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X-Files: Fight The Future (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Shane Roberts & Noor Razzak (4th January 2009). |
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The Film
 Following the closure of the "X-Files," FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) have been put on general assignment and are present when a terrorist bomb destroys a building in Dallas, Texas. Mulder’s investigations and reports provided by a paranoid doctor (Martin Landau) uncover information on some of the supposed victims of the blast that connect them to an outbreak of a possible alien virus that had been buried in an underground cave for 37,000 years and could destroy mankind. Sitting down to watch this film again for the first time in probably seven or eight years before writing this review I was pretty apprehensive for a few reasons; 1) as a long time "X-Files" (1993-2002) fan, would I like it as much as I did 10 years ago when I saw it during the height of the show’s popularity? 2) Would it still be watchable (i.e. make sense) as a standalone movie since I hadn’t just been watching season five (seeing as it was originally released theatrically between season’s five and six and was directly tied in) and 3) would it have dated badly as some of the TV episodes have through their production value, fashion and effects, etc? I needn’t have worried though as it has aged extremely well and if anything I was more impressed on this viewing. While plenty of TV shows have been done completely wrong as films like "The Dukes of Hazzard" (2005) and "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1993), some have got it mostly right such as the "Star Trek" films (1979-2009) in bits and pieces over a few films and the "Mission: Impossible" series (1996-2006) of films took the idea of the show and made three very entertaining movies but watered down the central team aspect of the show so Tom Cruise could be a bigger star. This is a prime example of how a show transferred to the big screen successfully in all areas. Director Rob Bowman, who was producer on 89 episodes and helmed 33 including "End Game", "Paperclip", "Jose Chung’s from Outer Space" and "Paper Hearts", some of the best loved episodes by fans, had had a long career in TV but, like the show itself, graduated to the big screen with this film. He took the bigger budget and screenplay by creator Chris Carter and expanded a typical "X-Files" story in all the ways that the series couldn’t (great production design, huge action scenes, exotic locations and state of the art effects by ILM) while keeping the feel of the show without it becoming just another wannabe sci-fi blockbuster. Mark Snow’s signature theme music on the show was always one of its strengths and it’s especially true on the movie with his full scale exciting film score highlighting every scene. Also reliably consistent on the show and carried over to the film is its great cast. After five seasons as Mulder and Scully, Duchovny and Anderson fit their roles perfectly and are supported by series regulars Mitch Pileggi and William B. Davis as well as guest stars Martin Landau, Terry O’Quinn, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Blythe Danner. Obviously more entertaining to fans of the show, this can still be enjoyed by first time viewers due to a strong introduction of the main characters and recap of their history. This Blu-ray release includes two cuts of the film, the original 'Theatrical Cut' and the 'Extended Cut' of the film. The 'Extended Cut' runs only 1 minute longer and features some additional dialogue.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 this image is delivered to fans in High-Definition 1080p 24/fps and has been mastered in AVC MPEG-4 compression codec. I've owned "The X-Files: Fight the Future" on three formats now, laserdisc, DVD (twice) and now on Blu-ray. Over the formats the picture quality improved, with the remastered DVD (with the DTS audio) being a significant improvement over the previous non-anamorphic transfers of days gone. And it was with great anticipation that I popped this disc into my player anxious to see this film in HD! Well I couldn't be anymore disappointed. To start with the sharpness is not entirely consistent, some shots appear soft and detail and texture suffer here whereas some shots look great like close-ups for example. Grain is all over the place, there is some evidence of digital noise reduction but it's as if the disc producers did a half-assed job of it as there's a lot of block patches of grain here and there. I found some edge-enhancement as well and color banding! While some detail is well preserved and colors actually hold up, I was shocked that the film still had some dirt and specks. Is this the level of quality we can come to expect from Fox's catalogue titles?
Audio
Three audio tracks are included in English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 mixed at 48kHz/24-bit as well as tracks in French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS-HD track. The audio is much better than the image quality; the aggressive DTS-HD track does make excellent use of the surround channels with action set-piece sound effects, well-placed directional effects and immersive ambient sounds as well as clear dialogue and well-integrated music. The sound track is loud and present and does a fine job of involving the viewer. Optional subtitles are included in English, Spanish, Korean, Cantonese and Mandarin.
