X-Men Trilogy (Blu-ray)

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    X-Men and its first sequel, X2, are in a fairly similar class to the 1978 production of Superman or the 1989 production of Batman. They took the focus off silly-looking costumes and the shallow "wow look what I can do" factor, giving the titular characters an appropriate dramatic weight. Unfortunately, this box set happens to include what many who truly grok the X-Men call X-Men In Name Only as an immutable condition of sale. Also problematic is the indiscriminate and frequently unnecessary recycling extras from previous standard definition releases. This severely strikes down the scores I can award the boxed set overall, and I cannot recommend it under any circumstances.

    Techies and other potential modification artists, please hear my plea: come defeat BD region coding and save compulsive collectors like myself from boxed sets like these.

    Amendment, February 24, 2012: As I am sure has not escaped the notice of some, all three of the films in this boxed set have been made available as separate releases. This has been the case for over a year now, so I apologise for being lazy about updating with this news. It does, however, bring conflicting responses to mind.

    First, a qualified thank you to Fox for finally noticing that just because consumers outside of America might want one or two of the films does not mean they want all of the films. Accurate assessments of the reception for films like X-Men In Name Only are much easier to derive under these conditions.

    Second, refusing to release them in this way from the get-go except in America and then taking away the option to vote with our money and import is a real d*** of a move. Behaviour like this would not have been tolerated in the early days of DVD nor VHS. Please knock it off in future, Fox. (Do not make me start open-air lectures about where we got the word fascism from again...)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

X-Men: Two Disc Edition (Blu-ray) (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	104:20
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Bryan Singer
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Hugh Jackman Anna Paquin Patrick Stewart Ian McKellen Famke Janssen James Marsden Halle Berry Tyler Mane Ray Park Rebecca Romijn
Case	Slip Case
RPI	?	Music	Michael Kamen

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English Audio Commentary Spanish Portuguese Thai Chinese Chinese	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    X-Men begins with two jarring scenes that let one know in no uncertain terms that Singer has decided the Tim Burton path is the better one than, say, the Schumacher, Martinson, or Ratner path. Beginning in a concentration camp in the Poland of 1944, we witness a group of Nazis wrest a teenage boy from his parents. As both scream and cry in another language, the Nazis attempt to subdue the young boy. But as he reaches out, a massive magnetic field emerges from him, bending a solid metal gate to a degree more indicative of a pick-up truck or bulldozer than the effort of a solitary teenage boy. Fast forward to what the film wisely specifies as merely the present day, and we find ourselves in the home of an American girl. (I say wisely because, as Jello Biafra once sang, this could be anywhere or everywhere, and I say it could be anywhen, too.) After a conversation about her plans for the future, this girl engages in a deep kiss with the boyfriend she has at her side. Without so much as a whiff of warning, said boyfriend reacts as if the soul is being sucked out of him, prompting a lot of screaming, both for an ambulance and to Get The Hell Away From Me™.

    From there, we jump to a hearing in an undisclosed government building. Doctor Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) gives an articulate, impassioned plea to the assembled Senators to vote against the so-called Combating Au... excuse me, Mutant Registration Act. She is interrupted in no gentle manner by one Senator Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison), who, like all proponents of genocide I could mention, wastes no time in exaggerating the threat he imagines the Mutants pose whilst at the same time making sure not to mention that they happen to be Human. This prompts a discussion between the teenaged boy of the prologue, now an elderly man who calls himself Magneto (Sir Ian McKellen in one of those roles that demonstrates why he has been knighted), and his opposite, Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Meanwhile, the girl in the second half of the prologue arrives in an isolated Canadian town where she encounters a grizzly pit fighter who calls himself Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Calling herself Rogue (Anna Paquin earning her Oscar again for the umpteenth time), she and Wolverine basically form the heart and soul of the story.

    Set upon by one of Magneto's associates, a literal bear of a man called Sabretooth (Tyler Mane), Rogue and Wolverine are quickly rescued by Cyclops (James Marsden) and Storm (Halle Berry). Taken back to Xavier's mansion, Wolverine learns that a growing movement to promote the rights of Mutants has begun, and has forked into two different directions. Xavier and his people have chosen to peacefully protest their civil rights to the Human leadership, whereas Magneto and his smaller collective have decided that they will have to defend their rights by force. Even if that means killing every Human on the planet. Once, I wrote that Magneto was an example of becoming exactly like your enemy, but the sad reality the real world's Mutants have to live with is that all the laws protecting their rights in the world will not make a difference if said laws are not backed by the requisite force, or credible threat thereof. The meat of the story is a forthcoming summit between the world's leaders regarding the best solution to the "Mutant problem", Magneto's plans to crash it, and where Wolverine and Rogue happen to fit in.

