X-Men: Days of Future Past

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

The Rogue Cut for many will be the definitive version of Days of Future Past. It adds character, motivation, and cohesiveness to the story. Is any of it necessary? No, the Theatrical version (also included on this disc) tells the exact same story, just tighter. But this BluRay has more than enough substance to be worth the purchase.

In terms of the Rogue Cut itself, what we have is a film that – at 17 minutes longer – breathes just a little bit more. The direness of the future is expanded upon with additional dialogue, an emotional scene between Raven and Hank (who only had an occasional glance in the theatrical version) gives us more development into their characters, and a last-attempt rescue brings Rogue in to help focus Wolverine in the past when he most needs it. Bringing Rogue into the film was unnecessary, but the way the sequence is cut together – with Old Magneto breaking into the mansion to rescue Rogue while Young Magneto breaks into the pentagon – is beautifully shot and edited. We also get more suspense and action which was missing coming into the climax of the original.

When it comes to supplemental material, this version far surpasses that which was found on the original. Two separate commentaries (for both versions) are provided, which were not found on the original. And few bland making-of featurettes from the original have been replace with a 90-minute 9-part documentary. The gag reel from the first is missing, though it wasn’t very interesting the first time around. And to round it off, there is also a sneak preview of the upcoming F4.

If you already have the first BluRay, or you don’t consider yourself to be a hardcore Superhero Film/X-Men fan, you’re probably fine sticking with last year’s release. If however, you waited or want a more complete version of the film, the Rogue Cut does not disappoint.

-Cassidy Knight

THE FILM: I’ll just cut to the chase. Was it worth the wait for this longer cut of X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST? Yes, and no. While not essential in terms of the overall story arc, the additional scenes with Rogue give some more time to the future timeline and restore some balance with the 1970’s timeline. However, I sincerely feel like only Rogue fans (and apparently there are plenty, otherwise they wouldn’t have released this) will appreciate that it’s her. The most significant addition is a cool sequence which has Magneto and Iceman rescue Rogue from Xavier’s school, which has been taken over for research purposes with Rogue as the test subject. Besides that, there are some additional character/dialogue snippets. Rogue’s function in this longer cut is to replace Kitty Pryde when she is severely wounded during one of Wolverine’s fits. I actually thought this made quite a bit of sense, although the difficulty they have to go through to procure her probably didn’t. Other little changes I noticed was an alternate version of a short scene where Wolverine tells Beast he doesn’t survive in the future, and a humorous mid-credits scene with Bolivar Trask in Magneto’s former prison. Ultimately, I feel about the same way about both cuts. The Rogue Cut feels a little more complete, as there is more weight placed on the future timeline and therefore more events can play in parallel. However, aside from the rescue sequence, Rogue merely functions as a plot device and doesn’t really add anything to the overall story. For non-Rogue fans, the theatrical cut will probably do just fine although this longer version does have its merits.

THE EXTRAS: There is actually quite a bit more material here than was provided with the “Ultimate Edition” that I reviewed last year. On the feature disc, there are separate audio commentaries for each cut of the film. That alone makes this worth a purchase, in my opinion. As for the featurettes, the 50-ish minute “Mutant vs. Machine” hit a lot of the same beats as the collection of featurettes in the previous release, although there was additional interview footage that went into information specific to the Rogue Cut. More valuable and insightful, in my opinion, was “X-Men: Unguarded,” which was a 30-minute informal round-table discussion with much of the cast, and led by Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg. It was interesting to me to hear the cast candidly discuss their experiences on the films and working with each other. One thing I did notice at the end was the 2014 copyright date, so this feature could have potentially gone on the previous release, but I guess they wanted to save some stuff for this. Beyond all of the above, there are additional galleries of storyboards, costumes and concept art, as well as a mostly worthless “sneak peek” at the upcoming FANTASTIC FOUR movie.

OVERALL: The question on most people’s minds is “Should I get this or not?” The answer to that is yes, regardless of whether or not you shelled out for the “Ultimate Edition” last year (which had the 3D version of the theatrical cut). With this “Rogue Cut” release, you get both versions of the film in 2D, along with commentaries for each, something that even the previous releases did not have. The special features in general are all unique to this version, although this probably won’t matter to people who just watch the movie. For those who held out this long, the “Rogue Cut” is the one to get. For everyone else, there is enough new material here to warrant a double dip.

– Robert Hayes

Days of Future Past is one of the top-tier X-Men films in my book, coming in only behind Logan. This film does a comendable job of trying to connect both the original trilogy and the First Class cast into one film. Even though this is the film that really screwed up the timelines, and makes it hard to watch the X-Men films in anything other than the release order, it still comes through with solid acting and a decent script. The action set-pieces are great and everything seems to click. The Rogue Cut is a nice, longer version that completes the narrative a bit, though it’s not really necessary.

– J.A.

DVD Wholesale Main Features :   

Actors: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Hugh Jackman
Format: Multiple Formats, NTSC, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Dubbed: French, Spanish
Region: Region A/1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 2
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: July 14, 2015
Run Time: 148 minutes

1