<em>The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1</em> delivers strongly for the rabid fan base who have catapulted the young adult novel series and subsequent movie adaptations to the worldwide phenomenon that it's become, but it alienates a broader audience with a lack of any real action. Similar to the tone of <em>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1</em>, the first film of the two-part <em>Twilight</em> conclusion is heavy on romance, love, and turmoil but light on fight scenes and gruesome battles. The movie doesn't waste any time getting to the goods and opens with Bella and Edward's much-hyped wedding scene. It works--the vows are efficient and first-time franchise director Bill Condon (<em>Dreamgirls</em>) moves the party along quickly and amusingly with a well-edited toast scene and some surprisingly moving moments between Bella and her father, cast standout Billy Burke. The honeymoon plays as a slightly awkward soft-focus made-for-TV movie, with a lot of long moments spent staring in the mirror and some love scenes that feel at once overly intimate and completely passionless. It's a relief when Bella retches on a bite of chicken she's cooked herself and quickly concludes she's pregnant with a potentially demonic baby. From bliss to horror, the Cullens return to Forks, where Bella spends the second half of the movie wasting away and Edward and Jacob are aligned in their anger and frustration over her decision. Throw in some over-the-top scenes with Jacob and his pack--including a strange showdown where the wolves communicate in their canine form by having a passionate nonverbal fight in their minds (a plot point that works much better in print, it's portrayed in the film via aggressive voice-over)--and the film overshoots intensity and goes straight to silly. The birth scene is horrific, but not as gruesome as in the book, and by the end, Bella has of course survived, though is much altered. The final scene features a delightfully campy Michael Sheen as Volturi leader Aro and makes it clear that the action and fun in <em>Breaking Dawn, Part 1</em> is ready to start. Fans will just have to wait until <em>Part 2</em> to get it. --Kira Canny

Prepare for the Final Battle!<br /><br /> Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, is the final adventure in the Harry Potter film series. The much-anticipated motion picture event is the second of two full-length parts.<br /><br /> In the epic finale, the battle between the good and evil forces of the wizarding world escalates into an all-out war. The stakes have never been higher and no one is safe. But it is Harry Potter who may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice as he draws closer to the climactic showdown with Lord Voldemort.<br /><br /> It all ends here.



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<strong>Speacia Features</strong>

• Aberforth Dumbledore
• Deathly Hallows Costume Changes
• Harry Returns to Hogwarts
• The Hogwarts Shield
• Room of Requirement Set
• The Fiery Escape
• Final Farewells from Cast and Crew
• When Harry Left Hogwarts
• The Goblins of Gringotts
• The Women of Harry Potter
• Deleted Scenes
• Neville's Stand
• Molly Takes Down Bellatrix
• Pottermore Preview
• Warner Bros. Studio Tour London

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• <strong>Actors</strong>

Daniel Radcliffe, Ralph Fiennes, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Tom Felton, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, John Hurt, Rhys Ifans, Bonnie Wright, Jason Isaacs, Brendan Gleeson & Miranda Richardson

• <strong>Director</strong>

David Yates

• <strong>Certificate</strong>

12 years and over

• <strong>Year</strong>

2011

• <strong>Screen</strong>

2.40:1

• <strong>Languages</strong></li

It’s hard to see just where the Alien Anthology Blu-ray boxset could have been improved. Nominally a collection of the four main films in the franchise, what’s actually been bundled together here is one of the finest DVD or Blu-ray boxsets to date, boasting a series of features that genuinely go into a lot of depth about the movies themselves.

And what movies they are. Alien and Aliens are both exceptional pieces of cinema, and rightly regarded as classics in their own right. Alien 3 , meanwhile, has to be classed as an interesting and muddled failure, yet it’s still got a lot to like about it. Alien: Resurrection ? It’s perhaps the least ambitious of the four films, but in the early stages at least, it’s still with merit.