    Thirty to fifty years from now, university-level courses in media and the manipulation thereof will be using films like this one as a historical example of the promotion of not just Human rights, but the fact that the recognition thereof does not stop at differences one can see. About the only point in this growing social phenomenon that this film and its immediate sequel miss would be a merciless deconstruction of such ridiculous misleading phrases as Majority Minority, et al.

    "You know, people like you are the reason I was afraid to go to school as a child..."

Video

    The transfer on this BD-Video is presented in the aspect ratio of 2.40:1, within a 1920 by 1080 window. It is progressive. That means no aliasing. That alone justifies the upgrade.

    Another advantage progressive transfers have over interlaced ones is that unsharping filters (the traditional method of controlling the artefact known as aliasing) are also unnecessary. This allows the maximum level of detail through, relative to the source material. X-Men boasts one of the sharpest, most detailed video transfers I have seen so far. The fine details of the contact lenses used for effects shots are particularly noteworthy, and Wolverine's claws appear much sharper. Shadow detail is very good, but probably the sole clue to the age of the film (where did all that time go?), and there is no low-level noise.

    A particular colour scheme was chosen for this film, with a heavy emphasis on blues especially in locations particular to the Mutant factions. To say that this transfer represents these colours beautifully is like saying the transfer is sharp. It is just redundant. No bleeding or misregistration was noted.

    Compression artefacts were not noted in the transfer, in spite of the fact that much of the disc space is annoyingly taken up with special features (more on this in due course). The transfer is encoded in the AVCHD codec, with the bitrate varying between 18 and 31 mb/s. Film-to-video artefacts were not noted in the transfer, either, with no telecine wobble or aliasing in sight. The latter is particularly noteworthy, as the Cerebro set in particular was meant to be seen in a progressive format. Film artefacts may have been hiding in the odd frame here and there, but one would have to go over each frame with a magnifying glass to really see them.

    Subtitles are offered in English for the Hearing Impaired on this disc. There are some omissions, but their accuracy is almost always spot-on.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    A total of seven soundtracks are offered on this BD-Video. The first, and default, is the original English dialogue in DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, which the packaging describes as being lossless. The second soundtrack is the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1, with dubs in Latin Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Thai in the same configuration. The fidelity of the Spanish and Portuguese tracks is very good compared to their English equivalent, but the Thai dub sounds like it was cobbled together like one of my early Mutants' Rights protest videos: on very cheap equipment in little time. The sixth and final main soundtrack is an English audio commentary in Dolby Digital 2.0, which I listened to in its entirety.

    I listened to the DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack and the audio commentary, in addition to some quick A-B comparisons between the DTS lossless soundtrack and the Dolby Digital offering. The Dolby Digital offering is good, there is no two ways about that. It is no more or less good than it was in 2001 when the film was originally released on DVD. It is just that the DTS lossless version is even better than that. Wolverine's punches during the cage match have a heavier clang to them, Professor X's voice sounds even more disembodied when he projects, and the score music during the climax of the Liberty Island battle is enough to bring tears to the eyes.

    The dialogue on every offering of X-Men to date has always been very clear and easy to understand. The dialogue is a very important and driving part of the film, so it stands to reason that in contrast to other recent blockbusters, the audio engineers would take great pains to make sure it can be heard easily. The DTS lossless soundtrack makes understanding the dialogue even easier. Again, it is the separation between dialogue, effects, and music that makes all the difference. Audio sync was almost always spot on, although the poorly-delivered "at least I've chosen a side" from Storm still sounds like it was phoned in from a satellite device somewhere in the Congo.

    The score music in X-Men is credited to the late Michael Kamen, whom the IMDB states died of a heart attack in 2003. From the end of Patrick Stewart's opening speech to the end of the closing credits, Kamen walks, runs, and dances around the fine line between enhancing the mood of the scene to dictating it a la John Williams. Film scores rarely do so much to enhance the mood of the onscreen action, and there are many small moments when the score perfectly syncs with the onscreen action as if one was intended to be part of the other, or vice versa. One shot at 86:00 is such a prime example it made want to leap into the screen and shoulder-barge Magneto. Give me this score in 96 kHz, 7.1 channel form, and you shall make me a happy lad indeed (this is called a hint to the BD consortium, by the way).

