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X-Men 1.5

X-Men 1.5

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $15.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: X-Men: A must-have DVD!
Review: If you're a true, blue DVD collector, this DVD should be on your shelf right now. It has everything you could want: incredible picture clarity, a five-star movie, and loads of features.

The first unique thing about this DVD is the packaging. As you can see, the DVD's not in something as durable as a keep case, or as cheap as a snap case (ahem, Warner Home Video...). Instead it's in a unique cardboard-plastic slip case that's very colorful and intriguing. Inside the cardboard shell with the X-Men front and the description back, there's a case that simply has a blue "X" in the middle of the front and back of it, and when you unfold it that has pictures of the main characters lining the inside of it and the DVD in a clear plastic case waiting for you.

Then, when you put it in, you see the full-motion menus and, when you play the movie, the breathtaking, THX-mastered picture and sound quality. And, there's also a fabulous array of features. It includes an optional extended branching version of the whole movie, which means if you select it, at points in the movie it will display an "X-Men" emblem at the bottom of the screen and branch off to a deleted scene meant to follow the previous one, then return you to the movie (you can also view the scenes separately). There's also the behind-the-scenes special aired on Fox, "The Mutant Watch", and there are 5 excerpts from Bryan Singer's interview on PBS's "The Charlie Rose Show", there's the screen test for Hugh Jackman, which shows him and Anna Paquin practicing the snowy road scene in the movie, and an Art Gallery featuring original art and story boards, the two original animatics for the Train Station and Statue of Liberty Fight Sequences, and the 2 theatrical trailers and the 3 TV spots. It also has the THX Optimode, the new feature which allows you to fine-tune your TV and sound system to get the most out of your movie, which is now becoming a standard DVD feature. And, with the X-Men DVD, there are also 2 hidden Easter Eggs. Here's how to access them:

1. At the main menu, go to the "Special Features" section and go to the "Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots" section. Go up to "Trailer A" if you're not there already, and go to the left. The rose picture to the left will be highlighted. Once it is, press Enter. You will then find the answer to the question "What would happen if Spider-Man and the X-Men were together?". And the answer is: A lot of laughs! This Easter Egg is an exclusive outtake from the movie which shows a guy in a Spider-Man suit (possibly Bryan Singer) sneaking up on Cyclops, Storm and Jean, who then looks around and says "I am completley in the wrong movie! I am so sorry!" Hilarious.

2. Go to the "Special Features" section and go to the "Art Gallery" section. Once you're there, keep going down until you highlight the picture of Wolverine's dog tags, then press Enter. You will then see an array of storyboards of two characters who were meant to appear in the movie, but will appear in the sequel.

So, to summarize, this DVD is a collectors' dream. This is a MUST-BUY!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great, but dissappointing special features
Review: I thought that this DVD is top-quality, but I felt that the way the deleted scenes are accessed was distracting. I would prefer that they either substitute the deleted scenes into the movie, or make them available at the end (which they are). However, to watch them as part of the movie, the movie pauses, then the deleted or modified scene is shown, and then it pauses again to return to where it left off. Not the best system in my opinion.

Otherwise, the disc looks and sounds great!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: HAVE THE X MEN IN YOUR LIVING ROOM TONIGHT
Review: IN A WORLD, WHERE HUMANS FEAR MUTANTS, AND ONLY THEY CAN SAVE US FROM OTHER NUTANTS WHO WANT TO DESTROY US; X MEN STARRING HUGH JACKMAN, WAS A GOOD MOVIE,HUGH JACKMAN HAS A STRONG SCREEN PRESENCE,AND REALLY PLAYS THE PART OF WOLVERINE PERFECTLY, I MEAN, I DID THINK THE MOVIE SHOULD HAVE TOUCHED ON WOLVERINES BERSERKER RAGE ,THAT MAKES EM GO WILD, AND SAVAGE, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT TO SEE THAT IN THE SCENES CLIMACTIC FIGHT SCENE AT THE END WITH SABER TOOTH.BUT I DID LIKE IT, HEY I SAW IT 4 TIMES, BUT I DID WISH THAT COMING TO THE END, THE FIGHT WITH SABER TOOTH AND WOLVERINE, SHOULD HAVE BEEN LONGER AND COULD HAVE USED SOME MORE PUNCH TO IT, BUT STILL I THINK X MEN FANS AND PEOPLE WHO JUST WANT TO SEE A PRETTY GOOD MOVIE WITH A WELL THOUGHT OUT SCRIPT , WILL REALLY LIKE X MEN, ITS NOT SOME MINDLESS ACTION FLICK, BUT A MOVIE WITH HEART, SO GET READY TRUE BELIEVERS RENT OR GO BUY THE TAPE OR THE DVD AND HAVE THE X MEN IN YOUR LIVING ROOM FOR THE NIGHT, AND HEY, I CANT WATE FOR PART 2, WELL THATS ALL FOLKS

