7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Two FBI agents, Fox Mulder the believer and Dana Scully the skeptic, investigate the strange and unexplained while hidden forces work to impede their efforts.
Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, William B. DavisSci-Fi | 100% |
Horror | 95% |
Supernatural | 70% |
Mystery | 52% |
Psychological thriller | 38% |
Thriller | 11% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: DTS 5.1
German: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1
Italian: DTS 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Japanese: DTS 5.1
Japanese only available on Japanese menu settings
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
If you were to conduct a poll of diehard The X- Files fans, my hunch is the majority (and maybe even the vast majority) of them would admit (potentially under duress) that the series had a somewhat precipitous drop in quality the longer it remained on the air. These same aficionados might also generally agree that the pleasures of the show’s follow up films The X- Files: Fight the Future and The X-Files: I Want to Believe were intermittent at best, and (in best X-Files tradition) raised as many new questions as answered old ones. The putative tenth season of the show, now rebranded as The X-Files: Event Series, may strike some as analagous to getting together with an old friend you haven’t seen in years, only to realize, “Wow, we’ve both changed. A lot.” This latest half dozen episodes can still deliver at least vestiges of the magic that often infused at least the early years of the original series, and it’s undeniably great to see David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson recreating their iconic roles of Mulder and Scully, but for this particular die hard X-Files fan, a lot of this newest iteration just doesn’t land as emphatically as it should (or at least as I would have hoped), and the early going functions largely like one of those info dumps you get when indeed you reconnect with a long ago acquaintance you haven’t been in touch with for a while.
The X-Files: Event Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is another recent release whose technical data isn't properly listed on the IMDb, and I'm once again loathe to definitively state whether this was shot on film or digitally captured and then tweaked with digital grain to give it a filmic appearance (as I've stated in previous reviews, if anyone can point me to an authoritative source, I'll happily update the review—two online sources I found seem to point toward digital capture, but I don't consider them authoritative). One way or the other, this has the same cinematic look that has often typified The X- Files, with a healthy palette and excellent detail levels. Fine detail is often exceptional in close-ups, offering clear views of things like pill on fabrics, Mulder's unkempt stubble in the early episodes or Scully's occasional flyaway hairs. Some of the more whimsical CGI (notably in the Were-Monster episode) can look fairly soft when compared to the bulk of the presentation. There are no issues with image instability and contrast is generally strong, though a few isolated scenes, notably some of the series' patented "dark and stormy night" sequences suffer from slightly inadequate shadow definition.
The X-Files: Event Series' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track has some impressive bursts of surround activity, as well as some fulsome LFE, but perhaps unexpectedly this miniseries' sonic design tends to be a bit more subtle than some might have hoped for. Dialogue, effects and score are all offered with excellent fidelity and smart prioritization, and when episodes do offer opportunities for over the top moments, the track can achieve considerable impact. There are no problems with distortion, dropouts or similar issues.
Disc One
I had an old high school Health teacher who was attempting to caution a bunch of teenaged boys about their first "intimate" experience by telling us, "The anticipation is often greater than the realization." That same feeling may attend many viewers' experiences with this reboot of the venerable series. I personally reacted much more favorably to the "monster of the week" episodes with this supposed tenth season, while finding the mythology increasingly more of a slog to make it through. While this may not be up to the best moments of the series' early years, it's probably still better than some of the lamentable developments in the last couple of seasons, but that may be damning with faint praise or setting the bar relatively low. For those willing to set the expectation bar fairly low, there are some intermittent pleasures to be found here, and for those folks, The X-Files: Event Series comes Recommended.
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