Audio & Music : 9/7

Considering how pumped up the image, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of subtle ambience cues, such as the sounds of action going on well outside the prison cell where Logan and Victor are first interviewed by Stryker, and the differently realized acoustic for the actors depending on their location. This is something that many audio mixes either get wrong or pay little attention to. The carnival was nicely rendered, too. The timbre of the calliope, a mere passing image, was nailed perfectly. All the big action bits are almost too noisesome to comment on intelligently; suffice to say that they offer plenty of heft and clang but do not deafen.

Operations: 6
The disc is fairly fast-loading, previews can be bypassed with one click of the remote. The menu hides the extra feature contents, but not as singularly as some. As for Bonus View, the following advisory: Do not adjust your set, these programs can be awhile into the feature before they get under way. Unlike Universal's U-Control, there are no "Instructions' on board the disc as to how to what makes these special or how to use them, nor does there appear to be any way to move from one to the other without re-booting the movie via the main menu. It's not like having to re-load the disc, but it can be a nuisance.

Extras: 9
Whatever we night think of the movie, the X-tra features should please the fans. There are two feature length commentaries, one with the director, Gavin Hood (who seems a well intentioned chap – actor turned director, to wit: Tsotsi and Rendition); the other by the two producers, Lauren Shuler Donner (wife of Superman director, and X-Men co-exec-producer, Richard) & Ralph Winter (who have been with us since the first X-Men movie in 2000).

The featurettes include: Wolverine Unleashed, which gets into the backstory of how the Origins movie came to be; The Thrill of the Chase, which offers a closer look at the helicopter chase; A Conversation with Stan Lee (the comic book originator of X-Men) where Stan talks about the Origins idea; and several deleted and alternate scenes wit optional director's commentary. My favorite for content and production is Weapon X Mutant Files where several of the mutants used as weapons by Stryker are showcased. Each one, plus Stryker, introduces him or herself in a slickly produced quasi-advertisement. All of these featurettes are in easy on the eyes HD. Kudos, Fox.

The Bonus View features (see more in Operations) are all PIP. First up is X-Connect where the connections of the characters and plot to the later X-Men movies are elucidated. The Director's Chair, as expected, is hosted by Gavin Hood, who gets into the nuts and bolts of production, casting, character and story. Pre-Visualizing Wolverine storyboards the occasional scene for extended periods of time (pretty good, this one – it helps that the drawings are clearly presented). X-Facts pop up from time to time to offer – hmmm, let's see – X-facts. Works for me.