DVD Review HTF REVIEW: X2: X-Men United w/ Screenshots!! (VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) (1 Viewer)

[Jeff>K>B]

Thanks Dan. I think I'll pick this one up then.

 

[Dan Kaplan]

Just watched it tonight for the first time, and I've got a question and a few comments.

First, the question: Has anyone else noticed an odd jumpiness to the picture throughout? Perfectly good clarity, but it was almost like a frame was missing every couple minutes. It was so frequent, I can't help but wonder if it was an intentional filming style, but that doesn't make any sense. Rather annoying... I suppose it could be a defective disc, but I've never heard of a defect like that.

One scene I remember for sure that it happened in is when they're in Boston at Ice Man's house. Wolverine is walking across the living room, with the camera above him. It skips a frame or two and he suddenly jumps ahead half a step. I was starting to feel epileptic... The odd thing is, on all of those occasions (and there were A LOT of them!), there was never any audio skip or dropout. Audio and video were always in sync, which is very strange.

Regarding the bass issue, I didn't listen to the DD track, but I would have to rate the DTS bass as fairly average. Great overall sound quality, but the impact didn't leave much of a lasting impression. No rumble, just decent range.

But the narrative voices ... wow! Talk about being in the room with you.

As for my overall impression, I'm sorry to report that I was a bit disappointed. I expected a lot more out of it, especially after the coolness of the opening scene and the hyped up expectations. The story line was a lot stronger than that of part 1, but it seemed much flatter somehow. I'll have to give it another watching or two and see if it grows on me, but right now I seem to be in the minority in that I found part 1 more entertaining. Part of the problem seemed to be long periods of not much action, while characters were being developed more and more for no real reason (part 3 development?). When it finally gets to the climax, there's no real showdown to speak of, so you're left wondering what the point was. Anyone else get that impression?

Dan

 

[Dan Kaplan]

It occurred to me this morning what largely didn't sit well with me for the movie -- the promotion. I commented in the Terminator 3 review thread that I really liked how little of the movie was given away by the trailers. Once you read the halfway point, pretty much everything is a surprise. But not so with X2. I think the flood at the end was the only action sequence that wasn't completely given away by the trailers. That probably explains the "flat" impression I got. Lots of buildup to the action sequences, then very little payoff because it feels like they're hurrying through the stuff you already know in an attempt to get to something new.

Dan

 

[Mark-W]

Paul-

Regarding the item you noticed:
I don't think the president would know to "act" like he was in pain when all the humans in the room where in pain. I suspect that they just needed a shot of the president in pain where you could see it was him and not just some guy in a suit, therefore, they needed his face open. They couldn't really have him hunched over in a quasi-fetal position if we were to see his face.

As for the not responding to threats, I think that is just the appropriate response given the situation and recent events. Futhermore, I think if Styrker had files that suggested that the president was a mutant, there would be some indication of this when Stryker goes in to attach the school, which a mutant would not have authorized regardless of where his loyalties lay. (As evidenced by Mystique's attempt (as Senator Kelly) to argue against Stryker's invation without betraying her true nature.)



Mark

 

[Paul_Scott]

Mark, upon reflection, i thought it was odd that we would even see a shot of the President in that sequence.
i suppose you could rationalize it as the filmmakers showing us one of the only other non-mutants that we've seen in the film, and that the machine is reaching to the highest levels of power with ease - although on further thought, showing Bobbys family writhing in pain would have driven home the situation just as much if not more, giving us more direct empathy to the direness of the situation.
since the President did seem to have some discomfort, i would surmize that he had some mild form of genetic mutation- since if he were a perfectly normal human, he should be like the others and completely doubled up and incapacitated by pain.
i'll check out that scene again later tonight, but it just didn't look like it to me.
Further, if the implications of what i think i am seeing were intended, it would be an example -to continue with the homosexual subtext- of a person who isn't truthful to himself about what he is .
The President could be suppressing any outward manifestations of mutation, as well as being in denial- for good reason.
the analogy of the popular actor who has to play straight, and prefers the fake marriage because it gives him enourmous popularity and privilage, that he would not have if he were openly gay.

if i'm just imagining it, and i could be completely off base...oh well.
if not, then slipping this in makes complete sense to me, and if so, i have to give Singer a lot of credit for working in a very subtle point.
i'll have to check out the commentary and see if anything slips during this sequence.

 

[Jon Mercer]

Has anyone found any easter eggs of the infamous blooper reels?

 

[Chad A Wright]

I had forgotten how much I loved this movie. The opening scene is absolutely amazing.

 

[David Illingworth II]

Someone please post when they have found the outtakes! On the commentary, Bryan Singer mentions the outtakes several times and says they're on the dvd. I hope they are included somewhere.

