Blu-Ray Review - X-Men Days of Future Past

The Film:

Released back in May of this year, X-Men Days of Future Past is based off of the 1981 comic arc of the same name though big changes have been made for this film version directed by Bryan Singer who makes his proper return to the X-Men franchise after having to abort his plan to do so for 2011's X-Men First Class to honor his commitment to Jack the Giant Slayer for Warner Brothers.

This film sees Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) go back in time to 1973 (1980 in the comic) to prevent the assassination of Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) who will go on to create the Sentinel program which has almost exterminated the entire Mutant race in the future but reuniting Charles (James McAvoy) and Eric (Michael Fassbender) to accomplish this goal will not be easy.

I really enjoyed this film when I saw it in cinemas though it has to be said part of me was reluctant walking into it partly because while I greatly enjoyed the first 2 X-Men films that Singer had directed the ones without him were either fine (First Class) or forgettable (The Wolverine) or bloody terrible (X-Men 3 and Wolverine: Origins) and coming out of it and thinking about the film in the day or two afterwards it really grew on me and I became reminded of the big impact the first 2 films had on me.

I've also began to think of these films particularly the ones Singer has had a hand in making as being much more Sci-Fi oriented than Comic Book oriented which I would say the non Singer films feel more like in terms of their tone and structure, his direction is also fantastic and he keeps a very tight rein on the film as it runs the risk at times of everything just falling apart into a great big mess as screenwriter Simon Kinberg's script gets very clunky at times and the film has some great music and editing by John Ottman as well as nearly every major actor in the film bringing their A game to the piece.

The Video:

Presented in 2.35:1 which was the original cinema aspect ratio, the film looks near faultless on Blu-Ray which is combination of muted 70's colors, stock footage which was a great move by Singer and his DP Tom Sigel and colorful futuristic scenes.

Speaking of which, the colors in this film especially in the future scenes are just gorgeous and watching them on the disc really made me think I was looking at a cinematic comic book on screen which did have strong colors in some of their panels plus the look of the 70s is near spot on with its boxy cars, stock cameras and carefree attitude which by contrast the 60s in First Class looked almost too clean for my taste whereas here you can see the grime and the grain of the period at times, this is a great transfer.

The Audio:

Presented in 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio this is a fantastic sound mix with a very nice balance of the loud action scenes and the quiet dialogue moments which sometimes on Blu-Ray releases can be a problem as you almost always have to adjust the audio so it's not too loud during the action scenes and not too quiet during the dialogue moments.

That is not the case here as you can very easily leave it on a consistent volume and not worry about having to change it and that is very reassuring as sometimes having to do that can take you out of the viewing experience your wanting to enjoy though watching films at home is fraught with problems sometimes which is why I'll always prefer the cinema experience as you can sit in a dark room for a couple of hours and let the wider world fade away with the sound of a projector going off.

The Extras:

There are a small handful of extras here so let's get into them:

1981 Days of Future Past Comic: I got this little beauty as the pre order bonus from one of the Australian retail outlets and boy I was glad I did as this was a very interesting read even though its only 2 issues and it shouldn't take you more than an hour to finish reading.

And talk about some MAJOR changes from this version for the film first of all Dr Trask is nowhere to be seen as is Bishop (who was invented for the version the 1990s animated series did of this story) there are only 6 X-Men on the team in the story (which should put to bed the notion that there are too few on the team in the movies) and also Ellen Page's character is the one that goes back instead of Wolverine who is one of those 6 X-Men as is Storm in the comic and as I said it is 1980 and 2013 that are the respective past and future time periods the story takes place in.

After I read it I also began to think about the version created for the animated series in the 1990s which like this film version has the basic story structure and framework but also makes its own fairly big changes Bishop being first and foremost who also appears in a small role in the film version and there is a specific Sentinel named Nimrod in that version as well which takes the role that the futuristic Sentinels play in the film version not to mention that its 2055 and the 1990s that are the future and past time periods this version of the story takes place in.

The reason I bring this up is that some of the reviews I read for this film were complaining about the fact that so much was changed from the comic version to the film version and while Marvel Studios themselves have had success in translating their specific comic properties to the big screen in a way that feels like the comics themselves we sometimes need to remind ourselves that translating these books to film can sometimes be tricky.