Each of the films is presently strongly, surprising given the variable DVD versions of each we’ve seen to date. But it’s the mammoth package of extras that set a template for pretty much every other Blu-ray boxset on the market. Spread across six discs, you not only get two cuts of each film, but you get extra features that are as impressive as they comprehensive. Presented brilliantly, it’s an unmissable box set, and you get at least two all-time classics as part of it. -- Jon Foster

<em>The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1</em> delivers strongly for the rabid fan base who have catapulted the young adult novel series and subsequent movie adaptations to the worldwide phenomenon that it's become, but it alienates a broader audience with a lack of any real action. Similar to the tone of <em>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1</em>, the first film of the two-part <em>Twilight</em> conclusion is heavy on romance, love, and turmoil but light on fight scenes and gruesome battles. The movie doesn't waste any time getting to the goods and opens with Bella and Edward's much-hyped wedding scene. It works--the vows are efficient and first-time franchise director Bill Condon (<em>Dreamgirls</em>) moves the party along quickly and amusingly with a well-edited toast scene and some surprisingly moving moments between Bella and her father, cast standout Billy Burke. The honeymoon plays as a slightly awkward soft-focus made-for-TV movie, with a lot of long moments spent staring in the mirror and some love scenes that feel at once overly intimate and completely passionless. It's a relief when Bella retches on a bite of chicken she's cooked herself and quickly concludes she's pregnant with a potentially demonic baby. From bliss to horror, the Cullens return to Forks, where Bella spends the second half of the movie wasting away and Edward and Jacob are aligned in their anger and frustration over her decision. Throw in some over-the-top scenes with Jacob and his pack--including a strange showdown where the wolves communicate in their canine form by having a passionate nonverbal fight in their minds (a plot point that works much better in print, it's portrayed in the film via aggressive voice-over)--and the film overshoots intensity and goes straight to silly. The birth scene is horrific, but not as gruesome as in the book, and by the end, Bella has of course survived, though is much altered. The final scene features a delightfully campy Michael Sheen as Volturi leader Aro and makes it clear that the action and fun in <em>Breaking Dawn - Part 1</em> is ready to start. Fans will just have to wait until <em>Part 2</em> to get it. --Kira Canny

<em>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I</em> is a brooding, slower-paced film than its predecessors, the result of being just one half of the final story (the last book in the series was split into two movies, released in theaters eight months apart). Because the penultimate film is all buildup before the final showdown between the teen wizard and the evil Voldemort (which does not occur until <em>The Deathly Hallows, Part II</em>), <em>Part I</em> is a road-trip movie, a heist film, a lot of exposition, and more weight on its three young leads, who up until now were sufficiently supported by a revolving door of British thesps throughout the series. Now that all the action takes place outside Hogwarts--no more Potions classes, Gryffindor scarves, or Quidditch matches--Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione), and Rupert Grint (Ron) shoulder the film almost entirely on their own. After a near-fatal ambush by Voldemort's Death Eaters, the three embark on a quest to find and destroy the remaining five horcruxes (objects that store pieces of Voldemort's soul). Fortunately, as the story gets more grave--and parents should be warned, there are some scenes too frightening or adult for young children--so does the intensity. David Yates, who directed the Harry Potter films <em>Order of the Phoenix</em> and <em>The Half-Blood Prince</em>, drags the second half a little, but right along with some of the slower moments are some touching surprises (Harry leading Hermione in a dance, the return of Dobby in a totally non-annoying way). <em>Deathly Hallows, Part I</em> will be the most confusing for those not familiar with the Potter lore, particularly in the shorthand way characters and terminology weave in and out. For the rest of us, though, watching these characters over the last decade and saying farewell to a few faces makes it all bittersweet that the end is near (indeed, an early scene in which Hermione casts a spell that makes her Muggle parents forget her existence, in case she doesn't return, is particularly emotional). Despite its challenges, <em>Deathly Hallows, Part I</em> succeeds in what it's most meant to do: whet your appetite for the grand conclusion to the Harry Potter series. --<em>Ellen A. Kim</em>

From the first spell to the final battle! The entire eight-film Harry Potter collection is now available for you to own.



<br /> Join Harry, Hermione and Ron from their first year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone all the way through to Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2. In the epic finale, the battle between the good and evil forces of the wizarding world escalates into an all-out war. The stakes have never been higher and no one is safe. But it is Harry Potter who may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice as he draws closer to the climactic showdown with Lord Voldemort.<br /><br /> It all starts and ends here.<br /><br /> Titles Comprise:<br /><br /> Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (2001)<br /> Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002)<br /> Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004)<br /> Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (2005)<br /> Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (2007)<br /> Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (2009)<br /> Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)<br /> Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)<br /><br /><strong>Special Features</strong>



<br /><strong>Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince</strong><br /> Create your own Picture-in-Picture commentary<br /> J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life<br /> Cast members guide to moviemaking<br /> What's on your mind? - Q & A with cast/crew<br /> One-Minute Drills - Cast members sum up their characters



