Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical: 20th Century Fox
Blu-ray: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Disc:
Region: A
Runtime: 122 min
Chapters: 18
Size: 50 GB
Case: Standard Amaray Blu-ray case
Release date: December 2, 2008
Video:
Aspect ratio: 2.35.:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: AVC @ 20 MBPS
Audio:
English DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1; Spanish & French Dolby
Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English SDH, Spanish, Korean, Cantonese & Mandarin
Extras:
• Theatrical & Extended Cuts
• Audio Commentary by Rob Bowman, Chris Carter, Frank
Spotnitz and Daniel Sackheim
• Original 1999 Audio Commentary with Rob Bowman & Chris
Carter
• Bonus-View with PIP 4-person panel commentary
• Blackwood: The Making of The X-Files: Fight the Future
(19:30)
• Original Making-Of Featurette (26:53)
• Visual Effects (8:49)
• Alternate Bee Sting Scene (2:19)
• Scoring (5:03)
• Gag Reel (2:41)
• Still Galleries
• Enhanced for D-Box Motion Control
The Film:
It's difficult to watch the opening bombing of a building in
Dallas without thinking of both the Oklahoma City Federal
Building bombing of 1995 and, of course, the WTC in 2001.
The movie comes halfway between the two events, and watching
the film now takes a while to get into a story about aliens
when this same kind of terrorism domestically and abroad has
such a human face to
it just now.
In any case, I suspect that despite the buzz (hmmm) about
the movie before it opened, it is likely to be more
interesting to fans of the genre than to fans of the series,
into which the movie comes at roughly the halfway point
(September, 1993-May 2002). And even though Scully is
seriously threatening to break up the duo and retire to
serious doctoring (which seems like an extension of the some
aspect of the series), the movie is best thought of as an
expanded standalone episode with cool special effects in
widescreen and kickass sound – or, at least, killer bee,
sound.
The Movie: 6
If you are familiar with TV series or the British TV
Quatermass series or movies, then you have a good idea
of the basic set-up here. Aliens came to Earth in our
pre-history, and have been waiting in the ice for the right
moment to assume their place, using humans a s a source of
protein. In more recent times, a group of people have been
secretly working on a vaccine to protect the species. Seems
these guys don't feel that the people of our planet are
ready to hear about all this so they keep their work secret
to the point of murdering anyone who gets too close. Mulder
& Scully enter through the side door, as usual, soon after
one of these aliens is awakened accidentally.
Image:
7/8
The first number indicates a relative level of excellence
compared to other Blu-ray video discs on a ten-point scale.
The second number places this image along the full range of
DVD and Blu-ray discs.
Variable bit rates from high teens to mid-20s. Image is
clean and sharp, but overlaid with a fine fuzz that wouldn't
be much of a nuisance on a display less than 60 inches. I
found the cavernous, shadowy alien hideout under Antarctica
to be difficult to make sense of from a visual point of
view, even though I can fully understand that there wouldn't
have been much point for the scientists to light it for
unexpected visitors.
Audio & Music:
7/7
The first X-Files movie has lots of noise. With its
explosions, helicoptering and large caliber automatic
weapons fire, the Blu-ray certainly has opportunity to
exercise the surrounds and bass elements. Yet, even with the
help of a DTS HD-MA mix, it remains a touch compressed and
flat, never quite opening up as it might. Bass effects seem
just that instead of being a natural extension.
Operations:
4
I don't think I've encountered the likes of such murky
operational instructions (except on the identically laid out
2008 X-Files Blu-ray movie.) I mean, I get the dramatic
point, but I didn't much care for keeping everything a
secret until you get there, and even then it's hard to read.
Extras:
6
In addition to the Making-of documentary and Carter/Bowman
commentary from the DVD, Fox has included a new second
commentary for the Blu-ray (adding co-writer Frank Spotnitz
and co-producer Daniel Sackheim to Carter & Bowman) that can
also be watched in BonusView Picture-in-Picture mode. The
PIP amounts to little more than talking heads, but it does
help to sort out who's speaking. While we would expect a
certain amount of overlap, the big difference is that the
earlier commentary featured the series' creator and hands-on
exec producer, Chris Carter, talking about his philosophy
about the series and how the movie fit in with the series
itself. The new material is more nuts and bolts about
production and has the perspective of having the second, and
possibly last, feature film from these filmmakers.
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Bottom line:
6
I watched this and this year's X-Files movies back to back
on Blu-ray and admit to a slight preference for the first
film – this despite that Fight the Future just about falls
apart in the finale in Antarctica at so many levels. As for
the image, the older movie is easier on the eyes because of
its locales and lighting, and, despite my carping about the
image earlier, it is much better than merely acceptable. If
you have an early non-anamorphic DVD rendering, the time has
come to move up.
Leonard Norwitz
December 9th, 2008