    The surround channels are used aggressively to envelop the listener in the events seen onscreen. Among the sound effects to make the most use of the surround channels are the uses of Magneto's and Dr. Grey's telekenetic powers and Professor X's disembodied voice. The latter starts at 23:14 and is still an awesome demonstration of the possibilities of multichannel audio. Even during the relatively sedate, quiet moments (of which there are several), there is always something coming out of the surrounds that gives the viewer more of a sense that the environment that the characters are inhabiting is for real. At the same time, the additional separation of the lossless soundtrack makes these directional effects easier to localise and more diffuse, more difficult to localise, depending a lot on what the director and his sound engineers had in mind at the time. Simply put, this is a disc one can put on right next to the DVD and say "this is why I am happy to buy this film on disc again". Yes, it is still as gimmicky as it was the first time around, but once again, it is gimmicky in a good way.

    The subwoofer is also aggresively utilised to support the harder, more powerful parts of the soundtrack. Effects such as Sabretooth's growling, metallic doors clanking, or Cyclops' optical blasts, receive a powerful and well-integrated boost from the subwoofer. It does occasionally lapse into silence during quiet dialogue exchanges, but it always comes back with a well-timed vengeance that further immerses the viewer in the onscreen action.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Yes, wrong comic book, but as I said myself in one article, get those s***ty-looking SD extras the hell off my disc!

Disc One

Menu

Audio Commentary - Bryan Singer (Director), Brian Peck

    This audio commentary is recycled from the previous 1.5-edition release of the film. In itself, this is not bad, as it is a fairly entertaining commentary. The subject of decisions made when one is adapting a film from a preexisting piece of fiction, in this case a comic book, always fascinates me. Peck moderates the commentary, occasionally asking Singer questions or prompting him in order to keep things moving. Singer announces early on in the piece that he does not read comic books, which casts a slight sense of mystery as to how he managed to make something so very close to the spirit of the source material. Let me summarise it this way: if you have any interest in directing or telling stories in any format, then you will definitely get something out of this commentary. If you have an interest in the film itself, ditto. Otherwise, you will not miss anything by skipping it.

"Enhanced" Viewing Mode

    This is basically the same non-seamless branching mode that was on the 1.5-edition. One would think that with the ability of BD to do true seamless branching as demonstrated on such releases as Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Fox might be able to whip together a seamless version of this feature. Not so. For one thing, the additional scenes are still only in Standard Definition. This causes a jarring pause whenever the player switches from HD to SD. If viewed separately, it is still basically wasting a HDTV watching SD material. I thought I was clear the first 50-odd times, BD consortium: I did not buy a HDTV to watch SD material on it.

Deleted Scenes

    Six scenes that were cut from the theatrical release for various reasons. Some of them could have added something to the film, but were underwritten enough to prevent this. The fact that they are in SD, as previously mentioned, makes them a liability rather than an addition.

Featurette - The Mutant Watch

    Aside from one moment in the featurette that gives us a backhanded look at how normalists inevitably end up hunting and targetting their own children (and was done much better in the Anna Paquin-starring Mosaic), this featurette is really of limited value. It is a slightly more creative electronic press kit than the others, but it is still an electronic press kit.

Featurette - Bryan Singer Interview

    Just what the title says. Six minutes and sixteen seconds of Bryan Singer explaining to Charlie Rose such things as why he chose to direct the film. SD, 1.33:1 (film footage in 1.85:1), with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Featurette - Animatics

    Another recycled featurette, divided into the Liberty Head and Train Station animatics.

Art Gallery

    Stills divided into two categories, these being Character Design and Production Design.

TV Spots

    Three TV spots presented in a rough 1.85:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. One minute and thrity-five seconds total running time. In SD.

TV Spot: Music Promo

Trailer: X2: X-Men United

    Presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, and high definition. A basic attempt to cram the awesomeness of the film into a two minutes and twenty six second summary. Many would argue, rightly, that this is impossible.

Trailer: X-Men: The Last Stand

    I call false advertising. The proper name of this piece of s*** is X-Men In Name Only. Ninety-five seconds is nowhere near enough to catalogue how supremely they failed with this effort. High definition, 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. In case I did not make it clear already, I will put it in terms me and mine will grok: a curebie wrote this steaming, insulting t***.

Trailer: Daredevil

    One minute and forty-four seconds, 2.35:1, high definition, Dolby Digital 5.1, about as memorable as a dream of staring at a white wall.

Trailer: Fantastic Four

    Again, false advertising. The proper name is The Barely Adequate Four. Two minutes and twenty-six seconds. High definition, 2.35:1, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

Disc Two

Featurette - Introduction

    Presented in the aspect ratios of 1.33:1 and 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Not 16:9 Enhanced, and in SD to boot. Sixty-nine seconds.

Featurette - The Uncanny Suspects

    Two hours, sixteen minutes, thirty-nine seconds. In 1.33:1, 1.85:1, and 2.35:1 aspect ratios, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Not 16:9 Enhanced, and SD.

• The option to buy the real X-Men films separately.

