X-MEN

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2000

When the eagerly anticipated X-Men movie reached theatres this summer, it turned out to be a rarity: a big-budget Hollywood adaptation of a comic book that pleased both fans and newcomers. The result paid off handsomely for distributor 20th Century Fox; now, barely four months later, we have the DVD special edition of X-Men, which offers up the film and several extras that should interest collectors. Unfortunately, the disc did not receive quite the same lavish treatment that Fox Home Video has bestowed on some of its other titles (such as last week's Titan A.E.). The DVD of X-Men is good, and it is worth having, but it is easy to imagine a more lavish version that would be the definitive home video presentation of the film.

THE FILM

The main thing X-Men has going for it is integrity in regards to telling a story. Director Bryan Singer never falls back on the comic book origins as an excuse for camp or silliness; instead, the film tries hard to go for as realistic a treatment as possible in terms of characterization. Especially thanks to the presence of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, the whole enterprise actually seems to have some dramatic weight, and in the great tradition of Hollywood entertainment movies, the film can take on heavy issues like intolerance and ostracism, and play them out in a larger-than-life pop-art format that appeals to a wide audience.

What the film lacks (and this becomes evident mostly on a second viewing) is lots of great action and excitement. As a first film in a proposed franchise, the majority of the time is spent on setting up elements that will pay off in sequels. In fact, for the first hour, the film mostly is exposition, introducing us to the characters, to Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted, and to Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants. The few action set pieces (such as the brief fight between Wolverine and Sabretooth [Tyler Mane] in the snow) are actually very brief and not all that impressive. One really has to wait for the last half-hour before things really start to take off.

This is not to say that the film is bad; it just doesn't hold up to multiple viewings as well as one might have liked, especially after the initial excitement has worn off. In short, X-Men is pretty good, but it's not hard to imagine a sequel that would be even better.

THE DVD

The disc presents the film in a letterboxed widescreen anamorphic format, and it looks great. The sound options include English Dolby 5.1, and Dolby Surround Sound in English and French. There are also subtitle options for English and Spanish. Unfortunately, the Dolby 5.1 mix isn't as impressive as it might be. The rain sound effects of the opening scene really do seem to surround you, making you feel you're right there in the action, but later moments aren't as effective. For example, Professor Xavier's whispered voice as Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) races through the Halls of the School for the gifted, doesn't really seems to come from any and all directions; it just flutters back and forth between the left and right channels.


The disc begins with the usual Fox Home Video promos for other DVD releases; fortunately, in this case, the effort is limited to a montage of titles rather than multiple individual trailers. In a clever touch, we then see the standard warning about video piracy, but it blinks out as if interrupted by static, replaced by a close up of an eye-scan as seen in the film; then the disc takes you to the CGI menu, which portrays the interior or Cerebro.

From here, you can select options to play the movie, to select specific scenes, to check out the special features, or to select the language. There are twenty-eight chapter stops with titles like 'The Mutant Problem,' and each is illustrated with a short film clip running on a loop. This number of stops allows you to select a particular scene or sequence, but it isn't enough to let you really jump to a particular moment. Also, the scene loops can be just a bit misleading. For example, the 'Attack Plan' chapter shows footage of the X-Men's plane in flight, which ends the scene; selecting this chapter actually takes you to the moment when they are inside their headquarters, looking at their 3-D map of Ellis Island.

Special Features

The 'special features' button, of course, is the one we really want to investigate on any DVD, and this one offers several interesting items: an 'extended, branching' version of the film, an interview with director Bryan Singer, a Fox special called 'The Mutant Watch,' Hugh Jackman's screen test, theatrical trailers and TV spots, an Art Gallery, Animatics, and a button marked 'THX.'

This last button runs you through a series of tests to insure that your sound system is perfectly set up to capture the glories of Dolby 5.1 sound, but you should select this option last, as you really can't get back to the Special Features directly from here. (You have to go back to the Main Menu and then select the Special Features button again.)

The Art Gallery is divided into two sections: one for character designs and one for production designs. The character design section is more interesting, as you will be able to see the evolution through which the look of the characters went; in fact, many of the characters are initially unrecognizable in these images, so different is their final appearance. Often multiple drawings portray the same character in the same pose, with only different cosmetic details (hair, costumes, etc).

The animatics are simple computer-graphic renderings of two sequences: the train fight and the climax on the statue of liberty. These animatics are the modern-day, new-and-improved versions of old-fashioned storyboards; their main advantage is that they movie, allowing for a better sense of the flow of a scene. The computer graphics are extremely simple, rather resembling a video game with little facial expression, but their purpose is not to be a work of art in themselves, but simply to act as a guide for live-action and effects filming. Again, they provide an interesting look at the development process, as the scenes are quite recognizable compared to the final versions in the film, while at the same time showing noticeable differences in editing and shot selection.