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best movie adaptation of a comic EVER.
Review: If you are an X-men fan, you will recognize how true the movie is to the comic. If you have never read the comic, the movie does an excellent job of bringing the viewer up to speed. Great flick.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GOOD START TO MANY SEQUALS !
Review: THIS MOVIE HAS GOOD SPECIAL EFFECTS,JUMPS,KICKS AND FLIPS.THE DIRECTORS STARTED THIS MOVIE THE RIGHT WAY MEANING ALL OF THE X-MEN IN THIS MOVIE ARE THE ONES THAT STARTED THE X-MEN IN THE CARTOON.THE ONLY CHARACTER THAT IS MISSING THAT STATRED THE X-MEN IS (MORPH).MY FAVORITE X-MEN IN THIS MOVIE IS (WOLVERINE).IN THE CARTOON MY FAVORITE X-MEN IS (GAMBIT).MY FAVORITE VILLIAN IN THIS MOVIE IS (MAGNETO). THIS MOVIE IS WORTH THE MONEY.HERE SHOULD BE THE NEXT CHARACTERS OF X-MEN GAMBIT AND JUBILEE.ALSO IN THE NEXT X-MEN ROGUE SHOULD BE OLDER AND SHE SHOULD FLY CAUSE IN THE CARTOON ROGUE FLIES.BUY THIS MOVIE NOW.WATCH OUT IN THE YEAR 2001-02 X-MEN PART 2 .

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Must own for sci-fi fans...
Review: X-Men was the second best movie of the summer, following closely to Gladiator. It's a great flick and perhaps the best comic book-to-film movie ever.

With all of this going for it, you would think that Fox would want to release a great DVD. However, what they ended up with is only pretty good. Don't get me wrong, I still think anyone who enjoyed the movie should purchase it, but it could've been so much better.

The most notable absense from this DVD is a director's commentary by Bryan Singer. This would have added so much to the DVD. Yes, there are excerpts from an interview, but they don't go very in-depth. I was hoping for more. Another thing I wishwould have been included was a behind-the-scenes documentary. The Mutant Watch TV Special included just doesnt cut it.

Enough with the negatives you say. All right here comes the positive things about this disc. The visual transfer is GREAT. There are no errors or pixelation apparent anywhere. Also, the sound is done very well. Pump it through your surround sound to annoy the neighbors. Also, the two easter eggs included were a nice treat, as were most of the deleted scenes. I just wish that the extended branching thing worked a little better.

Overall, this is a good DVD disc. If you're a sci-fi addict or a fan of the film, I recommend that you pick this one up.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: stunning adaptation
Review: A stunning adaptation of Comic book to film. Better than, I think, Batman. The array of interesting characters was mind boggling. Fantastic Video and Sound, both in Dolby Surround and 5.1

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: More than a cartoon and comic.....
Review: X-Men Mega-Review BY: JAMES GOULD

While there are many who are quick to point out all the things that director Bryan Singer could have done better, there aren't many people discussing all the things that he did right, or tried to anyway. The movie's success (54.7 million in its first week) is based on the fact of word of mouth. If people who saw the movie the Friday it opened, saw it and didn't like it, they wouldn't tell other people about it, or if someone brought the subject up, they would simply say don't see it, it was really bad. X-Men, however, was a good movie, not only working in comic book heroes to life, but also working in a plot, theme, and the difficult and risky process of working major character backgrounds into the story-line.