    I should not need to say more in this instance.

    The video transfer shows how the film has aged, but is awesome nonetheless.

    The audio transfer is of reference quality.

    The extras are numerous, but are really almost entirely recycled from earlier DVD releases. Disappointing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

X-Men 2 (X2): Two Disc Edition (Blu-ray) (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	133:47
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Bryan Singer
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Hugh Jackman Anna Paquin Patrick Stewart Ian McKellen Brian Cox Famke Janssen Rebecca Romijn Alan Cumming
Case	Slip Case
RPI	?	Music	John Ottman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 Thai Dolby Digital 2.0 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary Spanish Portuguese Chinese Chinese Thai	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, mildly
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The film begins with a tour group going through the White House, America's most public and blocked-off at the same time symbol of democracy. Things get interesting when one member of the group diverges from the rest and begins nosing around areas off the tour path. After a query from a member of the Secret Service as to whether he is lost, the stray visitor drops his disguise and begins attacking the Secret Service agents. As numerous attempts to shoot the intruder down fail, it becomes clear that this person is able to teleport himself from place to place at will. Those familiar with the comic book canon will know that this is Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming). After a particularly awesomely-staged shootout inside the President's chamber, Nightcrawler pins President McKenna (Cotter Smith) to his desk and pulls out a knife. But before Nightcrawler can finish the job, he is shot through the shoulder by a Secret Service agent and disappears to places unknown. The only clue to his motives or agenda that he leaves behind is a fairly strong one - attached to the knife is a ribbon with a deceptively simple message on it: "MUTANT FREEDOM NOW".

    Think back to a conversation between Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) at the end of the previous film:

    "Doesn't it ever wake you in the middle of the night? The feeling that someday they will pass that foolish law, or one just like it, and come for you, and your children?"
    "It does, indeed."
    "What do you do when you wake up to that?"
    "I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul who comes to that school looking for trouble."

    That, in a nutshell, is what the superficial layer of X2 is all about. The film continues with the aftermath of the assassination attempt. A General by the name of William Stryker (Brian Cox) pays the President a visit, soliciting permission to undertake a special mission against the Xavier mansion. Professor X, Storm (Halle Berry), Cyclops (James Marsden), and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), upon hearing of the attack, debate exactly who would launch the attack and what idiotic measures the current administration will undertake as a response. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) returns from a trip to the North and is asked to watch over the young Mutants whilst Professor X and Cyclops go to visit Magneto. Storm and Jean head out in search of Nightcrawler, and Stryker comes crashing in shortly thereafter to force the younger Mutants to flee, or in the case of such memorable responses as Siryn (Shauna Kain) and Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), fight. The driving plot device in all this, and it is a minor plot problem which can be easily ignored in the midst of the other perfections, is that whenever Professor X is using Cerebro, he can mentally reach out to literally every Mutant on the planet, but this ability also gives him the power to kill whomever he reaches out to if he concentrates hard enough.

    They say a film in which two groups fight to the death is only as good as the antagonist (not to mention the actor playing them), and boy what an antagonist X2 offers. Yes, that really is the same Brian Cox you saw a couple of years before the release of X2 in Super Troopers. Bob Wr... sorry, William Stryker, oozes such evil as a parent who lashes out at the people who refuse to confirm his prejudiced, ignorant view of his own child. By the time the film is over, it inspires such a great desire to take Mr. Regular Guy, hold him over the edge of a skyscraper, and ask him who the hell he is to be denying the rest of us our most basic Human rights. Indeed, this entire film shows normies humans behaving so badly that Magneto's goal of subjugating them all (or worse) seems more like a matter of common sense than any reason to fight him. The only time this particular real-world Mutant was aware of anything being wrong with the film was whenever Halle Berry opened her mouth, and why her routine with Alan Cumming was not left on the cutting room floor is an even bigger mystery to me since I have been studying the finer technical points of filmmaking. But even she gets a moment where special effects and a deft choice of shots help her to make up for most of it.

    Hence, do not let the underrating on the IMDB fool you. There is a good reason why X2 (along with its predecessor) is listed among the best films to portray those of us fighting the battle for autistic freedom now by accident. It was highly relevant when it was first released, it is even more relevant now, and unless President Obama completes the job of backhanding his predecessor by signing a bill that acknowledges that Human rights means all Humans, not just normies, it will be just as relevant in 2017. The fact that the press refused to acknowledge this as the Malcolm X of superhero films is a great injustice to all of the writers.

Video

    The transfer is presented in the aspect ratio of 2.40:1 within a 1920 by 1080 progressive window. As an owner of the original Region 1 NTSC release, I can state that all of the advantages this disc has over the DVD are associated with that one word "progressive".

