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X-Men 1.5
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Year: 2000
Rated: PG-13
Film Length: 104 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (2.35:1)
Subtitles: English & French
Trust a few. Fear the rest.
The X-Men were a really different sort of
Super Hero group that got their start in September
of 1963. Stan Lee had originally planned to call
this group "The Mutants" but later settled on the
name "X-Men" because it had a special unknown feel
to the name. This series followed the adventures
of five young Super Heroes: Cyclops, Angel, Iceman,
Beast and Marvel Girl. The group was headed up by
their wheelchair-bound telepathic mentor, Professor
Charles Xavier. They were people just like everyone
else, who happened to be born with an extra abilities.
Though it was an innovative idea, the comic book was
not an immediate success. Around 1975, the title was
revived with new characters and by the 1990s, THE
UNCANNY X-MEN had become Marvel’s number-one seller.
When fans originally learned that there would be
a film made based on their favorite X-Men
heroes, there was much concern -- especially for
the fact that it was being directed by Bryan Singer
(The Usual Suspects), who never read a single X-MEN
comic before embarking on the project. Would Singer
successfully be able to do justice to a concept that
had millions of fans? This was the most difficult
task facing director who was about to produce a
$70 million blockbuster film for the studio. In a
compromised decision that pleased both studio chiefs
and fans, the film focuses on a portion of the
characters and feats that have been chronicled in
four decades' worth of comics.
So what characters would be chosen to make up the
list of good guys vs. bad guys? On the good guys
side we find Cyclops (James Marsden), who fires
destructive blasts from his eyes; Storm (Halle
Berry), a beautiful white-haired woman able to
control all weather elements; Jean Grey (Famke
Janssen), a telekinetic doctor; Rogue (Anna Paquin),
who can absorb the life-force of another person
through touch; and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), a
mysterious man with keen animal senses, the
ability to heal himself, and equipped with razor-
sharp metal claws that pop out of his hands. This
X-Men operation is headed up by wheelchair-bound
Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart). The bad guys
include Magneto (Ian McKellan) and his Brotherhood
Of Evil Mutants -- Sabretooth (Tyler Mane),
shape-shifter Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos)
and tongue-lashing Toad (Ray Park).
Taking place in the not-too-distant future, we
find that certain humans are evolving into Mutants,
finding themselves with special and unique powers.
This raises the concerns of many ordinary citizens,
especially Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison) who feels
that the Mutant population is dangerous. He is
pushing for a law that requires all Mutants to be
identified and registered.
Enter Rogue, a frightened teenage runaway who has
discovered her Mutant powers that absorb the essence
of other human beings. She has nearly killed her
very first boyfriend, and now finds herself on the
run and seeking shelter. When she happens to come
upon a bar, she meets Wolverine, an abrasive loner
who has no recollection of his past or how he came
to have razor-sharp claws that pop out of his hands.
When these newly acquainted Mutants fall under
attack in the Canadian wilderness by Magneto's
henchmen, they are rescued by the "X-Men" and
taken to Xavier's stronghold, where they are
offered an opportunity for a better life in a
school for the gifted. Meanwhile, Magneto and
his henchmen -- Sabretooth, Toad and Mystique are
plotting to turn the world’s leaders into mutants
using an elaborate mechanical device hidden inside
the Statue of Liberty’s torch.
X-MEN managed to pull off the impossible.
Fans were mostly pleased that Director Bryan Singer
and Producer Tom DeSanto had remained generally
faithful to the original comics. Of course, the
movie introduced the comic book legends to a
legion of new fans who readily embraced the film
and helped pave the way for more Marvel-based films
like Spider-Man and The Hulk.
The original DVD release vs.1.5
From the moment the original DVD was released
in November 2000, fans were upset over the fact that
they were not given a longer Director's cut. At
the time, we were told that while the studio had
been working closely with Bryan Singer on the
project, that there was a rush to get such a DVD
out to consumers.