 

[MatS]

Haven't listened to the commentary yet but by outtakes could he not be refering to the deleted/extended scenes on disc 2, of which a few are hardly deleted or extended.

 

[Darren Haycock]

Sorry Dan, I didn't notice any such "jumpiness" issues...

 

[Ray H]

Didn't notice any jumps either. Is it really obvious?

 

[Sean Laughter]

Got the disc and like a moron bought the fullscreen version instead. I didn't realize it until I opened it and started taking the disc out and it said "Fullscreen: Disc 1." I've NEVER had such a hard time returning something to Best Buy. At first they said I couldn't return it because of "copyright law" even though I bought it like fifteen minutes before and was exchanging it for the same movie only in a different format.

They finally relented but they insisted on opening the wrapping of the new case and giving me the old case with the new disc in it. After I pointed out how it would look odd to Fox to have a fullscreen disc shipped back to them in a widescreen box they decided to give me the widescreen box with the widescreen disc. Unfortunately, the woman had taken a pen to the plastic wrapper (as if she didn't have five inch long fingernails anyway) and the plastic cover of the disc has been wripped by the pen. But I certainly don't want to go back to that damn place.

Is this copyright law thing true? Sounds pretty ridiculous to me. I can the see the rationale if I were wanting to exchange it for a different movie, but exchanging it for the same movie negates any pirating issues I would think.

Anyway, love the movie, love the disc, even though I haven't been able to watch all of the extras yet.

 

[Dan Kaplan]

Darren and Ray, thanks for the replies. Yeah, I would rate it highly obvious. Unlike anything I've seen.

I'm assuming it's some sort of defect on my disc, but I don't understand the nature of it, seeing as how the audio never seems to skip or be off. The first couple times, I thought it was some strange MTV-style filming, but 50 skips later...

Dan

 

[George_W_K]

Dan,

That stinks. No problem with jumpiness here either. I hope you don't have Sean's problem with trying to return it.

Sean,

Maybe try a different Best Buy sometime. I ahve two stores near me, but go to the one that's about 2 miles further because of the employees. I hate to stereotype the neighborhood, but in this case all of the stores in the particular neighborhood this Best Buy is in have horrible employees. Anyway, when Saving Private Ryan came out, I bought the DTS version. Unfortunately, I didn't have a compatible player at the time so I decided to return it in exchange for the DD version. Best Buy didn't give any kind of problem at all and I did open it. What the hell would returning a movie have to do with copyright laws? If you returned it for $$$ then I guess they could say you burned yourself a copy, but to exchange for another one? Got me stumped.

Anyway, jsut watched this movie again and it was still very enjoyable. Three times at the theater, three times at home, and still counting!

 

[Paul_Scott]

i am trying so hard to resisit watching this twice in the same week

 

[Darren Haycock]

Why bother resisting? Watched it first day it was available, then on Thanksgiving with family...

 

[Tin-Lun Lau]

wow..the menu screen look alot different than the menu screen on the japanese version.

 

[Lewis Besze]

When I saw it at my local THX Certified theater, I *SWEAR* that most people could not even breath because the bass was so powerful, it was making people uncomfortable. This strong bass was throughout the entire movie. I specifically remember the end

That's because they were pounded with 40hz boom that most theaters goers confuse with real bass.A B4+ "based" HT will have far superrior extension and amplitude below 35hz comapred to any commercial cinema.The reason is the huge auditorium[no room gain],which is next to impossible[impracticle really] to get a real good extensions,which is demanded by modern soundtracks these days.The original cinema THX standards were limiting the sub's output to 35hz,where after it was rolled off,this was carried over to home THX,which was changed years later with THX Ultra 2.

 

[James W. Johnson]

Unfortunately, the woman had taken a pen to the plastic wrapper (as if she didn't have five inch long fingernails anyway) and the plastic cover of the disc has been wripped by the pen.

Sean, that is horrible, I would have lost it myself has she done that. I would have demanded yet another disc. It looks like you let BB have the upper hand of this conversation at some point and they spotted your weakness and then took advantage of it. Next time try and stike abit of fear into whoever it is that you are talking to , let them know who is boss...remind them that it is you who makes their paychecks possible.
They dont lose anything on returned discs so there is no reason for them to have treated you so poorly.

 

[ernie.bin]

Unfortunately, the woman had taken a pen to the plastic wrapper (as if she didn't have five inch long fingernails anyway) and the plastic cover of the disc has been wripped by the pen.

I had this happen when I had to exchange my 10th anniversary edition ninja scroll. she opened the new one with a pen that cut into the cardboard case with a 3 inch gash

I had to ask for the old case back, but she had bunged that one up a bit to by trying to open up the side of the cardboard rather than just sliding the insert out of the other side.

(this was at futureshop). How can people working in a music/dvd store not understand how to open up a package without damaging it?