"X2: X-Men United" isarguably one of the best (if not the best) comic book superhero movies ofall time. It gave the summer box office an early start and spent two weeks at#1. In all likelihood, it'll rank as one of the top ten highest grossing moviesof 2003.
On November 25th, TwentiethCentury Fox is releasing the "X2: X-Men United" 2-Disc, SpecialEdition DVD and it promises to be a package worthy of the movie.
THE MOVIE
The purpose of this review isto examine the DVD. As with previous DVD reviews, I prefer not to spend a lot oftime evaluating the movie itself. I did that back in April with my reviewpublished on Comic Book Resources.
To quickly sum up, I thought"X2" was an action-packed, spectacular movie with over a dozen interestingcharacters and an amazingly tight storyline. The movie was a big improvementover the much-loved original and deserved all the adulation that it got, fromboth longtime fans and mainstream audiences.
Now, on to the review of theDVD...
DISC 1
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Disc one contains the movie andvarious audio tracks. I'm not really qualified to evaluate the various technicaloptions on this DVD, so I'll just list them out for you audiophiles here: we'vegot English 5.1 DTS, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French Dolby Surround andSpanish Dolby Surround sound. The widescreen version (which is the only versionI'd watch) has a 2:35:1 aspect ratio.
Likewise, I won't spend a lotof time talking about the picture quality. The movie looks just as great on thesmall screen as it did on the big one and the layer change is in a good spot. Idon't have much to say beyond that.
While the first"X-Men" DVD release lacked a commentary track, thankfully Fox did notrepeat this oversight with the follow up. The main special features to be foundon disc one are the commentary tracks.
On the first track directorBryan Singer is aided by frequent collaborator, Cinematographer Thomas Sigel asthey chat up the movie. This track is everything a good commentary should be,giving amusing anecdotes and interesting insights into the filmmaking process.It's definitely worth a listen.
A second commentary trackfeatures Producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter, along withscreenwriters Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter. This track isslightly less interesting as there is a tendency to discuss production detailsthat turn up in the extras on disc two, but in general there is enough goodmaterial on this track to make it worthwhile.
Fans who enjoy commentaryshould be well pleased by those presented on the "X2" DVD.
DISC 2
Here's where the real funbegins. The second disc is divided into seven sections each filled with goodies.
First up is "History ofthe X-Men". This section contains two featurettes looking at the X-Men incomics. This was perhaps the most disappointing segment of the DVD's special featuresin that my expectations were well raised by similar items found on the "Daredevil"DVD.
"The Secret Origin of theX-Men" attempts to give us an overview of the characters from theirinception in the 1960s right up until the first movie. On the"Daredevil" disc we heard from nine creators who made an impact onthat character during its history. On the "Secret Origin of the X-Men"we only hear from Stan Lee and Chris Claremont.
While those two names shoulddefinitely be on the top of any list of "X-Men" creators, there are somany more who could have contributed interesting insights. Where is Len Wein,who created Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm and Colossus? Where is Dave Cockrum?Where is John Byrne who (according to his telling) lobbied to keep Wolverine inthe book when Claremont thought he was too much a one-note psycho? What aboutNeal Adams, Frank Miller, Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison?
As it stands, the "SecretOrigin" segment has a lot of room for improvement. Sadly, it shinescompared to the "Nightcrawler Reborn" segment. That one focusesexclusively on current X-writer Chuck Austen. Again, I would have love to haveheard from Wein and Cockrum about the creation of the character, as well as anycreators who had an impact on it.
Most troubling is that thesegment focuses almost exclusively on the Nightcrawler prequel one-shot comicbook, published earlier this year. Certainly this segment could have beenexpanded greatly and made much more interesting.
With that out of the way, letme say now that this concludes the complaining portion of this review. There's alot more stuff on disc 2 and most of it is gold!
Next is"Pre-Production". Here's where we start getting into the meaty stuff.
"Nightcrawler Attack:Multi-Angle Study" gives insights into the creation of the "WhoopAss" scene that opens the movie. Presented in multi-angle mode, fans get tosee the animatic storyboards for the sequence, the raw footage, the unfinishedF/X and the final scene. It's an interesting look at how such F/X ladensequences are planned and executed.
In "Evolution In TheDetails", production designer Guy Dyas takes you on a guided tour of thesets. Dyas' gives an interesting and in-depth presentation of the design of themovie. This is another feature well-worth watching, if you're intrigued in thebehind-the-scenes aspects of filmmaking.
"United Colors of X"has costume designer Louise Mingebach presenting the wardrobe from the film.Although Mingebach doesn't give as polished a presentation as Dyas, this stillproves to be in interesting segment.
From there we move on to the"Production" section.
This section contains what isprobably the crown jewel of the Disc 2 features: "The Second Uncanny Issueof X-Men: Making of X2." This is a terrific, behind-the-scenes look at themovie from all angles. Clocking in at just about one hour, this documentary hasall the filmmakers involved in the making of "X2" are on hand todiscuss the movie and reveal the tricks of the trade.
"FX2: Visual Effects"adds another insightful half-hour of documentary to the disc. With a movie like"X2", you can imagine there's a lot to reveal in a documentary likethis one.
A shorter documentary called"Introducing the Incredible Nightcrawler" focuses strictly on thatcharacter and the challenges of transforming actor Alan Cumming into theblue-skinned, arrow-tailed, fuzzy elf we all know and love.
First up here is the"Wolverine Deathstrike Fight Rehearsal," "Nightcrawler StuntRehearsal" and "Nightcrawler Time-Lapse" are all nice littleadd-ons in the "Production" section.
From there it's on the to the"Post Production" section.
"Requiem for Mutants: TheScore of X2" takes us into the scoring hall with composer John Ottman (whoalso edited the movie). This eleven-minute segment is a nice bonus for fans ofmovie scores.
"X2 Global WebcastHighlights" features a number of interviews with the cast members of thefilm. These are, of course, excerpts from the webcast that we all watched liveon the Internet back in the spring. In case you missed it, the best parts arehere.
Then we move on the"Deleted Scenes".
This gives us a generous 11scenes that were either deleted from or edited differently in the final film.Interesting ones to watch for are "Jubilee at the Museum" and"Professor X and Cyclops Escape". The latter of the two probably wouldhave worked nicely in the movie.
The "Galleries"section contains dozens of design illustrations and production photos.Personally, I'm not a big fan of tracking through stills on DVDs. On the otherhand, this is where you'll see the Sentinel and Angel designs, which didn't makethe final cut of the movie. You also get a close up look at Kurt's circusposters, some of which went unused and contain some familiar costume elements.The Mutant X-Rays are pretty cool as well.
The obligatory trailers segmentgives you three trailers from the film and a public service announcement. Italso reminds you to plug your DVD into your computer if you want informationabout getting free comics from Marvel.
THE BOTTOM LINE
* Whew *! Does that sound likeenough stuff to satisfy an X-fan? I think so.
The "X2" DVD is afeature-packed and truly special edition that is worthy of the cool movie itshowcases. With the depth of material here, there should be plenty to hold youover until the premiere of X3!
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