    This transfer is sharp. Nightcrawler's markings leap out of the screen in a vivid level of detail that I only saw elsewhere in the form of theatrical exhibition. Iris colours are nicely detailed and show slight flaws in the CGI used to turn actors' eyes to yellow or grey-blue. Shadow detail is excellent, especially during the mansion attack, and there is no low-level noise. Grain is occasionally evident in backgrounds, but this was a relatively minor problem.

    The colours of the transfer are generally very dull and muted, reflecting the intended look of the film. Much like the styling that Tim Burton has previously used to great effect, the only times when the colours become truly bright and vivid are when the Mutants are in a location that is fully Human, such as the Drake household or the museum. No bleeding or misregistration was in evidence.

    Compression artefacts were not in evidence in this transfer. The video was compressed using the AVCHD codec, and varies quite a bit from scene to scene in terms of bitrate. As was the case with the first X-Men film on BD, I am happy to report that no aliasing or any other film-to-video artefacts are evident in the picture at any time. As much as I berate Fox for some of their decisions, I still must commend them for the fact that they have yet to show me any transfers that are merely upchucked interlaced masters of old. Film artefacts consisted of the very occasional black or white spot in the picture that was easily ignored.

    Subtitles are offered in English for the Hearing Impaired. They omit a word here or there, but are otherwise very accurate to the spoken word.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The first, and default, is the original English dialogue in DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, which the packaging touts (albeit in very small lettering) as being lossless. Second is the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1, which is lossy and therefore lacks the crisp, spacious dynamics of the first soundtrack. Third and fourth are dubs in Spanish and Portuguese, which are both each a further step down in fidelity terms, especially where the dialogue is concerned. The last, and probably worst in fidelity terms, of the dubs is a Dolby Digital 2.0 effort in Thai. Six and seven are audio commentaries in Dolby Digital 2.0, which I distinctly remember listening to on the Region 1 NTSC DVD.

    Again, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is very good, but it is utterly blown away by the DTS HD MA rendition. The dialogue in both is very crisp and clear, as one expects in such a dialogue-driven film, but the added separation from the music and sound effects in the lossless soundtrack makes the dialogue even easier to understand. No problems with audio sync were noted.

    The score in X2 was composed by John Ottman, who seems to be something of a John Williams or Danny Elfman to Bryan Singer. Apparently he was too busy directing Urban Legends: Final Cut to work on the previous film (yes, that does sound funny to me). Where the X-Men score was dominated by strings and unreal-sounding combinations with the sound effects, the X2 score takes on a more percussive, dramatic, and straightforward approach. What both scores have in common is that they enhance the onscreen action beautifully. During Pyro's big moment at the Drake residence, the music syncs up perfectly with the lead-in, the carnage, and Rogue's effort to stop him before he kills someone. I enjoyed this score so much that I bought it on CD, and would gladly buy a 7.1 channel, 96 kHz version of.

    The surround channels are again aggressively utilised to support disembodied voices such as Nightcrawler's, directional effects like Pyro's flamethrowing, or the music. Again, it is a well-integrated surround field that gives a genuine feel for the environments that the characters inhabit. It is also somewhat more subtle, less gimmicky, than is the case with the original X-Men's audio transfer.

    The subwoofer is also aggressively utilised to support the music and such effects as Cyclops' optical blasts or doors closing. It is well-integrated with the rest of the soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Audio Commentary - Bryan Singer (Director), Tom Sigel (Cinematographer)

    This commentary was on the previous DVD release. It is a fairly entertaining and informative commentary, but people who are not fans of the film or the director can skip this one without missing anything.

Audio Commentary - Lauren Schuler Donner (Producer), Ralph Winter (Producer), Dan Harris (Writer), David Hayter (Writer)

    Again, this commentary was on the previous DVD release and not all that important. In fact, it gets a little boring in places.

Trailer - X-Men

    Two minutes and twenty-five seconds. In the aspect ratio of 2.40:1, high definition, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. It includes some dialogue and shots that were not in the final cut. Otherwise, it is pretty unremarkable.

Trailer: X-Men: The Last Stand

    I call false advertising. The proper name of this piece of s*** is X-Men In Name Only. Ninety-five seconds is nowhere near enough to catalogue how supremely they failed with this effort. High definition, 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. In case I did not make it clear already, I will put it in terms me and mine will grok: a curebie wrote this steaming, insulting t***.

Trailer: Daredevil

    One minute and forty-four seconds, 2.35:1, high definition, Dolby Digital 5.1, about as memorable as a dream of staring at a white wall.

