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The X-Men saga continues onto Blu-ray Disc and Special Edition DVD with digital copy on September 15th. Wednesday 20th Century Fox previewed the new special features that will be included in the different editions as well as announced a feature never been available on Blu-ray. X-Men Origins: Wolverine Blu-ray version comes equipped with Fox’s new LIVE LOOKUP with information from IMDb.
LIVE LOOKUP allows users to select an actor’s photo in the scene they are currently watching and instantly view the actor’s information, past credits and future projects. The idea is simple. Every time the user inserts the disc, users with BD-Live enabled Blu-ray players will be instantly updated with current data from IMDb.com.
By using LIVE LOOKUP user may select snapshots taken of actors as they appear in the movie making it simple to find. Also, users may search by actor or character name. The feature includes above-the-line crew, cast shooting locations, genre information and the film’s release date. Basically, the basic information provided on IMDb.com is displayed.
This is a great concept, but may be making us a little too lazy. I’m fine going on my computer while watching the movie and looking up the information there. This seems rather pointless to me, however an option is available to reduce the size of the image so the information does not cover the film. Nonetheless, I am more excited about chat and movie related forums being available via BD-Live. What’s too much information though? Director and producer Gavin Hood was also not sure what’s too much to have on the DVD including extras and so forth. Other people involved with the making of the special edition versions expressed how research has shown that this is what people want, but it still seems odd that people want to view actor information during the movie. I guess if you can do it, why not?
The bonus material seems normal, but I do find it interesting you can view a version of the film without all the effects and such in place. Kind of curious if this is similar to controversial leaked version that made newscast prior to the opening of the film.
Nonetheless, Fox has much anticipation for this release as the franchise has already made 1.5 billion dollars at the box office and X-Men Origins: Wolverine still hasn’t opened in Japan. The filmmakers involved seemed excited to continue the Wolverine story in many more movies to come. Going to be interesting who gets to make the films though due the Disney acquisition. No matter who makes the future Wolverine films, I hope Gavin Hood stays on board. He is very into the character and tries to relate it as much as possible, and maybe too much, toward our own life mutations. It’s a little deep and I will stay out of it. I’m sure he will go into depth about this on the bonus features.
Blu-ray Disc Specs:
50GB dual-layer disc authored in BD-J with AVC (MPEG 4) compression. French/Spanish and English audio and subtitles.
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 Stan Lee and Len Wein
o “Wolverine Weapon X Mutant Files Featurette: 10 Character Chronicles”
o “The Thrill of the Chase: The Helicopter Chase Sequence” featurette
o X-Facts: Trivia Track
o Deleted Scenes with commentary by 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
Digital copy
The Two-Disc Special Edition is similar with a few less items. Most notably missing is the 53 minute “Wolverine Weapon X Mutant Files Featurette: 10 Character Chronicles”.
