/Witness the Xtraordinary on DVD
On November 25th, the best film of the summer becomes the must-own DVD of the year. The two-disc, special edition DVD of X2 : X-Men United arrives in stores everywhere, packed with explosive bonus features, a stunning digital transfer, and both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround sound.
When a space bamfing mutant breaches security at the White House, the evil Charles Stryker seizes the opportunity to get the President’s support to declare war on the mutant’s of the world. Using a mutant inhibitor drug, Styker manipulates the imprisoned Magneto to reveal secrets of Professor Charles Xavier’s Cerebro computer, which allows Xavier to track every mutant in the world.
Armed with the secrets of Cerebro, Stryker starts his military operation against the mutants, attacking Professor X’s secret base for mutants. The midnight raid on the base brings Stryker face-to-face with Wolverine – confronting Wolverine with his creator – as it was Stryker’s experiments that created Wolverine.
Magneto orchestrates a spectacular and brilliant escape from his special cell, seeking revenge on Stryker. But the stakes are raised when Stryker manages to capture Professor X, using his mind controlling abilities to take control of all the mutants in the world. The mutants, both good and bad, have to unite to rescue the imprisoned Xavier and defeat their common nemesis, Stryker.
But can the X-Men trust the evil genius, Magneto? What kind of strange hold does Magneto have over the young Pyro? And what sacrifice is Jean Grey prepared to make in order to save the X-Men?
Bryan Singer’s visionary direction makes X2: X-Men United the most daring and action-packed film of the year. Visually dazzling but with a strong story to anchor the fast-paced action, X2 is the ultimate sequel.
The Hottest DVD of the Season
The smash hit action film that sizzled at theaters dares consumers to bring home the Special Edition DVD and VHS on November 25, just in time for the holidays.
This Twentieth Century Fox film phenomenon features an array of characters that vibrantly spring off the screen, much like in the recent Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story is stunningly realized by an all-star cast of box office gold: Academy Award®-winner Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Academy Award®-Nominee Ian McKellen, and Academy Award®-winner Anna Paquin.
Bigger than the original X-Men and over 800 special effects sequences, the movie alone is worth its weight in gold. But Fox has pulled no punches in issuing this two-disc Special Edition DVD! Packed to the brim with special features, it is sure to heat up even the coldest heart this holiday season.
X2: X-Men United arrives in stores Tuesday, November 25, priced to own: DVD ($29.98 US/$43.98 Canada) and VHS ($22.98 US/$28.98 Canada), and will be available wherever you buy or rent movies.
Special 2-Disc Set
The state of the art 2-disc DVD is presented in Widescreen (Aspect Ratio 1:33:1) and Fullscreen with English 5.1 DTS, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French and Spanish Dolby Surround sound.
Additional DVD special features include:
11 deleted/extended scenes
26 revealing still galleries
Theatrical trailers
Full length audio commentary by director Bryan Singer and cinematographer
Tom Sigel, full length audio by producers/writers commentary
“Nightcrawler Attack” interactive multi-angle scene study
“Wolverine/Deathstrike Fight Rehearsal” In-Depth, Behind-the-Scenes
Exploration
“The Second Uncanny Issue of X-Men” : The Ultimate making- of documentary
Extraordinary X2 featurettes, including – “The Secret Origin of X-Men”: A
Complete Anthology, “Nightcrawler Reborn”: The Adventure Before X2,
“Introducing the Incredible Nightcrawler”
Character study, “FX2”
Spectacular visual effects guide, and many more!
The special edition VHS features never before seen footage and four deleted scenes.
Behind the Scenes
X2 opened May 2nd 2003 to a number one box office position.
Before helming the big-screen adaptation of X-Men and X2: X-Men United, director Brian Singer garnered huge success with the edgy thriller The Usual Suspects and the adaptation of Stephen King’s Apt Pupil.
Singer actually makes a unique cameo in his current film. As Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) is going through the files in William Stryker’s (Brian Cox) computer, she goes through the pictures of the guards in Magneto’s (Ian McKellen) prison. The second to last picture shows the director Bryan Singer, complete with guard uniform. His name is shown as “Singer, B”.
As an homage to one of Bryan Singer’s favorite films, Pyro’s (Aaron Stanford) custom-designed lighter features a shark-tooth motif referencing Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. Spielberg, along with Robert Altman, sponsored Singer’s membership in the Director’s Guild of America.
Bringing such details as Pyro’s lighter to life in X2: X-Men United was the responsibility of production designer, Guy Dyas, who had previously worked on such films as Matrix: Reloaded, Planet of the Apes (2001), Pearl Harbor, and Swordfish, which also featured Hugh Jackman.
While Jackman was filming the X2 corridor run (in which he is nude and backlit), he turned the corner and found the female cast members, including James Marsden’s mother, waiting for him, hooting and waving dollar bills. Fortunately for Jackman, he was assigned a nutritionist before the start of the film and had bulked up by twenty pounds for his role as Wolverine. Jackman related this story shamelessly to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show.
Because production designer Dyas didn’t care for the design of Cyclops’s visor in the original X-Men, he used a 3-D scan of actor James Marsden’s head to redesign Cyclops’ visor for X2. Using lighter materials, the new visor gave the actor more freedom of facial expression. Marsden’s visor redesign pales in comparison to what Rebecca Romijn-Stamos had to go through on the set, since makeup for her character Mystique took five hours to apply. But even this is nothing when one considers that Alan Cumming had to endure eight hours of makeup to become Nightcrawler – blue makeup, sharp teeth, tattoos and all.
Kelly Hu had her own struggle: growing her nails. Lady Deathstrike’s claws were glued to the bottom of Kelly Hu’s own fingernails, and the actress had to grow them out so that the claws would fit snugly. One of the longest scenes to shoot was the fight between Lady Deathstrike and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), which took three weeks! Now that’s some healthy nail growing time.
The Wolverine/Lady Deathstrike fight is one of the highlights of the film, especially because of its fantastic setting. However, several sets for the film were not used, including several areas of that same locale – Stryker’s underground compound. One room in Stryker’s underground base was going to be the scene of a Nightcrawler versus Toad fight.
One other set that fans of the popular comic book series are dying to see is the Danger Room where the X-Men practice and train with their powers. The Danger Room made it to the conceptualization phase of X2 but was quickly shelved, possibly because of time constraints. Perhaps fans will get to see the Danger Room in the third part in the series, which Twentieth Century Fox has already slated for a 2006 release, with Bryan Singer again at the helm.
When asked about directing X2, Singer said: “With this one, I could have more fun with the characters and make a slightly deeper, bigger, funnier and more romantic movie.”
Published: Nov 23, 2003 01:34 pm