start with the summer movies!

Movie: X-Men: First Class. 

Bromance between: Charles and Erik. (Professor X and Magneto, if you will.)

Now, if you happen to know me (or follow me on Twitter), you might already know I'm slightly obsessed with this movie. It's truly a fantastic movie. The acting is all superb. The plot is thought-out and thorough. The actors are hot hot hot. (Not counting Kevin Bacon—Sorry Bacon fans)
And the bromance on screen threatens to drop the "b" from bromance to be just straight up romance. (or gay up romance, if you will.)

I'm in no way an avid comic book reader. I know some of the history through a few comics, but mostly my knowledge comes from relatives who are X-Men comic-nerds. I know Charles and Erik were close before they went their separate ways. This movie captures their bromance wonderfully.

A fair bit of warning! SPOILERS! This will RUIN the main plot of the movie. And by ruin, I mean RUIN! You will know details of the plot you may not wish to know before buying a ticket and settling down for a 2 hour cinematic experience.

If you won't like reading about bromance between these two characters, do not read on. (I know some characters are sacred and you do not tread on that.)

Again. Spoilers! Continue on if you've already seen X-Men: First Class or don't care if you know all the movie's secrets the trailers don't want you to know.

 

First there's Erik (Michael Fassbender). He's a young man with mother issues. See, Bacon killed his mom. What a major dickhead, right? He has a lot of anger. He likes to kill people, bad people, to vent this anger. And he's after Bacon. 

Then there's Charles (James McAvoy), who is a fresh graduate and a professor without a class. He enjoys drinking and picking up ladies with the most nerdy pick up line of all time. (Sadly, I fear nerdom on this level could work on me, and I hate all forms of pick-up lines.)

Charles crosses Erik's path when Erik is after that Bacon fellow and nearly drowns himself because he's too weak to magnetize submarines. Charles saves his life by calming his mind. You can see the bromance forming in those waters.
Oh no...that's just a wave.

Erik is a bundle of anger and hurt so it takes a bit of cunningness from Charles to keep him from scampering off in search filling the murderous desire to rid the world of Bacon.

Erik stays and joins Charles to search the world (or near their location in the USA) for other mutants. Together. Aww. Odd for guydates, but who am I to judge?
I'm not.

They team up to stop Bacon (I really just want to use the actor's name), live together with their newly formed team, and train together. Erik really wants Charles to shoot him but Charles won't shoot a dear friend.
(Erik can deflect the bullet, it would be ok, really. This isn't foreshadowing anything bad.)

There's a very touching scene. It's on the bromance highlight reel. (This needs to be a reality) Erik being the bundle of rage that he is can't control his massive power of moving metal objects. Charles pokes around in his mind, looking for the place between rage and serenity to give Erik control and make him stronger.
(Again, no foreshadowing anything bad at all)

Charles finds a memory of Erik and Erik's mom. They shed a mantear together and Erik moves the heavy metal object in the distance with the power of BROMANCE!

With Charles's help and bromance, Erik can move mountains. And by mountains, I mean submarines.
Aww, it's how they met. First and last guy-date: moving submarines. Now if that isn't a manly date, I don't know what is. Moving tanks? Fighting a bear?

So what do you do if you're in a plane that's crashing and you're not in your harness? Let your best buddy save you by magnetizing you to the roof beneath his body.
Any man willing to pin another man down is in a bromance. (Or pinning him naked too.)

Charles is a bit of a wuss. He's for peace and lives in a happy fantasy where everyone loves everyone and they eat rainbows and never kill. Erik's world is the exact opposite. He knows Charles is a nutjob and the humans will want to murder all mutants. Even bromance allows fighting.

But, like most bromances, a woman gets involved and someone ends up bleeding. She just tried to stop the crazed mutant's plan to kill the humans who just tried to kill all of them...by shooting him. Remember earlier about how he can deflect bullets?

Charles does manage to stop Erik. Because no man can leave his bro dying without a snuggle.

They say their good bye, Charles sheds a tear, (that one might have been from pain) and Erik takes off with the other anti-human mutants. Touching end.

~ * ~

credit: unknown. possibly: secretxeyes on Tumblr

Usually I don’t slash characters unless the writers give me a damn good clue (or clues) I can work with. I don’t just take two hotties and make a couple. Oh no. I want something solid. Groundwork, if you will. There’s that between these two characters. I had such womenwood for the chemistry between the two friends. I understand why there’s so much manlove in the fandom. The bromance between Charles and Erik could easily be interpreted as more in the eyes of a fangirl or fanboy.
But to me, it's a wonderful example of bromance.