<br /><strong>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1</strong><br /> The Last Days of Privet Drive - Maximum Movie Mode<br /> Hagrid's Motorbike - Maximum Movie Mode<br /> Death Eaters Attack Cafe - Maximum Movie Mode<br /> Creating Dobby and Kreacher - Maximum Movie Mode<br /> Magical Tents! - Maximum Movie Mode<br /> The Return of Griphook - Maximum

Of all the folks in long underwear to be tapped for superhero films, Thor would seem to be the most problematic to properly pull off. (Hypothetical Hollywood conversation:"A guy in a tricked-out, easily merchandisable metal suit? Great! An Asgardian God of Thunder who says stuff like <em>thee</em> and <em>thou</em>? Um, is Moon Knight available?") Thankfully, the resulting film does its source material rather proud, via a committed cast and an approach that doesn't shy away from the over-the-top superheroics. When you're dealing with a flying guy wielding a huge hammer, gritty realism can be overrated, really. Blending elements from the celebrated comic arcs by Walter Simonson and J. Michael Straczynski, the story follows the headstrong Thunder God (Chris Hemsworth) as he is banished to Earth and stripped of his powers by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) after inadvertently starting a war with a planet of ticked-off Frost Giants. As his traitorous brother Loki (the terrific Tom Hiddleston) schemes in the wings, Thor must redeem himself and save the universe, with the aid of a beautiful scientist (Natalie Portman). Although director Kenneth Branagh certainly doesn't skimp on the in-jokes and fan-pleasing continuity references (be prepared to stick around after the credits, Marvel fans), his film distinguishes itself by adopting a larger-than-life cosmic Shakespearean air that sets itself apart from both the cerebral, grounded style made fashionable by <em>The Dark Knight</em> and the loose-limbed Rat Packish vibe of the <em>Iron Man</em> series. Glorying in the absolute unreality of its premise, Branagh's film is a swooping, Jack Kirby-inspired saga that brings the big-budget grins on a consistent basis, as well as tying in with the superhero battle royale <em>The Avengers</em>. <em>--Andrew Wright</em>

<em>The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1</em> delivers strongly for the rabid fan base who have catapulted the young adult novel series and subsequent movie adaptations to the worldwide phenomenon that it's become, but it alienates a broader audience with a lack of any real action. Similar to the tone of <em>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1</em>, the first film of the two-part <em>Twilight</em> conclusion is heavy on romance, love, and turmoil but light on fight scenes and gruesome battles. The movie doesn't waste any time getting to the goods and opens with Bella and Edward's much-hyped wedding scene. It works--the vows are efficient and first-time franchise director Bill Condon (<em>Dreamgirls</em>) moves the party along quickly and amusingly with a well-edited toast scene and some surprisingly moving moments between Bella and her father, cast standout Billy Burke. The honeymoon plays as a slightly awkward soft-focus made-for-TV movie, with a lot of long moments spent staring in the mirror and some love scenes that feel at once overly intimate and completely passionless. It's a relief when Bella retches on a bite of chicken she's cooked herself and quickly concludes she's pregnant with a potentially demonic baby. From bliss to horror, the Cullens return to Forks, where Bella spends the second half of the movie wasting away and Edward and Jacob are aligned in their anger and frustration over her decision. Throw in some over-the-top scenes with Jacob and his pack--including a strange showdown where the wolves communicate in their canine form by having a passionate nonverbal fight in their minds (a plot point that works much better in print, it's portrayed in the film via aggressive voice-over)--and the film overshoots intensity and goes straight to silly. The birth scene is horrific, but not as gruesome as in the book, and by the end, Bella has of course survived, though is much altered. The final scene features a delightfully campy Michael Sheen as Volturi leader Aro and makes it clear that the action and fun in <em>Breaking Dawn - Part 1</em> is ready to start. Fans will just have to wait until <em>Part 2</em> to get it. --Kira Canny

