Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The "X-Men Trilogy" includes "X-Men", "X2: X-Men United" and "X3: The Last Stand".

One might say that Bryan Singer’s X-Men re-ignited the comic book film adaptation craze that has now gone full throttle. The first film was also the start of looking at the material in a more serious manner with true character development and drama. This trend continued with the follow up X2, which was actually better than the first film in my opinion. Ratner’s X3 was a bit of a disappointment though. It just seemed like they tried to pack too much into the film and the characters starting getting a bit cheesy. It is too bad too since the themes of the film had so much potential. Still as a trilogy this is still a great franchise and we’re seeing the Blu-ray release just in time to tie in to the first Origins film with Wolverine. Let’s just hope it doesn’t disappoint!

While this is the premiere of the first two X-Men films on Blu-ray it is not the first time they’ve been released to HD. I happened to own both of them on the D-Theater format. These new releases have a higher average bitrate for video and both are encoded in AVC whereas the previous D-Theater releases were MPEG-2. The differences are pretty slight though. The first film is still a bit on the soft side compared to the reference transfers on the market today. Fine detail is still excellent in close ups, but medium to long shots can look a bit soft and often times dated. The second film is a nice step up in fine object detail but actually looks a bit processed. At times the transfer can look a bit artificial in detail, but it is hard to tell if this is a side effect of the special effects. The image still isn’t quite as razor sharp as some of the best HD transfers out there, but it still packs plenty of depth and dimension. The third film has a grainier look than the other two films and the transfer looks identical to the previous Blu-ray release, which was excellent. Overall this is a strong showing of all three films, but just a tad below what I consider reference quality overall.

All three films feature DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks and all of them are full of imaginative action sequences that really open up the soundstage and deliver spectacular spatial design. I thought the first film was a bit front heavy in its design. Surrounds are used but not to the level I would expect and I thought there were some missed opportunities to open up the mix. Dynamic range is still impressive though. The second film is chocked full of great demo sequences and continues to be my favorite for sound design overall. Subtle cues, discrete surround use and intense bass extension all lend to a very engaging mix overall. The third film is also a powerhouse in the soundtrack department and features the most intensity when it comes to the low end and overall spatial design. All three deliver the goods, but the quality does vary a bit from film to film.

Each movie delivers a nice set of extras and all of the releases are three disc sets that include a digital copy of the film for portable devices. Extras include feature commentaries and extensive behind the scenes features that give a nice insight into the production of the films, their visual effects and some deleted scenes. You also get a look at the advertising campaigns, the history of the comics and more.

I was disappointed that Fox didn’t release the first two films of this series when they initially released X3 early on in the format. This new box set is a great addition to the format though and it was a lot of fun revisiting the first two films. Fans of the series will not be disappointed.