X-Men DVD Review

You can't knock the quality of this 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer. Faced with a huge variety of lighting conditions, colours and special effects, the disc copes marvellously. Detail is high throughout, blacks are solid and there's no sign of digital distortion. A textbook example of what DVD can offer.

Oddly enough there's no choice of soundtracks, just the standard THX-approved Dolby Digital 5.1 track. But as with the picture, this is a textbook example of how to do it. Check out Chapter 9 where Sabretooth's growl will make you jump out of your seat when it comes from behind you, Storm's lightning blast rocks your subwoofer and a tremendously dynamic crash as Sabretooth goes through the wall. Michael Kamen' score forms a solid underpinning to a soundtrack which shows enormous energy and imagination, and which never fails to embellish clear dialogue with the most potent surround effects. A magnificent job.

The menus are extremely dull, with no animation or scoring, but you do get an excellent selection of extras including an extended branching version of the movie, a Bryan Singer interview, six theatrical trailers and TV spots, a trailer for Titan AE, a soundtrack promo, a promotional featurette, a Making of... featurette, Hugh Jackman's screen test, animatics, an art gallery, and 11 subtitle tracks. The Easter Eggs present on the R1 edition are still there; in the Art Gallery menu, highlight Wolverine's dogtags for an extra art gallery, and in the Trailers menu, highlight the Knight graphic for a spoof Spider-Man outtake. About all that's missing is the THX Optimode setup sequence. A terrific selection, but we had been led to expect more. So we'll score the extras here conservatively.