A galaxy's worth of nihilism buried under a 70s Velveeta topping, <em>The Planet of the Apes</em> series stands today as a dark marvel of pop cinema, a group of wildly variable films that combine to form a giant inescapable kiss-off to the human race. (That said message was able to withstand such distractions as ever-cheapening makeup and Charlton Heston loudly pounding sand makes its achievements even more impressive, really.) Boasting a keen awareness of its predecessors' particular charms and a gem of a central CGI performance by Andy Serkis, <em>Rise of the Planet of the Apes</em> makes for a rather miraculous summer movie: a big-budget special effects extravaganza that also delivers a killer backhand. Sort of redoing 1972's <em>Conquest of the Planet of the Apes</em>, the film follows the events set in motion when a bereaved scientist (James Franco) attempts to create a cure for Alzheimer's, resulting in a supernaturally intelligent chimp named Caesar. The old bit about science tampering in God's domain quickly applies. Director Rupert Wyatt (<em>The Escapist</em>) displays an admirable sense of pacing, deftly levying the escalating action scenes with small character moments from the likes of John Lithgow and Brian Cox. That said, the film belongs to Caesar, whose path from wide-eyed innocent to reluctant revolutionary generates the ironic pulp empathy that gave the original series such a kick. Watching the climactic confrontation on the Golden Gate Bridge, it's distressingly easy to figure out which side to root for. Chuck Heston would no doubt grit his teeth in approval. Note: Those skeptical that this revamp could wholly retain the original's doomy backbeat would do well to stick around during the end credits. --Andrew Wright

When Bryan Singer brought Marvel's X-Men to the big screen, Magneto and Professor X were elder statesmen, but Matthew Vaughn (<em>Kick-Ass</em>) travels back in time to present an origin story--and an alternate version of history. While Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher) grows up privileged in New York, Erik Lehnsherr (Bill Milner) grows up underprivileged in Poland. As children, the mind-reading Charles finds a friend in the shape-shifting Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and Erik finds an enemy in Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), an energy-absorbing Nazi scientist who treats the metal-bending lad like a lab rat. By 1962, Charles (James McAvoy) has become a swaggering genetics professor and Erik (Michael Fassbender, McAvoy's <em>Band of Brothers</em> costar) has become a brooding agent of revenge. CIA agent Moira (Rose Byrne) brings the two together to work for Division X. With the help of MIB (Oliver Platt) and Hank (<em>A Single Man's</em> Nicholas Hoult), they seek out other mutants, while fending off Shaw and Emma Frost (<em>Mad Men's</em> January Jones), who try to recruit them for more nefarious ends, leading to a showdown in Cuba between the United States and the Soviet Union, the good and bad mutants, and Charles and Erik, whose goals have begun to diverge. Throughout, Vaughn crisscrosses the globe, piles on the visual effects, and juices the action with a rousing score, but it's the actors who make the biggest impression as McAvoy and Fassbender prove themselves worthy successors to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. The movie comes alive whenever they take centre stage, and dies a little when they don't. For the most part, though, Vaughn does right by playing up the James Bond parallels and acknowledging the debt to producer Bryan Singer through a couple of clever cameos. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Depending on your take-away of the visual inventiveness and jam-packed plot that drives <em>Limitless</em> to peaks and valleys of preposterous fun, drugs are either a terrible scourge or the fundamental solution to all of life's problems. <em>Limitless</em> isn't exactly a morality tale, but the made-up drug that turns Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) from a scuzzy loser into a master of the universe does become a metaphor for ambition, menace, devastation, and ultimate success. Eddie is a writer who can't write, his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) just dumped him, and his squalid lifestyle has driven him to the breaking point. After a chance meeting with his mysterious ex-brother-in-law, he's offered change in the form of a little transparent button, a pill code-named NZT that allows the user to access 100 percent of their brain. After he pops it, Eddie is transformed. Everything he's ever heard, seen, glanced at, or passed by becomes neatly ordered in his mind. He has total recall, total access to knowledge both known and unknown, and he understands exactly what to do. Without the ingenious visual effects that frequently push the bounds of innovation, our view of the alteration of Eddie's drug-induced reality would fail utterly. When his synapses snap from every new hit, the sparkling blue of Bradley Cooper's eyes pops off of the screen, the colours and textures of his reality ripple and zoom with his every move. Of course he needs more of the drug to maintain his progression, not to mention his very life--remember, kids, drugs are addictive! <br /><br />The movie throws tangled clumps of plot threads against each other in a whizzing mass that incorporates Russian gangsters, shadowy surveillance figures, cops, lawyers, and a couple of murder mysteries. It's a hurtling progression of narrative tangents that often echo the physical and mental extremes Eddie experiences when he's either on or off the drug. Sex, society, and money are big parts of Eddie's newfound brainpower, and he exploits them all. The money element leads Eddie to a big-shot investor, played with twinkling irony by Robert De Niro. The sparring matches between Cooper and De Niro are some of the best parts of the convoluted and manic pace that drives <em>Limitless</em> inexorably onward. Abbie Cornish is relegated to the sidelines far too much, and the suspension of disbelief required to simply maintain stride with the movie's frenzied velocity is often exhausting. But there are some bigger themes that director Neil Burger and writer Leslie Dixon try to sustain in spite of repeated absurdities meant to be accepted at face value. Eddie's actions are both vile and redemptive, and Cooper gives a rousing performance as he bounces from being contemptible to irresistible, sometimes all at once. Fortunately, <em>Limitless</em> is itself redeemed by the nifty visuals that often do evoke the effects of a drug that promises perfect clarity. It's best to just forget the ludicrous lack of coherence and enjoy it as a wildly entertaining trip on a perfect drug that offers the potential for payback and infinite salvation. --Ted Fry