Extras
Fox has packed this disc with a nice collection of extras that includes two audio commentaries, an alternate scene, four featurettes, a gag reel, a series of three galleries and three theatrical trailers as well as a bonus trailer, a picture-in-picture commentary and is D-Box motion code enabled. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is a brand new feature-length audio commentary by the film's director Rob Bowman, screenwriters Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz and producer Daniel Sackheim. Recorded for this new HD release (and also because a new "X-Files" has been released) these guys get together for the first time in a long time to talk about this film celebrating its 10th anniversary since its original release. It's nice to hear these guys in the same room together talking about the film; they cover a lot of bases considering they haven't seen it in a while. They seemed quite enthusiastic about the film and share their memories from the production; they cover the development of the story and on making the film during the height of the show's popularity. There's a fair bit of back-patting here and talk about how great everyone was, but it's enjoyable enough to listen to. You can view this commentary as a regular audio stream, but for those with profile 1.1 players or greater you can access the "Bonus View" picture-in-picture commentary featuring these commentators, video pops up as you watch the film and these guys talk about it, at this time this PiP options goes unreviewed. The original feature-length audio commentary from 1999 has also been included and features creator/screenwriter Chris Carter and director Rob Bowman. I was never really a fan of this track, both commentators were recorded separately and it's a slow and rather dry track that goes into the development of the film and filming but remains mostly technical. Fans might find something of interest here, as could film fanatics that are interested in the technical details regarding film production but for casual fans this track might prove tedious. Following that is an alternate scene entitled "Bee Sting" which runs for 2 minutes 18 seconds. This is another version of the scene from the film as Mulder tells Scully that she saved him and kept him honest as she storms out of his apartment, and then they share a kiss. Contrary to the title of the scene, no one gets stung. "Blackwood: The Making of The X-Files: Fight The Future" featurette runs for 19 minutes 30 seconds. This is a newly produced featurette, but it has been cobbled together using footage and interviews from 1998. There's some great behind-the-scene footage here for fans to sink into, and the major cast and crew comment on the process, on how they expanded the show into a big scale film production. But at the end of the day It's basically another EPK clip that covers the basics of the production, the production values, on working with each other and the challenges of making a feature film version of a beloved show among other things such as the aliens and make-up process. "Visual Effects" featurette runs for 8 minutes 49 seconds and takes a closer look at the effects used on the film, this includes a closer look at the various CG effects that were utilized to sell certain shots like the black oil, miniatures were also built for the building explosion as they couldn't blow up a real building and the compositing of the miniature into the live footage shot finally the clip also explores the creation of the bee swarm. "Scoring" featurette runs for 5 minutes 3 seconds takes a look at expanding the series score to feature-film and retaining that iconic tune. Composer Mark Snow comments on how it wasn't really that difficult to expand on the musical concepts for the film and on conducting the orchestra as the film's score was less synth-based than the series as we get a look at the creation and recording of it. It also takes a look at the creation of that now iconic theme music. "The Making of the X-Files Movie 1998" featurette runs for 26 minutes 53 seconds, this is the original EPK clip created back in 1998 for the release of the film and has also been included on the previous DVD editions of the film. The clip covers all the basics, story and plot elements, development and filming, the actors talk about their characters and getting to make this film and working with each other but on a grander scale. It's fluff that covers the basics. The disc also features a gag Reel which runs for 2 minutes 41 seconds, the reel features the usual stuff, actors laughing and not getting lines straight, missed cues and all that stuff. Up next are three still galleries that include "concept art" which features images of original production artwork created for the film, "storyboards" which features images of original story boarded shots for practically the entire film and also "unit photography" of shots taken for publicity purposes during the film's production. Also included are three theatrical trailer which include: - Theatrical trailer #1 which runs for 1 minute 18 seconds. - Theatrical trailer #2 which runs for 2 minutes 2 seconds. - Theatrical trailer #3 which runs for 2 minutes 18 seconds. There's also a bonus trailer for the sequel "The X-Files: I Want To Believe" which runs for 1 minute 27 seconds. Finally the disc also features the D-Box motion code, which can be enabled if your home theater has that capability.
Overall
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