Trailer: Fantastic Four

    Again, false advertising. The proper name is The Barely Adequate Four. Two minutes and twenty-six seconds. High definition, 2.35:1, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

BonusView Material

    This option, when activated, presents various material such as interviews in a smaller 16:9 window in the lower right corner of the screen with DTS LBR 1.0 audio (as the packaging states). Not exactly the best use of BonusView, but not a total write-off, either.

In-Feature Photo Gallery

    This option displays making-of photos in windows of various sizes during the main feature. One cannot have the subtitles activated whilst this feature is in use.

Disc Two

Featurette - The Secret Origin Of The X-Men

    Presented in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Standard definition. Fifteen minutes and twenty-six seconds.

Featurette - Nightcrawler Reborn

    Presented in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Standard definition. Seven minutes and thirty-six seconds.

Featurette - Nightcrawler Attack: Multi-Angle Study

    Presented in various aspect ratios between 1.66:1 and 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Standard definition, not 16:9 enhanced. Two minutes and twenty-five seconds.

Featurette - Evolution In The Details: Designing X2

    Presented in varying aspect ratios from 1.78:1 to 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Standard definition, but 16:9 enhanced. Eighteen minutes.

Featurette - United Colours Of X

    Presented in varying aspect ratios from 1.78:1 to 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Standard definition, but 16:9 enhanced. Eight minutes and fifty-seven seconds.

Featurette - Wolverine/Deathstrike Fight Rehearsal

    Presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Eighty-four seconds.

Featurette - The Second Uncanny Issue Of X-Men: Making X2

    Presented in the aspect ratios of 1.33:1, 1.66:1, and 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. 16:9 Enhanced. Fifty-nine minutes, twenty-seven seconds.

Featurette - Introducing The INCREDIBLE NIGHTCRAWLER!

    Presented in the aspect ratios of 1.33:1 and 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. 16:9 Enhanced. Nine minutes, forty nine seconds.

Featurette - Nightcrawler Stunt Rehearsal

    Presented in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. 16:9 Enhanced. Two minutes and twenty-seven seconds.

Featurette - Nightcrawler Time-Lapse

    Presented in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. 16:9 Enhanced. Three minutes and forty seconds.

Featurette - FX2 - Visual Effects

    Presented in the aspect ratios of 1.78:1 and 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. 16:9 Enhanced. Twenty-four minutes and fifty-eight seconds.

Featurette - Requiem For Mutants: The Score Of X2

    Presented in the aspect ratios of 1.78:1 and 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. 16:9 Enhanced. Eleven minutes and thirty-nine seconds.

Featurette - X2 Global Webcast Highlights

    Presented in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. 16:9 Enhanced. Seventeen minutes and one second.

• The opportunity to purchase this disc separately

    Region A wins big, in other words.

    When Luke Goss spoke those immortal words in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, I was immediately transported back to my experience of seeing X2 for the first time. Many questions are asked of the audience during X2. The one that stands out to me the most, just as it did then, is how much dehumanisation and insensitivity we have to take from the normalists before they justify our use of force to prevent them from achieving their objectives. And contrary to what the Wrights or a certain other film I will not glorify by mentioning in conjunction with this review will tell you, a world with no Mutants will not be an improvement. Mutants are the reason there is a wheel, knowledge that diseases are not caused by evil spirits getting into the host, or the opportunity to mock the extremists for not understanding exactly where the Second Law Of Thermodynamics applies. X2 is a great celebration of these things and more. Thoroughly recommended viewing.

    The video transfer is excellent.

    The audio transfer is excellent.

    The extras are pretty ordinary.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

X-Men 3: The Last Stand: Two Disc Edition (Blu-ray) (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Audio Commentary Audio Commentary
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	104:05
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Brett Ratner
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Hugh Jackman Ian McKellen Kelsey Grammer Famke Janssen
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	John Powell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 6.1 ES Discrete English Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary English Audio Commentary Spanish Portuguese Korean Korean Audio Commentary Korean Audio Commentary Chinese Chinese Thai Indonesian	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

  After the awesomeness that is X2, fans were clamouring to see more of what Bryan Singer and his team could do with what a friend of mine once dubbed a study in what Batman would be like if he were given actual superpowers. But then the first wave of bad news hit: Singer had either passed on the opportunity to direct, or had been fired by Fox (it depends on who you talk to, and considering that Singer was one of the directors who turned down the opportunity to direct the new Wolverine film, it shows the wisdom of letting him leave or firing him very clearly). Worse yet, replacing Singer at the helm was Rush Hour et al "auteur" Brett Ratner. An equal amount of the blame is due to the screenwriters, of course, but a director has the power to reject any script he deems unfit. That Ratner did not do this to the script that ended up on the screen is a demonstration of just how little he truly groks the X-Men.

