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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	None
Rating
Year Released	2000
Running Time	100:01 Minutes
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	2,4	Director	Bryan Singer
Studio Distributor	Fox Home Video	Starring	Hugh Jackman Patrick Stewart Ian McKellen Famke Janssen James Marsden Halle Berry
Case	Transparent Amaray
RPI	Rental	Music	Michael Kamen

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Nonetheless, when we suppress such liberties that have been taken with the X-Men canon, what we have is a reasonably enjoyable film that will serve as a good introduction for those who haven't read any of the comics or seen any of the animated films. The film begins with an introduction by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who explains the rise of the mutants as being the result of random mutations, as opposed to the result of genetic manipulation by aliens as the comic books would have it. We then see a glimpse of a concentration camp in Poland, where a young Erik Magnus Lehnsherr (Brett Morris) is taken from his parents by the Nazis, and bends one of the gates using telekinetic powers in his rage. We then fast-forward to an indeterminate point in the future where mankind is struggling to find a way to cope with the mutants, and vice versa, with political debates mounting and being dominated increasingly by fear and resentment on the side of the former. Doctor Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) attempts to advocate tolerance to the world's leaders, but with violent rogue mutants in the world, it is an uphill task.

    We then see a young girl named Marie (Anna Paquin) making out with her boyfriend, but things go terribly wrong when her mutant powers come to the fore and begin draining his life-force away. Naturally, Marie is quite distressed and flees the country, heading along the route she had envisioned taking once she had finished high school. Along the way, she comes into contact with a man named Logan (Hugh Jackman), who has a skeletal system that is reinforced with a unique alloy, and has the mutant power of self-healing as a result of the implantation. These two mutants, in respective order, adopt the aliases Rogue and Wolverine as they drive away in search of a place where they will be free to be themselves. Along the way, they are attacked by Sabretooth (Tyler Mane), before being rescued by Storm (Halle Berry), and Cyclops (James Marsden). They are then introduced to Doctor Grey and Professor Xavier before we are more fully introduced to the bad guys. The bad guys are lead by an adult Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, aka Magneto (Ian McKellen), who feels that humanity is about to start another holocaust upon the mutants and wants to beat them to it. His minions include the aforementioned Sabretooth, Toad (Ray Park), and Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos). Caught in the middle of this conflict is Senator Robert Jefferson Kelly (Bruce Davison), among other humans who insist on getting in the way of the two mutant factions fighting each other.

    In my opinion, this is a comic-book adaptation that can be placed in the same class as Batman (I mean the Tim Burton adaptations, not the idiotic ones that were tailored to those who mistake the 1960s television show for the real Batman), rather than the appalling waste of time that we call The Avengers. The characters and their individual conflicts really come to the fore and give this film personality, although the bad guys tend to be more crude and one-dimensional. Rogue in particular is hard to not sympathize with, and the manner in which the human characters behave almost makes me root for the bad guys. I highly recommend renting this particular DVD for an evening's entertainment, especially if you haven't read an X-Men comic book in your life.

Video

    The transfer is razor-sharp throughout the feature, with a myriad of fine details on display for the benefit of the detail junkie. The shadow detail of this transfer is excellent, as much of this film occurs in dark or dimly lit settings where only the superior shadow detail and resolution of DVD can keep the film making sense. Another plus for this DVD is that there is no low-level noise to spoil the dark look of the film.

    The colour saturation in the brightly lit scenes is warm and vibrant, giving such sequences as those shot in Xavier's academy a homely, welcoming feel. Most of the rest of the film is somewhat subdued by comparison, but this is more because of the low lighting than any specific choice or problem in the saturation. There are no signs of oversaturation, bleeding, or misregistration, although Rebecca Romijn-Stamos' Mystique costume is quite hard on the eyes at times due to its use of a harsh shade of blue.

    MPEG artefacts were not a problem in this transfer, although I still would have preferred a dual-layer transfer just to make the backgrounds of some shots look a little smoother. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of a couple of minor instances of aliasing at 44:43 and 46:11, to name the examples that I could notice. Given the amount of chrome and fine lines that exist in this film, the lack of aliasing in the transfer is quite a pleasant surprise. Film artefacts consisted of the very occasional white mark on an inconspicuous area of the frame, which is somewhat disappointing for such a recent film, but this is tempered by the fact that the total number of such marks can be counted on one hand. This is definitely a transfer with which to impress family and friends.

Audio

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, with a couple of minor limitations posed by Toad's manner of speech. Naturally, only the good guys and Magneto really have anything important to say, so these occasions when other characters are slightly difficult to understand are nothing to worry about. There were no discernible problems with audio sync, save for the occasional instance of dubious sound effect dubbing.

    The score music in this film is credited to Michael Kamen, and it is a reasonable effort given the limitations of the genre and story that the film follows. While there is nothing immediately remarkable about the music, it does follow the on-screen action faithfully and provides an appropriate atmosphere, which is all you can really ask for.

    The surround channels were constantly and aggressively utilized by this soundtrack to provide an immersive sound field. During Wolverine's dash through the mutant academy, telepathically projected voices can be heard from the general area of the surround channels, giving the sequence an uncomfortable, frightening sort of sound field that perfectly matches the onscreen action. Even during the quiet, dialogue-based moments of the film, the surround channels provide a haunting atmosphere that complements the visual element of the film perfectly. The subwoofer had a whale of a time lending a bottom end to this film that complemented both the action sequences and some of the dialogue sequences, all without becoming conspicuous.

Menu

• An extended cut that makes use of seamless branching
• Featurette - The Mutant Watch
• Hugh Jackman screen test
• Art gallery with character and production design
• Two animated storyboards
• Theatrical Trailers
• TV Spots

    The video transfer is in the proper aspect ratio, and virtually free of artefacts. In other words, it is everything we should be demanding if distributors are going to be so insistent on the use of rental windows.

    The audio transfer is simply excellent, providing great demonstration material for those times when neophytes just don't seem to understand why it is worth spending all that money on a 5.1-channel system.

    The extras are non-existent.
 
 

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Extras
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Overall