Some may say that the success of the movie was only due to the idea of a comic book being brought to life. This wasn't the case for X-Men, because it involved so much more than just comic book heroes fighting. The plot to X-Men dealt with many of the original X-Men from the comic book - Cyclops, Storm, Jean-Grey, Rouge, Magneto, Professor X, Mystique, Toad, and Sabretooth. With this many main characters, it is completely impossible to work in histories of each character for 90 minutes of film. For those who are avid fans of X-Men a history isn't needed, but Singer needed to address regular average movie-goers with no knowledge of X-Men. It was a good touch at the beginning to introduce Magneto being separated from his parents in Poland in 1944, and then it went to Rouge kissing a boy - only to send him into a coma. These two histories were introduced well, along with Wolverine and Professor X's history. Storm, Cyclops, Jean-Grey, Mystique, and Toad were the only ones that people didn't really know about, but their histories will probably be discussed in sequels to the movie.

Also dealing with the history of the X-Men was the brand new plot that Singer had to make up, because those who were fans of X-Men before wouldn't have wanted to see the same type of story all over again. He did a good job with developing Magneto's hatred of humans into a take over plot. The X-Men obviously try to stop Magneto and then that's where the fight scenes occur which were pretty well done for only a $70 million dollar budget. Factor in major actors who need major money for their acting, special effects, expensive set designs, costumes, it all adds up leaving very little money to spend on one thing. So overall the fight scenes weren't as spectacular as I would have liked, but Singer did a good job. There were about 3 fight scenes in the movie, not as much as I hoped for, but the action was intense enough to keep me at the edge of my seat. There is the classic one liner that is said by Storm that everyone will remember from this movie. It is said when Storm explodes the doors of an elevator off with bolts of lightning (Toad had trapped her down there). She says, "You know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning...the same thing that happens to everything else." That's when her eyes go white and lightning comes down on Toad and shocks him off of the Statue of Liberty. Very cool special effects in that scene.

Also lying in the movie was the theme of acceptance that was very wisely put in the movie. The idea of mutants is that they are outcasts to society that are persecuted by "normal" humans, because they are the minority. Tolerance is what people today are trying to accomplish and X-Men personified this action perfectly by showing how mutants are "hated" members of society. It was a nice touch that I am glad that Singer included, showing that the movie had heart along with the fighting.

Overall, Singer did an excellent job, and I think that he deserves credit because of all the things that he did do right, instead of scrutinizing him for things that he could have done better. Face it, to any stuffy, snobby, "genius" movie critic, no movie is perfect, but even they say that the movie did do a great job of bringing the comic book to life. What is most important is that the fans of X-Men and non-fans alike enjoyed the movie thoroughly. I rate this movie a 4 ½ stars out of 5. You should definitely buy the movie and the DVD because of the chance to take the magic home, and enjoy 10 extra minutes of footage that wasn't included in the movie that was released in movie theaters.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Limp eye candy
Review: I'll try not to go into too much detail, but this movie is just plain limp. Hugh Jackman is great, and Patrick Stewart may have found the role he was born to play, but that didn't make up for the missing plot, the generic black costumes and weaponry, and the lifeless direction. I expected a lot more from Singer. The "fried toad" line could have been hilarious if it had been properly directed - Halle is a pretty good actress when the director is paying attention. The same could be said for many of the actors in this movie. Regarding the DVD edition - first of all, it's pretty much a given that any new action movie will have impeccable sound production. So why do so many people rave about the sound quality in every single DVD review? We already know that the bar for technical quality has been raised from the VHS standard. Let's try and get over it... Second, the widescreen ratio of 2.35:1 has a horrible effect on most TVs. Why couldn't we have this in 1.85:1 so we don't feel like we're watching 1950's TV sets? Overall, X-MEN is a pretty good rental, especially for comic fans - but it's not a keeper.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A great film in a great box, but....
Review: I'd lve to give the film 5 stars, it was a great movie. But the DVD is only getting 2 stars. Why? The package looks great. There a bucketful of extra features. The sound is great.

But the picture quality is lousy. Somewhere along the line, DVD makers have to be told that the actual film is what people pay money to see.

Take my advice and wait 'til the X-Men turn up in your local multiplex to see them in action again.


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