  And the script is such a pungent piece of s*** that many of us could smell it from as far away as Melbourne. I will tell a little story here in order to give this criticism of the script its proper context. I first became involved in the autism civil rights struggle around 2003 or 2004. Among my activities in this direction have been the creation of videos describing the amazing levels of abuse on numerous levels that I had to tolerate as a child because of ignorance, and a statement that, in essence, anyone who tries to cure me of what makes me different to my former teachers or healthcare specialists will get their genitals ripped off/out and stuffed down their necks. Ratner and his creative team have doubtlessly seen videos like them, because they attempted to incorporate parallels to this struggle in the finished film, and they stuffed it up so badly that my fellows in the movement and I frequently refer to this film as X-Men In Name Only.

Two sequences in particular caused me to want to throw a Molotov cocktail at the screen in the cinema:

• "Einstein was not a mutant..."
  There are numerous facts about Albert Einstein that the curebies (this is a derisive name most of us use to refer to our enemies in the struggle) are unwilling to admit to or actively try to negate. One of them is that Einstein spoke his first words at the age of four. Another is that his first words were not the usual one-word utterances that are expected of two year olds, but rather a whole, complex sentence reporting hunger. Another is that his speech following these first words frequently echoed that which he heard from others. That is a phenomenon called Echolalia, which is both common in autistic children and one of the few things I have in common with Einstein (ask my family about it and they will tell you numerous stories about my Echolalia). When you add this to his pervasive, intense, unusual interest in theoretical physics and his difficulties with inadequately prepared teachers, the idea that Einstein would be diagnosed as being one of the real world's equivalent of Mutants is not merely a possibility, it is assured. (Note: yes, I know they try to cover up their mistake with a "perhaps he was..." speech by Patrick Stewart, but this is so clumsily and half-assedly delivered that it ends up making the reaction in this vein worse rather than better.)
• The Alcatraz island battle
  Let's ponder a question here. You are born with a distinct difference from the expected norm that at the same time makes aspects of your life so difficult you contemplate suicide, and also gives you abilities that people who are getting paid better than you or receiving more attention than you (usually both) would cut something vital off themselves to have. You suffer years, even decades, of abuse for your difference that leaves you with a good case of PTSD. Suddenly, your government announces that they have found a cure for what makes you different from your family (in the extended sense, mine is mostly made up of people I consider may be legally retarded, hence my disowning them), your abusers, and even your friends. One group of people weaponises this cure and starts shooting your people with it. One of your colleagues takes a battalion to where the cure in question is being made and threatens to skin the people who created this cure whilst they are still breathing. Do you lift a finger to save the curebies? Well, if you picked any answer other than "I join right in the fun and stick Bob Wright's head on a spike to parade around on the White House lawn as a message", you are wrong. Not just wrong as in guessing the wrong answer on a multiple-choice quiz, but wrong like you have invested your retirement in an Ed Wood film.

  So in effect, X-Men In Name Only not only insults the people who were waiting for it since the last film mounted a serious challenge to other films in a similar vein, it insults its most guaranteed audience in the bargain.

  Making matters worse is a clumsy attempt to sandwich a Phoenix saga story into the film. The Phoenix saga, in which Jean Grey (Famke Janssen in the film) dies and is reborn with powers that make her an enormous threat to the universe as we know it, is a comic book arc that spans hundreds of pages, and requires at least a dedicated film of X2's length to be told properly. Incidentally, the cure story arc also needs a film of at least that length to be told properly, spanning at least several hundred pages. Hence, X-Men In Name Only is not just an insulting film to its primary audience, it sucks dead animals through a straw on a general filmmaking level to boot. Any filmmaking student can tell you the choices of camera angle, composition, and editing style just flat-out stinks. The dialogue is clumsy at best and downright stilted at worst, with some Braveheart-style speeches that will make one wince to listen to. The only legitimately effective shot in the entire film is one where Magneto (Ian McKellen) uses his power to play toss with a bunch of cars. Other shots involve close-ups where medium shots or even long shots would make the onscreen action far clearer.

  Hence, it disappoints and angers me beyond belief when I learned that not only did Fox decide to make X-Men In Name Only a forced sale in Australia, they also chose to package the discs so that removing the real X-Men films from the box and tossing the rest in the garbage where it belongs a non-option. In this one move, Fox has effectively told the consumer exactly why they had such a hard-on for BD to be region-coded, and strengthened the opposition to region coding manifold. When region coding is negated or defeated, and it is a matter of when rather than if, I plan to melt down this boxed set and (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) ram it into a Fox marketeer's butt , one piece at a time.

  We now return to your scheduled serious reviewing.

