Product: The X-Files
Company: 20th Century Fox
Review By: Byron Hinson

Aspect Ratio	Regional Information		DVD Disc Details
2.35 : 1 Letterbox	1 : USA	NTSC	Closed Captioning: CC Master format: Film Sides: 1 (SS-DL) Chapter stops: 18

Sound:	English	English	French	Commentary
	5.1	2.0 Surround	2.0 Surround	2.0
Subtitles:

It's been a long time coming, but X-Files fans can finally get their hands on the long awaited DVD release of The X-Files Movie: Fight The Future. Although the DVD has been released months after the video hit stores, Fox believe there are enough extras on the disc to make you go out and make the purchase.

The X-Files Movie was released into theaters in June 1998, as expected, most fans of the TV show loved the movie and the chance to see Mulder and Scully on the big screen. I myself am a big X-Files fan who was reasonably impressed with the duos first feature film outing, despite feeling it was just a double episode with more expensive special effects.

The story goes a little something like this. When a terrorist bomb destroys a building in Dallas, Texas, FBI Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are drawn into a dangerous conspiracy surpassing anything they have ever encountered. Mulder and Scully risk their lives to hunt down a deadly virus which may be extraterrestrial in origin - and could destroy all life on earth.

As I have already mentioned, I enjoyed the movie, it isn't something I would want to watch over and over again like the Star Wars movies but I got enjoyment out of it a couple of times. While Chris Carter certainly doesn't explain as much of the plot holes from the TV series as I felt he should, the story moves along at a good pace throughout. The acting is also pretty good too, Martin Landau is one of the major plus points in the movie as the paranoid doctor Alvin Kurtzweil. Mark Snow excels himself on the soundtrack and the special effects do their job well, without being spectacular.

Now on to the really, really bad point. The transfer of The X-Files movie on to DVD is pretty bad, it's grainy and far too dark and has artifacting problems...with all of the delays Fox has had with this DVD they could have at least put on a anamorphic widescreen transfer, but no, we are just left with a very poor picture.

Thankfully the extras are very good, the commentary by Chris Carter and director Rob Bowman (Who did a good job by the way) isn't anywhere near as boring as I expected it would be. There are a few problems with the commentary, Chris and Rob never introduce themselves and were recorded separately. You also get the three trailers of the movie on the disc as well as the excellent behind the scenes look at the making of the movie with voice over by Mitch Pileggi.

The X-Files: Fight The Future is in my view a good movie, but the poor transfer really spoilt my viewing. The extra features while being excellent cannot make me recommend this disc except to very hardened fans. It's such a shame that Fox spoilt this big DVD release I just pray they don't screw up the Alien Legacy DVD's.

"The X-Files" - DVD Features

• Audio commentary by Chris Carter and Rob Bowman (I)
• Additional footage not seen in theatres
• 30-minute documentary including interviews with Gillian Anderson and series creator Chris Carter
• Special 8-page booklet
• X-Files Collectors Card

PC Setup

• Pentium II 450
• Windows 98
• 128 Meg SD-Ram
• Voodoo 2 - 8mb
• SoundBlaster Live Value
• DVD-ROM - 32x
• REALmagic Hollywood Plus DVD Decoder Card
• 17" LG Electronics Monitor
• ATI 8mb XPert AGP Graphics Card
• TV Test: Samsung 807 DVD Player