X Men (UK)

Now, I enjoyed the cartoon series and when this film came out last summer, I wanted to see it but never got round to.

So I decided to rent it instead from my local library (£1.55 for the whole week).

The film itself is very disappointing, it takes a while to get going as there is not much action until the ending. All the actors and actresses to a fine job, I just feel they could have made the film a little more action packed.

The picture and sound quality are superb (as expected) and the extras are quite good also, which adds a little to the DVD.

Don`t get me wrong, its not a bad disc, I was just expecting a better movie (which is what I buy DVD`s for). Average movie but a good all round disc, well presented.

One gripe is that the menus seem to take ages to load...maybe its just my Wharfie.

At least the movie is better than Batman Forever.

Missed this one at the cinema and bought it the day it came out on DVD expecting a special effects packed Sc-Fi fantasy movie, like the trailers showed it to be.
After a slow build up explaining the plot in depth about a war between mutants and the rest of humanity and so I was wondering where the action is.
With only two small battle scenes for the first hour it was rather disappointing and all the special effects fuelled action shoved into the last quarter of an hour the pacing of this film is all wrong. Don’t get me wrong, the action is staged perfectly and the acting throughout is good with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen giving good performances in the roles of Xavier and Magneto respectively. Hugh Jackman IS Wolverine.

The menus are a bit bland but well animated inside Cerebero and other locales from the film. The problem with these are that they take yonks to load (I was using the Samsung 511) and are boring once loaded.
The deleted scenes are fairly inconsequential and no, none of them contain any action.
The branching version is pretty stupid because some scenes are extended versions of existing scenes, so instead of inserting the missing parts into the finished version they show the same scene twice. (The scene in Logan’s bedroom with Jean Grey)
No commentary but interview clips Bryan Singer the director.
The trailers are good, all six of them and one for Titan AE.
The X-men featurette is just a pointless five minute advert with a few interview clips.
The Mutant watch feature is a weird way of promoting the film but is a lot better than the X-men featurette and is similar to the ‘Curse of the Blair Witch’ documentary on the Blair Witch DVD, in it’s style pretending that the events in the film are real.
Hugh Jackman’s screen test is an interesting addition to the DVD as he acts out the truck in Alaska scene.
The animatics show us the future of storyboards and it is funny to see how close the film kept to these. The sequences on offer are the fight in the train station and the fight on the top of the Statue of Liberty. Finally is the Still Galleries which are divided into two categories, character and set designs. Both have a good amount of stills and are of good quality.
There are two Easter eggs, on the trailers menu, highlight the chess piece and this will take you to an outtake with a surprise appearance from Spiderman.
The other is a still gallery that features two unused X-Men characters, the Beast and the Blob. This can be accessed from the still gallery menu by highlighting MAIN MENU and Pressing UP.
On the whole this film is good entertainment but could have done with more action.
Something the proposed sequel is sure to make up for.

Quite simply, the best superhero movie ever made.

These sorts of movies aren`t really my cup of tea, but the recently watched "Blade" and "Dark City" have turned my head a little. This film however, has turned it right back.

The worst crime of any fantasy film is taking itself totally seriously, and this one is incredibly po-faced. It`s even political and preachy in places (unforgivable). I found it very unexciting and an accurate description would be "power rangers for adults" (but with all the fun extracted!). It all seems like one big laborious set-up (as a franchise), but that obviously doesn`t make for pleasurable viewing. The sequel may redress the balance a touch, but I certainly won`t be in any rush to see it.

Although it attempts to be heavily reality-based, there`s just too much cliche and generalising for this to really work. They try and establish the belief that the good guys (and gals) are all thoroughly honourable, and the baddies are evil deplorable nasties (yawn). Even that wafer-thin premise was difficult for the filmmakers to maintain. They portray Mckellen`s character as almost reasonable in his thinking, but then abandon this halfway through because it`s easier to dislike him if he`s complete madman isn`t it?.

Dialogue is delivered in that ponderous "Sky One series" style that everybody seems to like and similar tones are evident throughout. There`s even a mis-placed "funny" in-joke about yellow spandex (my sides are still intact). Basically, it`s just too straight-laced for it`s own good and the overall entertainment value is much too low.

The disc on the other hand is a quality product all round, with the exception of the funerial paced menus. I wouldn`t recommend this title to anyone because the movie is so flawed and dull.

Look at it this way, if fans of the genre were disappointed, imagine how the rest of us must feel. Those who enjoyed it (whoever you are) will find plenty of entertainment on this DVD.

Expectations were high for this movie, so it's hardly surprising that I was a little disappointed by the outcome. Still this is a solid effort with a good all round disc to back it up.