Last week saw the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on DVD and Blu-ray. Available in three different editions (single-disc DVD, two-disc DVD, and Blu-ray), the back-story of fan favorite X-Man, Wolverine, is now yours to watch and enjoy in the comfort of your own home.
When Wolverine was released in theaters, we here at BSR! did a roundtable on the film (and a lone-review toting it as the greatest superhero movie ever), which you can check out everyone’s thoughts here. Here’s what I had to say about the film:
As fas as the movie itself goes, I tend to be a lot more forgiving with these types of comic book movies than most of my fellow nerds, and with this film it was no different. Was it great? Definitely not. It was however, a good mindless-action-popcorn movie; unfortunately this is not what it should have been. One of my main complaints was that they blew through the first 150 years of “Jimmy’s” life in the opening credits, I felt like there could have been more said about this. The part they did focus on was mildly interesting to me, but still left a lot unexplored and didn’t really paint Wolverine as the supposed “animal” that he can be; and this remains true throughout the entire running time of the movie. They leave the points they should have explored unexplored and focus on the most mindless parts with little substance.
The cast, aside from will.i.am, was good but horribly under-used. You hate to see good actors put into poorly written action movies. I was horrified at some of the lack-luster special effects throughout the entire movie so much so that I cringed at a few parts (Logan playing with his new claws in the bathroom mirror). And let me just say that I watched X2 a few days after I saw this movie and if you thought you could poke holes all throughout the plot of X-Men Origins, go watch X2 again… you’ll double the amount of plot complaints you already had.
All in all, if I am being perfectly honest, I don’t know what else to say about this movie. As a comic nerd, I was appalled at many parts of this movie, and as someone looking to be entertained for a few hours, I thought some of it was pretty cool. I don’t think anyone should not go check this movie out, as there are enough “Oh, it’s cool to see Wolverine do that on screen” parts to at least keep you mildly entertained and let you form your own opinion.
As far as the special features go, they are pretty standard: a few featurettes and commentaries that aren’t too exciting or interesting. The special features are so standard that I would almost recommend saving yourself the couple bucks and pick up the single-disc version as opposed to the two-disc special edition -but there is a pretty lively interview with Stan Lee. You can check out the full list of special features below.
I give X-Men Origins: Wolverine on DVD and Blu-ray a very mild recommendation. I wouldn’t rush out and buy the two-disc special edition right away, but for those who may have missed it in theaters I’d say it’s at least worth a rental. You can purchase any of the three editions over at Amazon.
Blu-ray Disc Specs:
The X-Men Origins: Wolverine BD is presented in widescreen on a 50GB dual-layer disc authored in BD-J with AVC (MPEG 4) compression with English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio and French / Spanish 5.1 DTS along with English / French / Spanish subtitles. Special features include:
• Disc One
o Commentary by Director Gavin Hood
o Commentary by Producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter
o The Roots of Wolverine: A Conversation with X-Men creators Stan Lee and Len Wein
o Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins
o “Wolverine Weapon X Mutant Files Featurette: 10 Character Chronicles
o “The Thrill of the Chase: The Helicopter Chase Sequence” featurette
o “X Connect and On Set With Gavin Hood” featurette
o X-Facts: Trivia Track
o Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Director Gavin Hood
o Alternate Memory Erase Sequence
o Alternate Tag Scene: Japan
o Fox Movie Channel Presents: World Premiere
o IMDB BD-Live technology
• Disc Two
o Digital Copy
Two-Disc Special Edition Specs:
The X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2-Disc Special Edition DVD is presented in widescreen with English 5.1 Dolby Surround and French / Spanish Dolby Surround along with English / French / Spanish subtitles. Special features include:
• Disc One
o Commentary by Director Gavin Hood
o Commentary by Producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter
o The Roots of Wolverine: A Conversation with X-Men creators Stan Lee and Len Wein
o “Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins” featurette
o Deleted and Alternate Scenes
o Alternate Tag Scene: Japan
o Anti-Smoking PSA: Bubbles
• Disc Two
o Digital Copy
Single-Disc Specs:
The X-Men Origins: Wolverine Single-Disc DVD is presented in widescreen with English 5.1 Dolby Surround and French / Spanish Dolby Surround along with English / French / Spanish subtitles. Special features include:
o “Wolverine Unleashed: The Complete Origins” featurette
o Anti-Smoking PSA: Bubbles