Many fans of the film have been hoping for a
totally re cut directors version. One of the
earliest rumors was that not only would we be
getting a brand new film with the deleted footage
cut back in, but new footage would be shot and
intercut into the original film, tying us in with
the upcoming X-MEN 2 story line.
This brand-new X-MEN 1.5 release is quite
disappointing for fans in that it doesn't live up
to its original hopes and anticipations. There
is no newly-shot footage here. While there is
an enhanced viewing mode that allows viewers
to branch off and watch deleted scenes, these
scenes are not presented anamorphic, resulting in
sudden picture ratio shift.
There have also been a few extras dropped that
were in the original DVD release. At a glance I
see the The Charlie Rose Show interview with
Bryan Singer was dropped as well as a FOX TV
featurette.
So why am I still excited about this new DVD
release? In addition to the inclusion of a
commentary by Bryan Singer, there are these really
terrific production pieces that you can branch
off to while watching the film. I'll talk more
about these features in a moment.
X-MEN 1.5 arrives as a brand new 2-disc
Special Edition. The slick new packaging is
quite attractive with its black box, red and
silver highlighting, and cover that is adorned
with X-MEN characters, Wolverine, Mystique and
Storm. Inner packaging slides out to reveal a
3-pane foldout that holds the 2 DVD discs in
plastic housing and a collector's booklet (that
was not available in this preview copy).
How is the transfer?
To this day, I still regard Fox's original DVD
release of X-MEN to be the studio's finest
transfer. This new X-MEN 1.5 is basically
the same transfer as the original, which is just
fine, because one shouldn't mess with perfection.
I have always regarded the overall look of the
X-MEN transfer as "professional." It has a
very polished and professional feel to it. Everything
is just perfect. Images are razor-sharp with a
background totally free of grain and noise. Colors
are warm, accurate and perfectly saturated. Flesh
tones are dead-on perfect. Black levels are richly
deep, giving this film immense texture. Night scenes
never lose their detail nor introduce any objectionable
blemish or artifacts. In short, this film looks like
a fine painting from a renowned artist.
Most welcome in this Special Edition is a brand-new
5.1 DTS mix that is a remarkable improvement over
the Dolby Digital mix for the fact that you can really
sense that the sound field has been expanded upon,
no longer sounding as compressed as the 5.1 mix did.
This mix is extremely active, with a barrage of sounds
hitting the viewer from every direction. Let's begin
by talking about the excellent sound design of this
mix. As would be expected, dialogue remains in the
center channel, as the front channels provide clean,
robust, full-bodied audio. Michael Kamen's score
warmly wraps itself around the entire listening area
with some nice additional bass support from the LFE channel.
If you could take a look at my 3 pages of notes
that I took while watching this DVD, you would see
most of it is taken up by short sentences that
describe the use of surrounds. There is so much
surround activity going on here, and some of it
takes full advantage of 5.1's capability to offer
360-degree surround. Take for instance Xavier's
whispered voice that moves around the room, circling
the listening environment. During the Cerebro
sequence, the room comes alive with haunting
wraparound effects that stimulate the overall
viewing experience. Even Toad's thrashing tongue
offers an interesting wraparound effect that comes
out of nowhere. Every creak, every thud, every thump
is so well pronounced here that you'll be just
amazed at the clarity of this DTS soundtrack. For
me, just hearing Sabretooth's growls reach out
across 5 channels was enough to put me in audio
nirvana.
Special Features
As you would expect, Fox has included a very loud,
and over-the-top animated menu sequence that begins
with the camera piercing an icy-looking Fox Logo
and worm-holing into an electrified Main Menu
screen. Very well done!
Disc One contains the Main Feature. I am
guessing that most people who are buying this set
are already familiar with the film itself, so I
strongly suggest on this second viewing to immediately
go into the Special Features area and turn
on the Enhanced Viewing Mode.
In Enhanced Viewing Mode two symbols will
appear throughout the movie. A forward slash inside
a circle indicates one of 6 deleted scenes.
Click ENTER on your remote to branch off to
that scene. As I have mentioned previously, these
scenes are not in anamorphic, thus you will see an
annoying shift in aspect ratio. The deleted scenes
aren't particularly great, comprising mostly of
material that slows down the overall pace of the
film. There's more material at Xavier's school
that covers the children being taught physics and
shop as well as short dialogues between Xavier and
Doctor Grey concerning her wants to expand her
own powers. Most of this is just mere extensions
of scenes that already exist.
What I really enjoyed were the 17 production pieces
that are scattered throughout the film. These raw
video pieces really give the viewer an intimate look
at what went on behind-the-scenes. Some of the
production material includes...
* A large cast of extras assemble for the film's
opening march that takes place in a Poland camp.
We watch actors being fitted for wardrobe and having
their heads shaved. Bryan Singer is shown giving
final instructions to his cast of extras.
* Stunt work being coordinated for the bar-room
cage match where we are first introduced to Wolverine.
* A wonderful little piece where on an extremely
cold sound stage, Bruce Davison belts out a little
sailor's ditty to the amusement of Rebecca Romijn-
Stamos.
* We watch Bruce Davison, just having escaped his
imprisonment, hanging from a wall constructed on
a large sound stage. Bryan Singer gives him
instructions on how to better his reactions.
* My favorite moment: Bryan Singer taking some
time out on location to talk with a very inquisitive
little boy. It shows just how warm an individual
this director is.
* Crew putting together final touches on a model
of New York City that the X-MEN use as their point
of attack diagram.
* Really cool look at the filming of the movie's
final suspended prison scene where Xavier and
Magneto play a game of chess and exchange words.
There really is a wealth of production material here,
all of it cleverly placed at the exact point in
the film that you would want to see it. Those
watching X-MEN for a second time will find
this new Enhanced Viewing Mode an exciting,
new theatrical experience.
Also new to this Special Edition is a full-length
commentary from Director Bryan Singer who
is a bit uncomfortable doing these sort of things
so has asked friend Brian Peck to help him out.
It's interesting to note that the Press release
I received notes that actors Patrick Stewart, Ian
McKellan and Hugh Jackman are involved in the
commentary, but they are absent here. Brian begins
by talking a little about the true genre of this
film which is science fiction rather than a goofy
cartoonish film. Singer states that it was very
important for him to make this film as serious as
possible as not to insult the comic book fans who
have taken things even more seriously. Singer
readily admits that he was never a fan of comic
books nor did he read the X-MEN comic prior
to the film, but he has always wanted to make a
movie in the science-fiction/fantasy genre. It
was actually producer Tom DeSanto that brought the
project to Bryan Singer and set up a meeting with
the folks at Marvel comics. When Stan Lee showed
up at the initial meeting, everyone hit it off very
well. For a director that initially admits he was
nervous about doing a commentary, he warms up to
it very quickly, giving us an endless excited ramble
that is very interesting to hear. Scene by scene,
Singer dissects everything that is happening not
only on screen, but behind-the-scenes as well,
pointing out some of the interesting cameos. Some
great stories are told here including the fact
that another actor was slated to play the part of
Wolverine, but when he was suddenly lost to another
picture due to scheduling conflict, Hugh Jackman
was flown in from Australia and immediately given
the role. Another story involves the contact lenses
that Tyler Mane (SyberTooth) wore that made him
go completely blind for a day, resulting in enormous
pain and bandages that had to be worn around his
head. What about the scene where the Senator faces
Magneto just before coming "mutated"? Bryan talks
about how it was shot totally outdoors at a park
in Toronto on a very cold night. Couldn't have that
been that bad for the director as Rebecca Romijn-
Stamos was totally naked on the set during the shoot.
Singer fondly talks about his obsession for circles
and tube-like objects, many of which you see
throughout the movie. During this commentary, Bryan
gives us many hints as to what you can expect in
X-Men 2, especially when it comes to the
characters and many set designs that will be re-used
and touched up for the sequel. You can tell by the
amount of material I have covered here that I just
thoroughly enjoyed listening to this commentary.
Bryan Singer is just a joy to listen to, and Brian
Peck is just so familiar with the material that he
acts as a great moderator. Well worth a listen!
Let's go on to Disc Two that begins with
a really cool introduction by Bryan Singer, standing
on the set of X-Men 2. You have to hand it
Bryan who admits he isn't fond of putting out a DVD
for the second time (wish the studios share that
philosophy), but feels that fans will enjoy the
extra material here. I won't spoil what happens
next, but Singer does something rather special with
a brass band, giving an added touch in introducing
this Special Edition.
There are a handful of new featurette pieces
presented here, all with the ability to branch off
to related additional materials. You have the
option of turning on the branching or accessing
the material through indexes on a menu.
The Uncanny Suspects primarily deals
with the cast and characters they portray. It
humorously begins with Patrick Stewart, Ian
McKellan, Hugh Jackman, James Marsden, Bruce
Davisen and Halle Berry (and just about the
rest of the cast) all admitting that they came
into the project not knowing a thing about the
comic book. Producer Ralph Winter gives a lot
of credit to Singer's ability to be very thorough
with the logic that is presented in this film and
being very careful to deal with his material in
a very intelligent manner so that the film serves
the most loyal fans, even though Singer didn't come
out of that type of audience. Bryan talks a little
about the blessings and curses that make up each
mutant character as the actors who portray these
characters give their own individual insights.
Hugh Jackman talks about the responsibilities (and
honor) of playing a character like Wolverine who
is such a hero to so many people. Halle Berry
was just overwhelmed by being part of a film with
such extensive visual effects and stunt work. You
can see how elaborate this production was as we
go behind-the-camera and watch many of the exhausting
hours put into this film. There are so many
characters here and so much activity going on the
set at one time, but within it all, this featurette
reveals that there was a real bonding between
the ensemble, despite the fact that there have been
stories to the contrary.
(length: approx. 24 minutes)
In case you chose not to enable the branching
sequences, a separate menu lets you access Hugh
Jackman's first reading and screen test
alongside Anna Paquin.
A Character Gallery contains what seems
to be dozens upon dozens of original concept
drawings for the X-MEN characters.
A Production Diary Scrapbook is a raw,
fly-on-the-wall look at the daily grinds of
producing a movie. From production meetings,
studio exec tours of the film's set, designing
Xavier's wheelchair to scouting out film locales
(in a pre-9/11 NYC), this featurette is pretty
damn cool. One of my favorite moments is watching
Singer take a tour of the Statue of Liberty,
vocally planning out the film's action sequences
as he goes along. Intertwined with this raw footage
is some interesting interviews with the actors,
particularly McKellen and Stewart who seemingly
complain about the director's inexperience. Some
cool stuff to look at here, including how debris
was dumped on waiting passengers on a train station
set while Sabretooth is flown on wires, giving the
illusion he is knocked into a back wall. This
diary ends on the film's scoring stage where a
near-panicked Bryan Singer has just learned that
Fox has pushed up the release date on the film.
(length: approx. 63 minutes)
In case you chose not to enable the branching
sequences, a separate menu lets you access
multi-angle presentations of 4 different
camera shots from the Train Splitting
sequence, and two camera shots from the Fight
Rehearsal between Hugh Jackman and Tyler Mane.
Finally, The Prime Minister of Canada makes
a visit to the set. There's not much for us to
see here and once you blink, it's all over.
X Factor: The Look of the X-Men introduces
us to makeup supervisor Gordon Smith, who talks of
the importance of properly replicating the exact
look of the original comic characters through
both make-up and wardrobe. Hugh Jackman talks
about the small hairpiece appliances that were
attached to his sideburn and cheek areas to give
him a more "feral" look. We watch in amazement
as Tyler Mane sits in a make-up chair having a
wig, make-up and prosthetics added in order to
turn him into a believable Sabretooth mutant. The
beautiful Rebecca Romijn-Stamos talks about having
to sit through 7-8 hours of make-up. Two-thirds
of her body were covered with prosthetic scales
(over 100 in all), which were very thin and moved
quite well with her own natural movements. Though
it wasn't uncomfortable for her to wear the thin-
layered suit, it did require a high amount of
maintenance once it was put on. As this featurette
comes to a close, we once again learn the importance
of costuming, trying to make this film as serious
as it can be, rather than having it filled with
goofy-looking red and yellow spandex characters.
(length: approx. 22 minutes)
In case you chose not to enable the branching
sequences, a separate menu lets you access costume
tests for Cyclops and Storm as well as Toad's
Make-up Test.
An Image Gallery contains what must be well
over 100 still images divided into categories,
Hardware, Magneto, Locations and Xavier's
School.
The Visual Effects of The X-Men introduce
us to Effects Supervisor Michael Fink who immediately
sets the record straight on what his job entails, and
that is, coming up with creative ideas for sequences
that will tell a story. We are taken on a sound stage
where effects people are working on the sequence
involving Magneto's mutating machine that is located
in the torch of Lady Liberty. Next, we learn how
3D geometric computer animation contributed to
Mystique's shape-shifting. My favorite portion of
this featurette was watching how through movie set
and animated computer processes, effects work was
put together for Cyclop's disastrous laser eye
blast. Really good stuff here!
(length: approx. 17 minutes)
In case you chose not to enable the branching
sequences, a separate menu lets you access the
Effects breakdown for Senator Kelly as
well as multi-angle short featurettes that give
you an animatic film and composite
breakdown of the following sequences: Liberty
Head, Toad vs. Jean Grey, Wolverine vs. Mystique
and Wolverine vs. Sabretooth.
Reflection of the X-Men reveals how uncertain
the filmmakers were about how successful this film
would be -- especially for the fact that Fox
unexpectedly pushed back the release date and there
was just so much effects work to be completed. After
shooting for 5 1/2 months, most of the cast thought
they were complete nuts for doing this film,
expecting the film to be a flop. Of course, history
proved X-Men to be one of the most successful
films of its kind.
(length: approx. 8 minutes)
In case you chose not to enable the branching
sequences, a separate menu lets you access the
Ellis Island Premiere as well as Premieres
Around The World.
In Marketing The X-Men, we get 3 original
film trailers, 9 TV Spots and 9 Internet
Interstitials.
Now....let's look ahead....
Want to see a bit of X-Men 2? Well, let's
begin with director Bryan Singer taking us on a tour
of the film's set. In a videotaped interview,
Hugh Jackman talks about how the bar has been raised
on this new film's special effects. Patrick Stewart
teases us about a "very dramatic incident in
Washington D.C." (the mutants must have agreed on
Health Care reform no doubt). We see quick glimpses
of production on the film intertwined with final
footage. Perhaps the best part of all this is watching
the film's teaser trailer that comes at the very end, warning us, "A War has begun."
(length: approx. 8 minutes)
Finally, a trailer for the upcoming movie,
Daredevil is included.
Final Thoughts
The big question to many of you who already own
the original DVD release is whether it is worth
purchasing X-MEN 1.5. The bad news is that
this is certainly not the Special Edition that
we all had been hoping for. I would have preferred
branching with deleted scenes that were presented
in anamorphic, allowing a more seamless way of
watching the film. How about a full-blown director's
cut? There are so many other things that could
have made this Special Edition an easy sell.
Still, I must say that I very much enjoyed watching
this film in a more aggressive 5.1 DTS environment
while going through the really cool production
features that are branched off throughout the film.
It is my guess that once again deadlines had to
be met in order to get this DVD product out before
the May 3rd arrival of X-MEN 2. Because of
the limited time Bryan Singer had to the production
of this DVD, I doubt he had the opportunity to do
much more with it.
Tell you what. If you are still undecided, let me
give you a little incentive to buy this set....
The DVD also contains a Movie Money coupon worth up
to $12 for admission to Daredevil starring
Ben Affleck, or X-Men 2
There you go. Sold!
Release Date: February 11, 2003
All screen captures have been further compressed.
They are for illustrative purposes only and do not
represent actual picture quality