In his second movie <em>Source Code</em>--a looping, hall-of-mirrors story about a downed helicopter pilot who must revisit the same passage of time--Duncan Jones restores some of the virtues of traditional sci-fi, in which technology is just a framework for human drama and where the efficient sketching of smart ideas has as much impact as any amount of CGI. Such is the case with <em>Source Code</em>, in which Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is suspended in a digital limbo (the 'source code') by his military bosses, who force him to revisit the same eight minutes on board a Chicago-bound commuter train--right before it explodes. With each attempt to ID the bomber--a satisfying picture puzzle of close detail and shifting perspectives--Colter's growing fondness for the doomed commuters divides his loyalties, drawing him into a battle with the Fates themselves. With shades of <em>12 Monkeys</em>, <em>Avatar</em> and <em>Groundhog Day</em>, <em>Source Code</em> is also the up-tempo cousin of Jones' debut feature <em>Moon</em>, in which a lonely worker’s right to mortality is also violated by a futuristic organization who, in <em>Moon</em>'s case, would like to cut an ethical corner (and the cost of lunar labour). In the space of these two movies, Duncan Jones has proved he's auteur material and, like the recurring eight-minute sequence at its heart, <em>Source Code</em> feels like the explosion of an exciting new talent--right before it explodes. <em>--Leo Batchelor</em>

Everything you know about aliens from pop culture is true. At least that's the message from <em>Paul</em>, a swift, sharp, and very funny movie from the creative minds that also brought us <em>Shaun of the Dead</em>, <em>Hot Fuzz</em>, <em>Superbad</em>, and <em>Adventureland</em>. The British stars of the first two, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, also wrote the snappy screenplay, and director Greg Mottola shows that he can make human and sentimental both the slapstick and the subtle, self-referential humour the same way he did in <em>Superbad</em> and <em>Adventureland</em>. The premise Pegg and Frost have laid out for themselves as likable, sci-fi fanatic supernerds is a dream vacation starting at Comic Con, then continuing through the American Southwest in an RV visiting historic UFO sites like Area 51, the Black Mailbox, and Roswell, and finishing up at Devil's Tower in Wyoming, the iconic centerpiece from <em>Close Encounters of the Third Kind</em>. After their inauspicious start, they happen upon an escaped alien who is 4 feet tall, and has the big head, classic diamond eyes, and features we've come to recognize as both the benevolent and evil kinds of space aliens from movies and TV. He is also the titular character, and as voiced by Seth Rogen, this CGI creature spouts a never-ending string of wisecracks, insider secrets, and frat-boy humour that comes loud and clear as classic Rogen in tone and attitude. As an aside and terrific example of the very clever throwaway punch lines that run throughout, there's a brief flashback to 1980 showing Paul on a conference call with Steven Spielberg (really), giving him advice about script development issues for <em>E.T.</em>

