Review of X Men 2 (Special Edition)

Introduction

I must open up with a quick greeting to 2 very committed X-Men fans who in their student days would follow the TV series with devotion, despite the fact that it was broadcast early on Saturday mornings. Most people don`t tend to enjoy getting up early on Saturday mornings, most students (who may have had the odd alcoholic beverage during the previous evening) even less so. But then that just shows their commitment to the X-Men. Andy & Mark, we salute you.

On with the review then. X-Men is another idea from the Marvel Comics stable and the mind of Stan Lee. If you don`t know much about them, then the basic premise is that humans are evolving once more, this time into mutants with special powers. Mutants aren`t popular with the rest of the population, but Professor Charles Xavier has created a school for mutant children, to protect and teach them. The X-Men are based at the school, a group of mutants who have harnessed their powers to protect a world that hates them from Magneto, the bad guy who wishes to wipe out the humans.

Good and evil have already battled in the first film, and this sequel picks up largely where the first left off. And if you`ve not seen it then you`re missing quite a bit of story and quite a few "but didn`t so and so do so and so in the first film" moments. You have been warned.

This time round trouble is brewing once more after a mutant makes a direct attack on the president of the USA. The X-Men go to investigate whilst the US administration do what they do best - send in the troops and the heavy firepower to fight back.

The cast of the original film (Halle Berry, Famke Jannsen, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, are augmented with some new friends this time round, most notably the wonderful Alan Cummings (he always entertains me) and Brian Cox.

Video

A fantastic 2.40:1 anamorphic transfer which brings the film to life at home. You shouldn`t really expect anything less from a big budget blockbuster, but sometimes they let you down. Not this time though, a trouble free transfer with excellent colours, lots of detail and a distinct lack of any damage to the print.

This time round the location count has increased too, so as well as the familiar school we get new locations for our heroes to play in, including a jet, a family home, the White House and a dam.

Audio

A pair of top notch soundtracks in DD5.1 and dts. For me once again, the dts track was the winner, but the DD5.1 track is still a good one. Being a bit of a blockbuster, this is a film with a lot of sound to dazzle you with. From explosive action sequences to quieter, more reflective moments backed by John Ottman`s score, this is a good sound mix. As you would expect, dialogue is always clean and crisp.

As well as sounds associated with characters from the first film (Storm, Wolverine, Jean Grey), we have some new sounds to accompany Nightcrawler, and the meeting of Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike is an orgy of metallic noise. All in all, this is a feast for the ears.

Features

The first film was a bit of a let down in this department when released on DVD, but this situation was cashed in on with the recent release of X-Men 1.5, which improved that. This time round you have 2 choices, a single disc edition of X-Men 2, or a double disc one. The first disc is identical between the 2 releases.

Here`s what we get. On the first disc are 2 commentary tracks. Track number 1 features director Bryan Singer and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel. After listening to the Singer commentary track on The Usual Suspects, I was looking forward to this one, and it nearly lived up to expectation. They have plenty of information to share with you about shooting, casting and production in general, but at times they leave massive gaps, which always infuriates me when it comes to commentaries. Stil worth a listen though.

Track number 2 features producers Ralph Winter and Lauren Shuler Donner and writers Michael Doherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter. Once again they have plenty of information to share with you, including story ideas that never made it, and hints about what might happen next. Another good commentary track, and also worth a listen.

Now we swtich to disc 2, and there are tons of things on here, running to about 3 1/2 hours! They are split up into various sections and sub-sections, so here goes:-

History of the X-Men

The Secret Origin of the X-Men is a 15 minute featurette which gives you a brief history X-Men comics, including an interview with Stan Lee. Depending on your X-Men knowledge, you might know much of this already.

Nightcrawler Reborn is a shorter affair, featuring an interview with writer and artist Chuck Austen who was comissioned to write a new comic (am I supposed to say graphic novel?) to introduce us to Nightcrawler.

Pre-Production

Nightcrawler Attack - 2 minutes of multi-angle footage (people are still using this DVD feature which is nice to see) of the attack sequence, allowing you to compare animations with what was filmed and what was seen up on screen.

Evolution in the details: Designing X2 is an 18 minute featurette in which production designer Guy Dyas takes us around the sets used in the film, showing us some of the minute details that they try to get right to make everything look as good as possible. Very interesting.

United Colours of X has 9 minutes on the costumes from costume designer Louise Mingebach who talks about various designs, and also trying to put lots of Xs into the costumes. Much more interesting than you might think a discussion of costume would be.

Production

Wolverine/Deathstrike Fight - just a minute of rough footage of the rehearsal of this great fight.

The Second Uncanny Issue of X-Men: Making of X2 is where the real meat is at. This is a 1 hour "making of" job, presented by Bryan Singer. There`s plenty of behind the scenes stuff, discussion of the various action set pieces and interviews with all the key players. No studio PR fluff here, just a very interesting hour.

Introducing the Incredible Nightcrawler! We get 10 minutes about Nightcrawler and the ever-amusing Alan Cummings, who still manages to be funny after the proverbial "6 hours in make up" (and more than that on several occasions).

Nightcrawler Stunt Rehearsal gives us a 2 minute peek of the rehearsal of the scene that we watched from different angles earlier.

Nightcrawler Time Lapse - some sped up footage of a marathon make up session.

FX2 - Visual Effects has 25 minutes on the special effects, presented by Michael Fink (Effects supervisor). This was the only boring bit for me, as it was full of computers and people showing us what they do with them.

Post-Production

Requiem for Mutants brings us 10 minutes of John Ottman, once again doubling as both composer and editor on the film.

X2 Global Webcast highlights - 17 minutes of snippets from interviews from those broadcast on the web to promote the cinema release of the film. Lots of interesting snippets here, and they cut from one cast/crew member to another with at least 10 different people featured.

Deleted Scenes

Eleven deleted or extended scenes which are fine to watch but don`t really add much to the film so it`s wasy to see why they were left out.

Galleries

Loads and loads of artwork, images, concepts and photos, featuring costumes, sets and much more. A good example of a gallery if this is your kind of extra.

Trailers

The usual selection of trailers.

Phew, that was exhausting!

Conclusion

An excellent sequel on an excellent disc. All the hard work that Bryan Singer put in setting everything up during the first film begins to pay dividends as characters develop and storylines begin to flesh out and move on. There`s plenty of action set pieces to please the eye and ear as well as enough X-Men mythology to please hardcore fans but not put off the more casual viewer.

It`s a very enjoyable film with a much wider appeal than just comic book fans. The 2 disc DVD set is excellent, with nearly 10 hours of entertainment (that includes watching the film 3 times). If extras aren`t your thing, then the single disc version will suit you just fine, but this 2 disc set is the way to go for most I expect.

Highly recommended.