Video

  The transfer is presented in the aspect ratio of 2.40:1 within a 1920 by 1080 progressive window.

  For once, I will not compare this particular disc to its DVD equivalent, mainly because I would not even waste the time and effort to pirate it. The transfer is as sharp as one would expect on BD, with shadow detail being slightly improved over the previous two films. No low-level noise is evident.

  The colours in the transfer are well-rendered, with no oversaturation or bleeding.

  Compression artefacts were not noted in this transfer. Film-to-video artefacts are not evident. Film artefacts were not noticed, but I might have blinked and let one or two go by.

  Subtitles are offered in English for the Hearing Impaired. They are accurate, but slightly lacking in detail.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

  Seven soundtracks are offered on this disc.

  The first, and default, is the original English dialogue in DTS HD Master Audio 6.1, which I listened to in its entirety. Second is the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1, which I listened to briefly for comparison purposes. Third and fourth are Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs in Spanish and Portuguese. These are of slightly lower fidelity than the English soundtrack. Fifth is a dub in Thai Dolby Digital 5.1, which again sounds like it was recorded and mixed on the cheap. Sixth and seventh are a pair of audio commentaries in Dolby Digital 2.0, which I listened to as much as I can stand of.

  The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, with even more separation of elements offered by the 6.1 soundtrack. It is ironic, then, that the soundtrack is in every sense less impressive than the DTS HD MA 5.1 efforts on the previous two films. No problems with audio sync were noted.

  The score music in this film is by John Powell. Aping cues from the previous two films, the score has everything that a 210 million dollar total budget can buy, excepting originality, insight into what the story is about, or a sense of individuality. In contrast to the other two films, I was utterly unable to remember a single cue from this film after I was finished trying to restrain myself from destroying the theatre. And my reaction to the score music is no different after hearing it in a lossless format. Cues that should induce tears, especially in conjunction with the concepts of the scenes they accompany, are instead met with total indifference.

  Now, one would think that a 6.1 channel soundtrack would have a wealth of awesome effects where the viewer is immersed in the location or onscreen action. Not so. Even clear opportunities for a solid directional effect, such as when a guard fires the weaponised cure at Magneto at 36:18, go begging. As does the subsequent use of Magneto's power to wrest the gun away from said guard. The film itself does not allow uses of disembodied voices like the other two, so no such opportunities exist here. One cannot help but compare the three transfers, and for sure, the other two transfers were gimmicky a lot of the time, but they also helped to justify one's investment in good sound hardware. In respect to surround channel usage, the verdict on X-Men In Name Only is one of disappointment.

  The subwoofer is more aggressively utilised in order to support such bass-heavy effects as Magneto's powers. It supports these effects well without calling too much attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

  Quantity, check. Quality, absent.

Menu

Audio Commentary - Brett Ratner (Director), Simon Kinberg (Writer), and Zak Penn (Writer)

Audio Commentary - Avi Arad (Producer), Lauren Shuler Donner (Producer), Ralph Winter (Producer)

  I would rather see footage of these three reacting when they learn for the first time what their two hundred and ten million dollars bought them. But then, it is hard to make an interesting audio commentary when the subject is this patently awful.

The other extras, like this film, can blow me, so I will just list them here:

BonusView

In-Feature Photo Gallery

Deleted Scenes

Trailer - X-Men

Trailer - X2: X-Men United

Trailer - Daredevil

Trailer - Fantastic Four

Disc Two

Featurette - Brett Ratner's Production Diary

Featurette - X-Men: Evolution Of A Trilogy

Featurette - X3: The Excitement Continues

Featurette - X-Men Up Close

Featurette - Anatomy Of A Scene: Golden Gate Bridge

Featurette - Generation X: Comic Book History

Featurette - Fox Movie Channel Presents: Life After Film School

Featurette - Fox Movie Channel Presents: Casting Session

Featurette - Vignettes

Featurette - Blogs

Featurette - Previz Animatics

Photo Gallery - Character Stills

Photo Gallery - Concept Art, Storyboards & Models

Trailer - Trailer A

Trailer - Trailer B

Trailer - Extended Trailer

• The ability to purchase the real X-Men films without having to purchase this one.

  As if Fox could not announce any more clearly that they support region coding because it gives them the ability to discriminate against consumers outside of the USA, the real X-Men films were available weeks in advance of this boxed set. To call this a slap in the face with a concrete slab is an understatement. Fox's enthusiasm for Region Coding is demonstrated by the fact that they are the only studio to have used it on a hundred percent of their titles. Which prompts the following question: how do you expect us to respond when you force us to buy a product that we do not want?

  The video transfer is excellent.

  The audio transfer is surprisingly disappointing.

  The extras are not worthy of a glance or listen.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall