X-Men 1.5 Extreme Edition [DVD] [2000]

The Extras:

Disc 1 contains seven behind-the-scenes featurettes and six scenes deleted from the final cut of the theatrical release. Director Bryan Singer also provides an audio commentary (previously unavailable on the original DVD release) in which he discusses the movie, the difficulties filming it and provides the odd insight into the sequel. Plus Disc 1 also includes six extended scenes which can be incorporated into the main feature although these are not new, having been previously available on the original DVD version.

Disc 2's main feature is a (making of) documentary Evolution X, which pretty much covers the complete process of making the movie from pre-production meetings, costume fittings, through to the Ellis Island premiere. This, for many, will be a very interesting insight into the process of how a movie of this scale is brought together and exactly what goes on behind the scenes, with plenty of stress and gnashing of teeth from the film-makers.

Additional disc 2 also includes Hugh Jackman's screen test and a promo for the sequel. Whether you feel this enough to tempt you into buying X-Men 1.5 will depend on whether you already own X-Men on DVD, whether you buy DVDs for the extras (personally I don't) and how big an X-fan you are. The choice is yours!

The Movie:

Having special powers sounds great (you might think) but in X-Men the mutant race is an oppressed and persecuted minority, due to the bigotry, ignorance and fears of much of the non-mutant population. To make matters worse an ambitious and influential Senator (Bruce Davison) wants to introduce a registration policy for mutants in an attempt to further restrict their civil rights. Divided in how best to respond to this, the mutant community is split into two camps led by Professor X, aka Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto, aka Erik Mangus Lensherr (Sir Ian McKellen). Magneto believes in the supremacy of the mutant population, which he is willing to use force to prove, whilst Professor X merely wants, equality, integration and peace. With fundamentally opposing views the two camps are set on a collision course with the future of the human race at stake.

X-Men is an entertaining action movie and it has some great fight scenes but it is pitched at its intended mass audience and carefully falls short explicit violence making it pretty much suitable for all but young children. However, although the X Men movie comes from a comic book background and is definitely aimed at a mass audience it also has a message and is a lot more highbrow than most super hero adaptations. X Men for example opens with a scene in a Nazi concentration camp with a young Magneto witnessing his mother being shepherded off to the gas chamber and from this it is pretty clear that Director Bryan Singer is deliberately making a point and drawing a comparison. It is also worth noting that at the time of the X-Men's creation, back in 1963, among the major political figures in pre civil rights America were Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and it is easy to draw comparisons with Professor X and Magneto. Comparisons can also be drawn between X-Men character Senator Robert Kelly and a certain Senator McCarthy. What is more, X-Men is particularly pertinent at a time when there is so much tabloid speculation and scare mongering with regard to genetic engineering.

With X-Men Director Bryan Singer, a self-confessed fan, has stayed remarkably loyal to the comic books and has served up a commercial but extremely enjoyable film with impressive special effects, which has inevitably spawned a sequel and (in all likelihood) a franchise, which makes me for one very happy. Full of great characters and great performances from the likes of Hugh Jackman (as Wolverine), Anna Pacquin (as Rogue) and Famke Janssen (as Dr Jean Grey) and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (as Mystique). However, it is the excellent pairing of the Royal Shakespeare company's McKellen and Stewart opposite each other that really adds gravitas to the proceedings and my only real dissapointments were seeing the excellent and beautiful Halle Berry (as Storm) being under-used and the relatively short running length of 97 minutes.

X Men 2 hits our screens later this year,with the pre-release hype promising it will be bigger, better and more exciting. With several new X-Men, including Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler and Brian Cox as new nasty bad guy, General Stryker, if this one lives up to the hype it will be something special.

Four stars ****

I loved the first film and am happy to look at getting the special edition because of its extras.
Lets make no mistake, this is easally a £30 special edition for half that price.

This double DVD pack is well worth looking at if you are either a die hard fan or just someone who came across X-Men for the first time with the release at the cinemas of the first movie and liked what they saw.

I must stress that this DVD, namely X-Men 1.5 is better than the first standard edition release by a long way.
If you are the type of person who goes into a shop and looks down the isle and looks for something that stands out from the rest, be it in colour, picture or in price then there's a stronge chance you've already seen this on the shelves with it's crystal red cover. It stands out from everything else on the shelf because of the way it's been designed. There is a very good reason for this, it IS better than everything else on the shelf, it has the one thing that you can't get an P.R company to add, CLASS. The whole measmo of the DVD shouts that you've got something special infront of you.

On to the actually box:

The front of the box has it's main selling point right in the open, in the way of a large sticker stating "OVER 10 HOURS OF EXTRAS & A SNEAK LOOK AT X2"

The re-vamped film itself has all the things that were left out from the first release, extra scenes, cut dialogue and all the little things that you'd never know existed had this DVD not come into being.

It has an extremely generous in length look at the making of X-Men 1. This whole extra runs for around 2 hours and looks at everything from the casting of the film to the sets, scenes and making of the props that everyone sees but you don't think about like Professor X's Chair or Magneto's helmit.
You also get some rather funny scenes where actors and crew are just being themselves but are dressed as there charactors which makes you wonder if they really are as cool as you first thought. A good example would be where four of the X-Men are called on to jump over a small stone wall with the strength and grace of their charactors, but, as these are really people who are wearing full body suits made of NEW leather that has still to stretch and not super heros who can fly it's amusing to see Hugh Jackson, (Wolverean) having trouble even raising his leg, at which point he fallsbackwards over the wall with all the grace of humpty dumpty which leaves everyone else in the cast and crew watching stumbling around in fits of laughter.
Hearing the mighty Wolverean (Hugh Jackman) shout for Storm (Halle Berry) to give him a hand up as he's stuck on his back like an upturned turtle and can't get up again is histerically off charactor.
You also get to see the actors talking about the way they worked with each other and the fun they had. there was a scene where we saw the making of a scene where two of the X-Men are in a train carrage that is under attack. The filming is going well until when a small spark of electricoty turned into fire raining down on them, which weirdly enough left Hugh Jackson, (Wolverean) running in fear of the scene he was in. (Poor Mr Jackson, he has so much fun on the set but he's not our super sharp clawed hero, :-)

Now usually these sorts of extras are added to 'bulk-out' a special edition of DVD but with this little gem it adds to the whole look of the thing, it ooses class and you can see right from the get-go that the people who made this film enjoyed every minute of it.

(Oh, I nearly forgot. You actually see the Director of the movie sign the contract which transfers 80 million dollars from the production company to him,(god help him if he looses THAT cheque). This is all done on a rainy night standing on Ellis Island over looking the statue of liberty under a black unbrella, how un-hollywood is that!
It all goes to show that these are real people and not super human like there charactors)

If you haven't got the first film then you can really do no wrong in looking at this edition.

If you are a fan of Special editons that get released months after the enitiol standard release then this is definatley one of the top 5 SPECIAL realeases.

As always, please do take this review into consideration but look at what others have said also as one persons point of view isn't always the right one for you, but, I can assure you that you'll find no better copy of this film anywhere.

It is a Special Edition in every way.

Hope you'll give it a chance.