Mutant X 1.2 (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	85:56
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	T.J. Scott
Studio Distributor	Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	John Shea Forbes March Victoria Platt Lauren Lee Smith Victor Webster Tom McCamus
Case	PUSH-21-Opaque
RPI	$29.95	Music	Louis Natale Donald Quan

    The second disc in this series contains two more episodes from the series in another bare bones release.

   Russian Roulette - 42:48
During what appears to be a routine transfer of a new mutant into sanctuary with Mutant X the team is ambushed by a pair of Russians sporting a new weapon, the Pushka, that acts like a particle beam. Brennan is shot with the weapon as they try and make their escape. Doubled over with pain, Brennan is brought to Adam's hideout where it is discovered that his body is slowly dying as a result of the weapon's powers. Meantime, the Russians, failing to secure any of the new mutants then offer the weapon to GenoMex and Eckhart (Tom McCamus) who is basically unimpressed and requires a more positive demonstration of the gun's ability. The timely denouncement by a young man of his father gives Eckhart the perfect vehicle for the Russians, Yuri (Alexander Pervakov) and Sonya (Dylan Bierk) to show their wares and they are dispatched to bring in the mutant. Adam and the Mutant X team must now infiltrate the Russians, discover the means to reverse the effects on Brennan and stop the weapon from falling into the hands of Genomex or Brennan will die.

   Fool For Love - 42:58
Adam assigns Shalimar to escort a new mutant into sanctuary and safety from the GSA and Genomex. The new mutant, Donna (Monique Ganderton), decides not to flee to safety and hooks up with a young man she meets in a bar and disappears. Later on, in a quiet cul-de-sac Donna is overcome by a violent series of spasms and turns on her would-be lover and after sending him sprawling escapes over a high chain-link fence and disappears. Meantime over at Genomex, Eckhart is confronted by an auditor, Karen Bell (Claudia Besso) who believes she's uncovered an anomaly which needs to be addressed. Adam dispatches Shalimar off to Donna's apartment to try and uncover a clue as to her sudden unwillingness and she breaks in for a quick look around. While there she meets up with a stranger, Richard (Yannick Bisson), with whom she begins a furious assault which ends up in mutual attraction as they both realise they are ferals and mutants. At the sound of approaching sirens they split up, but Adam tracks down Richard to the Genomex corporation and they begin making plans to confront him to find out what happened to Donna, but for Shalimar, more importantly, to discover her true feelings towards him.

   The story progression is very slow at this point with emphasis more on developing the characters and locations rather than getting into anything with some meat in it. Hopefully the rest of the series will pan out a little better since the storylines, even now, are fairly lacklustre and need some sprucing up. Getting familiar with the characters is what both these episodes feel like, getting to know the limitations of their powers and offering some more background on the GenoMex corporation and its methods.

Video

    Basically the same quality as the first disc is present on this disc with a couple of minor glitches noted. Overall this is maintaining a fairly decent standard without being anything exceptional.

    The same as the first disc, this is transferred in Full Frame 1.33:1 format.

    Edge enhancement again diminishes the overall quality visible throughout both episodes. Shadow detail is again good without being exceptional with some fine detail visible. Backgrounds are decent and there is a fair depth to the picture. Grain is fairly visible but under control and low level noise didn't appear to be an issue.

    The colour is decent with excellent skin tones but the palette used isn't that large and great variety isn't the order of the day. Colour bleed and chroma noise are blissfully absent.

    Some aliasing is noticeable (24:52 on a background building) but mostly it's confined to slight shimmering. Pixelization is again obvious from time to time (eg: 25:27 on a shirt) but it doesn't detract too much from the overall picture quality. No other obvious flaws were in evidence.

    There were no subtitles on this disc.

    This is a single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is nothing spectacular in regards to the audio, similar to the first disc. A single English audio soundtrack is available in Dolby Digital Stereo at a bitrate of 224 kilobits per second. Some separation across the fronts is the best the soundtrack can muster but that is pretty much the norm for a television show.

    Unlike the first disc there doesn't appear to be any obvious ADR work on show and the dialogue and syncing are pretty much spot on.

    The music is by Louis Natale (theme) and Donald Quan (theme and score). It is a decent score without being too memorable, but it suits the lightweight nature of the material well.

    No surround channel or subwoofer activity was noted on this disc.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    The definitive version at the moment is the Region 2 version which is a 2 disc set plus extras.

    The second disc released from the first season of Mutant X, this contains another 2 episodes as did the first disc. Mutant X is a slowly developing series which had a short half-life on free-to-air and is now confined to cable TV. This garners an M rating but there is nothing in here that might offend or cause concern.

    The video is decent without being exceptional.

    The audio matches the video and is okay without being anything special.

    Extras are non-existent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall