Blu-Ray Review: X-Men Trilogy - The Definitive Collection

You may find yourself wondering why Twentieth Century Fox released a X-Men box collection at the same time as their updated Blu-Ray release of X-Men: The Last Stand. But, it’s no different from any other trilogy film series. Both the Lord of the Rings and The Matrix did the same thing after releasing their last film to DVD. The X-Men Trilogy collects all three X-Men films (X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X3: The Last Stand) into one box set.

The original X-Men film kicks off with a runaway Rogue, who stumbles into Wolverine. The two join up with Professor Xavier’s X-Men as they enter the eternal struggle against Magneto’s Brotherhood and Senator Kelly’s mutant policies. This is the second best film in the trilogy. There’s a lot of exposition in this film, and it tends to drag on in the beginning. Also, cheesy dialogue plagues several of the scenes, especially with Storm and Toad’s character. Everyone will remember Toad’s infamously terrible line, “Don’t you people ever die.” It wouldn’t have been so bad, if he had actually done something to kill them – instead of just spitting slime at them.

X2: X-Men United is practically flawless from beginning to end. The story revolves around Wolverine and his journey to find out the truth about his sordid past. He unlocks the secrets of the Weapon X program, led by Commander Stryker. This film also has one of the most exciting superhero movie openings ever. If you haven’t seen it you need to. There is an exceptional scene where Nightcrawler spearheads an assassination attempt on the President.

X3: The Last Stand is unfortunately the worst film in this series. Bryan Singer, the director of the first two X-Men films, decided to not sign on for the third X-Men film and instead opted to work on Superman Returns. Brett Ratner was left to take over the directing helm and unfortunately had a troubled time really taking control of the story’s progression. The Last Stand was plagued by too many plot lines combined into one two hour film. The story revolved around several comic based story lines, including: Jean Grey’s struggle as the Phoenix, the mutant Cure with Angel, and the Juggernaut was thrown in just to “spice” things up. There were way too many mutants and too many robust stories for Ratner to handle at once, and the result was a mish-mosh of special effects and an overtly unbelievable climax. X3 still had its entertaining moments. However, The Last Stand would have been much better received had the creative team focused solely on the Cure or Jean Grey as the Phoenix. The third film dragged down the overall rating of this trilogy.

Each movie comes as a two disc set, with a third disc containing a digital copy. Most of the special features are in SD, which is a slight disappointment. There are no added special features from the original single film Blu-Ray releases. So, if you’ve already got your three X-Men films on Blu-Ray, this set is probably not be for you. The box doesn’t have a special design either to justify the “collector’s” cost. But, if you haven’t picked up any of the three X-Men movies yet, then the X-Men Trilogy is the definitive collection. The set is overloaded with special features, from behind the scenes footage and production commentary, to cool Easter eggs and delights for avid comic fans.

X-Men Disc One
- Commentary by Bryan Singer and Brian Peck
- Behind-the-Scenes Footage
- Deleted/Extended Scenes with Optional Commentary by Bryan Singer and Brian Peck
- Easter Egg: Blooper
- Fox Special: “The Mutant Watch”
- Bryan Singer Interview
- Animatics
- Art Gallery
- Three TV Spots
- Music Promo
- BD-Live: Wolverine Exclusive

X-Men Disc Two
- Disc Intro by Bryan Singer
- The Uncanny Suspects
- X-Factor: The Look of the X-Men – A look at the costumes behind the X-Men film
- Image Gallery
- Production Documentary Scrapbook
- The Special Effects of the X-Men – This is one of the coolest features as you’ll get to see how Senator Kelly’s body was manipulated into water.
- Reflection of the X-Men
- Internet Interstitials

X-Men Disc Three
- Digital Copy

X2: X-Men United Disc One
- Commentary by Bryan Singer and Tom Sigel
- Commentary by Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter, Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter
- Generation X: Comic Book History

X2: X-Men United Disc Two
- History of the X-Men
- Pre-Production
- Production
- Post-Production
- Deleted Scenes
- Galleries
- Locations and Sets
- On-Camera Graphics
- The Unseen X2

X2: X-Men United Disc Three
- Digital Copy

X3: The Last Stand Disc One
- Director and Writer Commentary by Brett Ratner, Zack Penn and Simon Kinberg
- Producer Commentary by Avi Arad, Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter
- HD Deleted Scenes (Optional Director and Writer Commentary by Brett Ratner, Zack Penn and Simon Kinberg)
- Enhanced for D-Box Motion Code Systems
- HD Easter Eggs: Beast Recites Shakespeare, X-Jet Lands in D.C.

X3: The Last Stand Disc Two
- Brett Ratner’s Production Diary
- X-Men: Evolution of a Trilogy
- X-Men Up Close – Interactive gallery with stills and video
- Generation X: Comic Book History
- Fox Movie Channel Presents: Life After Film School
- Fox Movie Channel Presents: Casting Session
- Anatomy of a Scene: Golden Gate Bridge in HD
- HD Vignettes
- HD Blogs
- Previz Animatics
- Galleries
- Easter Egg: Colossus Throws Logan Into the Camera

X3: The Last Stand Disc Three
- Digital Copy