Paul crash-landed in the late 1940s and has been held prisoner by the government's men in black. They've not only been pumping him for knowledge, they've also leaked the fabric and features of his being to people who want to believe, especially the ones in Hollywood. Now Paul wants to go home, and he's found the perfect getaway with the want-to-believe team of Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost), who take him to his rendezvous (at Devil's Tower, of course). The road movie that unfolds is consistently hilarious, moving nimbly through one-off gags and inside jokes, but also creating larger relationships and drawn-out humour that relies on us believing that the little CGI Paul is real. And mostly we do, again thanks to Rogen's delivery and distinctive vocalizing. Paul constantly quips, makes fun, gets drunk, smokes dope, and spouts a steady stream of patter about how aliens have been bowdlerized and reimagined in entertainment and the minds of people like Graeme and Clive. There's a jam-packed supporting cast that complements and complicates the story (in a good way), including Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio as the bumbling men in black, and Jason Bateman as the scary man in black. Also passing through are some fun familiar faces like Jane Lynch, David Koechner, Jeffrey Tambor, John Carroll Lynch, and an iconic sci-fi actress who shall remain unnamed. Especially good is Kristen Wiig as a fundamentalist Christian whose mind is literally blown by Paul. Amid the broad humour and nonstop punch lines there's also a sweetness that stays with each finely drawn character (including Paul) and gives <em>Paul</em> an amiable sentimentality that runs throughout. Everyone clearly had fun making this movie, and that's exactly how it is to watch. <em>--Ted Fry</em>

The extended editions of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings present the greatest trilogy in film history in the most ambitious sets in DVD history. In bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's nearly unfilmable work to the screen, Jackson benefited from extraordinary special effects, evocative New Zealand locales, and an exceptionally well-chosen cast, but most of all from his own adaptation with co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, preserving Tolkien's vision and often his very words, but also making logical changes to accommodate the medium of film. While purists complained about these changes and about characters and scenes left out of the films, the almost two additional hours of material in the extended editions (about 11 hours total) help appease them by delving more deeply into Tolkien's music, the characters, and loose ends that enrich the story, such as an explanation of the Faramir-Denethor relationship, and the appearance of the Mouth of Sauron at the gates of Mordor. In addition, the extended editions offer more bridge material between the films, further confirming that the trilogy is really one long film presented in three pieces (which is why it's the greatest trilogy ever--there's no weak link). The scene of Galadriel's gifts to the Fellowship added to the first film proves significant over the course of the story, while the new Faramir scene at the end of the second film helps set up the third and the new Saruman scene at the beginning of the third film helps conclude the plot of the second.

To top it all off, the extended editions offer four discs per film: two for the longer movie, plus four commentary tracks and stupendous DTS 6.1 ES sound; and two for the bonus material, which covers just about everything from script creation to special effects. The argument was that fans would need both versions because the bonus material is completely different, but the features on the theatrical releases are so vastly inferior that the only reason a fan would need them would be if they wanted to watch the shorter versions they saw in theaters (the last of which, The Return of the King , merely won 11 Oscars). The LOTR extended editions without exception have set the DVD standard by providing a richer film experience that pulls the three films together and further embraces Tolkien's world, a reference-quality home theater experience, and generous, intelligent, and engrossing bonus features. --David Horiuchi

When Bryan Singer brought Marvel's X-Men to the big screen, Magneto and Professor X were elder statesmen, but Matthew Vaughn (<em>Kick-Ass</em>) travels back in time to present an origin story--and an alternate version of history. While Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher) grows up privileged in New York, Erik Lehnsherr (Bill Milner) grows up underprivileged in Poland. As children, the mind-reading Charles finds a friend in the shape-shifting Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and Erik finds an enemy in Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), an energy-absorbing Nazi scientist who treats the metal-bending lad like a lab rat. By 1962, Charles (James McAvoy) has become a swaggering genetics professor and Erik (Michael Fassbender, McAvoy's <em>Band of Brothers</em> costar) has become a brooding agent of revenge. CIA agent Moira (Rose Byrne) brings the two together to work for Division X. With the help of MIB (Oliver Platt) and Hank (<em>A Single Man's </em>Nicholas Hoult), they seek out other mutants, while fending off Shaw and Emma Frost (<em>Mad Men's</em> January Jones), who try to recruit them for more nefarious ends, leading to a showdown in Cuba between the United States and the Soviet Union, the good and bad mutants, and Charles and Erik, whose goals have begun to diverge. Throughout, Vaughn crisscrosses the globe, piles on the visual effects, and juices the action with a rousing score, but it's the actors who make the biggest impression as McAvoy and Fassbender prove themselves worthy successors to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. The movie comes alive whenever they take centre stage, and dies a little when they don't. For the most part, though, Vaughn does right by playing up the James Bond parallels and acknowledging the debt to producer Bryan Singer through a couple of clever cameos. --Kathleen C. Fennessy