There are two trailers and three TV spots, which basically recycle the same footage in different ways. The first trailer is the 'teaser' without narration; the second one has a voice-over that spells out the basic premise to potential viewers. The TV spots are also narrated, and they are a bit quicker. There is also a promotional spot for the film's soundtrack CD.

The Bryan Singer interview is not an original; it is excerpted from the director's appearance on The Charlie Rose Show. It is split up into five sections, in which Singer answers questions such as why he made the film; he also talks about comics-to-film adaptations, about directing actors, about learning from actors, and about the challenges of making a studio film. Singer is a good interview, but his answers here tend to be a bit general, and they aren't substantial enough to stand in for what's most obviously missing on this disc: a director's audio commentary. In one amusing moment, he says that he has as much to learn from his actors as they do from himand then adds 'if not more,' as if suddenly realizing that he has put his own relatively brief experience in the entertainment field on the same level with that of seasoned veterans like Stewart and McKellen.

The 'Mutant Watch' special uses a dramatic framing device that portrays Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison) making charges and accusations before a Senate hearing panel. Interspersed with this are scenes from the film, interviews with cast and crew, and behind-the-scenes footage. Unlike many promo specials, this one is fairly interesting and entertaining, but it doesn't quite 'fit' with the continuity of the film, ending as it does with a sight gag of Kelly's daughter revealing that she is a mutant, her neck and arms stretching out like rubber. It's actually a nice fadeout for the piece; in some ways, it's even more effective than turning Kelly himself into a mutant, as happens in the film.

For fans, however, the real feature of this disc is the 'Extended Branching' version of the film. This option allows you to view X-Men with additional or alternate scenes inserted at various points. The logo 'X-Men' appears on screen in the lower right corner, signaling that one of these scenes is about to appear; then the screen goes black, and the new scene begins. Afterwards, the screen goes black again, indicating that the regular cut of the film is resuming. If you've already sat through the film once and don't want to sit through it again just to see this footage, you can select an alternate option that allows you to view the extra scenes one by one.

There are six additional or alternate sequences, sometimes made up of two scenes: Storm teaching class; Wolverine noticing Jean and Cyclops holding hands, followed by Bobby and Rogue in class; an Extended Bedroom scene (just more dialogue; sorry, folks); Bobby walking Rogue to her room, followed by Xavier and Jean in Cerebro; Xavier and Jean in Xavier's office, and a scene in the Ready Room before the X-Men take off.

The scene of Storm (Halle Berry) teaching the classroom full of mutants includes much of the footage scene in the actual film underneath Xavier's voiceover description to Wolverine of his School for the Gifted. In this alternate version, however, we actually hear Storm's dialogue, a lesson about the Roman Empire converting to Christianity under the rule of Emperor Constantine. The point is clear: that a repressed minority can eventually become the dominant majoritya lesson that has obvious implications for socially reviled mutants.

The next scene also pulls footage from the school montage visible in the film, showing Wolverine looking through a window while Cyclops (James Marsden) lectures to some kids about the internal combustion engine. In this version, we not only hear his words; we also see him holding hands with Jean Grey (Famke Janssen)really the only visible sign of affection between the characters, whose relationship is taken as a given in the theatrical cut but never really shown.

The Extended Bedroom scene plays out very much like the film version but adds dialogue between Wolverine and Jean Grey and between Cyclops and Wolverine. The material makes that improves the interaction among the various characters. Jean Grey doesn't simply give in to Wolverine's challenge to read his mind ('Afraid you might like it?'), and the tension between Cyclops and Wolverine makes more sense.

The sequence of Xavier (Stewart) and Jean Grey in Cerebro establishes a point only mentioned in the dialogue of the theatrical cut: that Xavier has been trying, unsuccessfully, to locate Magneto. It also sets up Jean Grey's growing power, as she asks to be allowed to try Cerebro herself. And finally, we see a moment of doubt from Xavier, who feels unprepared for the approaching threat and worries that he was wrong to involve the other X-Men in his battle with Magneto (McKellen).

Both of the final two scenes are brief: in one, Jean Grey briefly describes her mind-reading encounter with Wolverine, to which Xavier replies, 'If you want to read minds, there are safer places to start than Logan.' In the Ready Room scene, we see Cyclops asking Wolverine if he can take orders and telling him to put on one of the X-Men suits before they go out to battle the Brotherhood of Mutants on Ellis Island.

Except for the material with Bobby and Rogue (just brief bits with a high school romance type feel), all of these scenes help to deepen the characterizations. They lend additional screen time that may not be essential to the story, but they do help lay the groundwork better for material that is in the film. Presumably, the main reason for their excision was to speed up the running time, but mostly they add only a few minutes, and the film probably could have benefited from their inclusion.

CONCLUSION

With all this material, the X-Men DVD is probably a must-have for fans. Even casual viewers could enjoy a rental. But this is not the best presentation imaginable for the film; the most obvious absence is that of a director's commentary. But until this Holy Grail becomes a reality, the present DVD is more than good enough to satisfy for the time being.