10 Rushed Movie Deaths That Had No Emotional Impact

Darwin is a character that most people will probably have forgotten about entirely. X Men First Class’ reputation hasn’t remained as stellar in the years following its release, the sequels largely disappointing and the X Men franchise’s decay were hugely damaging, but the death of Darwin was considered a major problem at the time of the release.

For starters, Darwin is barely introduced at the moment of his death, the film has just brought together its team of mutants. Almost as soon as the sequence of Erik and Charles gathering their recruits together, antagonist Sebastian Shaw appears in their base and humiliates Darwin with his powers, before extinguishing him to dust. It’s not a death in the heat of battle, but a one sided jobber squash. We have spent no time with Darwin as a character at this point, with brief banter and an illustration of his basic abilities being all we’d ever see of the character in live action X-Men.

It’s further hurt by the fact that the death of Darwin is ostensibly designed to progress the narrative, the mutants now have the desire for revenge against Shaw as a further motivator. But his name is barely mentioned again and we see no moments of emotional connection between him and any of the other characters. He feels designed to die, which is sometimes necessary in a film such as this, but even that role deserved better handling and writing.