And to wrap this point up X-Men Apocalypse which will be the next film after this one I expect will follow down the path that Days of Future Past has crafted here in that I feel elements from both the animated series version of that storyline (which did have Apocalypse and his four horsemen in the present day as well as Mystique being a servant of that character though not as one of his Four Horsemen) as well as the Age of Apocalypse comic which was written a couple of years later so there is room for Singer and his team on that front and boy oh boy can I not wait to find out.

With that out of the way let's dive into the disc based extras:

Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Bryan Singer: 5 Deleted Scenes are presented here and each are presented with an optional commentary track by Singer.

Quite frankly the 5 scenes presented here had no place in the film at all and they also weren't that interesting either save for the alternate ending of the film which while fun to watch Singer felt he wanted to change for its "been there told that" feel and that he wanted to change the story for X-Men Apocalypse so if you hear anything about Hugh Jackman being Wolverine in that film do not be surprised in the slightest.

Sadly the much discussed Rogue scenes are absent here and this section feels incomplete without them as quite frankly I was more than happy to just see those scenes presented here instead of cynically putting them back into the film to squeeze more green blood from the film's financial returns and for my money it will play out like 99.99% of extended versions, special editions and director's cuts of films in that it will be fun for one watch and then you'll think "Yeah you were right to cut it in the first place."

Gag Reel: A fairly standard gag reel that is mainly worth a watch for Jennifer Lawrence mugging for the cameras and showing more of her fun loving side that has made her a charming presence in the movies in recent years, she is definitely someone I would enjoy hanging out with that's for certain.

Kitchen Sequence: Sadly this is not a featurette about the creation of the famous Quicksilver scene but a 6th deleted scene which Singer suffered fron an ulcer during the shooting of and had to not speak at all and direct his actors via iPhone notes (some of which were in the director's issue of Empire magazine a while back)

He explains the scene and shows us some outtakes from directing it where he talks in a very high pitch voice which makes Lawrence laugh and then the scene itself which like the other deleted scenes presented here it was best left out.

Double Take - Xavier and Magneto: This is the first of 4 featurettes about the making of the film and this one focuses primarily on the 2 sets of actors who play Xavier and Magneto in the film.

X-Men Reunited: This second featurette focuses mainly on the origins of the film and how Singer wanted to get back the original cast to take part along with the First Class part.

Classification M: This third featurette focuses on the new group of mutants that are introduced in the film ranging from Quicksilver to Blink to Bishop and in a very nice touch Omar Sy and Fan Bingbing talk in their native tongue with subtitles to translate what they are saying.

Sentinels for a Better Future: This fourth and final featurette focuses on the creation of the Sentinels for the film and the combination of practical and digital effects to pull them off.

Trask Industries Galleries: 3 Small Galleries are present here that focus on the mutant profiles from Dr Trask's files to the Blueprints for the Sentinels and finally their construction for the film, these are nice but I wish the propaganda posters created for the film's advertising campaign were also present here as I thought they were quite good.

Theatrical Trailers: The films 3 theatrical trailers round out this small package of extras and these were quite good so it it's great to see them presented here on this disc.

Any Regrets:

Yup I've got a couple and they all relate to the extras package and first and foremost is that I wish Bryan Singer had gotten to record a commentary track for the film itself as he is a very fast talker in the Deleted Scenes commentary and he is clearly very passionate about the film but sadly I suspect his having to withdraw from the film's advertising back on its cinema release due to his legal battles may have prevented that from happening which is a shame.

The second is the absence of those Rogue scenes in the Deleted Scenes section which should have been here and lastly is that I wish the featurettes had been a 1 hour making of doco like the one made for the X-Men First Class disc release but given that the studios would rather everyone go to digital files for their films these days which to my mind has more to do with reasserting their control over distribution that the Video Revolution in the 80s took away from them I am not surprised at the next to zero treatment special features get on disc releases these days which is very disappointing as without a physical copy of a film for people to own I really don't see the point of a digital copy but that is a column for another time.

Overall:

X-Men Days of Future Past is given good but not great treatment on Blu-Ray with its rock solid A/V presentation but sadly fairly light extras package but still if you want to own it it is worth picking up but not with any major enthusiasm.