Blu-ray

Over the course of the original trilogy, a 1960s-set prequel and two spin-offs for its breakout star, the X-Men movie franchise has tied itself up in myriad contradictory chronological knots. Taking its cues (and title) from one of the most popular comic book storylines, …Days of Future Past sees director Bryan Singer returning to the franchise in order to set things straight. Presumably once and for all.

Kicking off in a dystopian near-future, the movie finds the surviving cast from the original trilogy (Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman et al) making a final stand against the Sentinels, an army of unstoppable mutant-hunting robots. In a last ditch attempt to change things for the better, the surviving X-Men send Wolverine's consciousness back through time to occupy his body in 1973. There he must seek out the help of the younger Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) in order to prevent the creation of the Sentinels.

For all of its time-travel shenanigans, …Days of Future Past avoids the usual temporal twists and turns you may be expecting and tells a pretty straightforward adrenaline-fueled superhero tale. The action beats arrive at a steady pace and even the downtime between them is made enjoyable by the excellent ensemble cast, who succeed in making their outrageous mutant characters all too human in their emotions and motivation. We can't wait to see where the franchise goes from here…

Picture: X-Men: Days of Future Past arrives on Blu-ray with a very impressive AVC 2.40:1 1080p encode. Colour saturation, contrast accuracy and fine detailing are every bit as impressive as you'd expect from a high-budget digitally-shot outing.

The accompanying MVC-encoded stereoscopic presentation (which gets a hi-def platter of its own) also holds up very well, no doubt by virtue of the film having been shot in native 3D. A prime example is Quicksilver's kitchen runaround (Chapter 15). This demonstrates a real mastery of the art form, with clever use of volumetric and spatial effects to give the image a real sense of depth. Very cool.
Picture rating: 5/5

Audio: From the opening battle with the Sentinels (Chapter 2) to the moment Magneto starts having fun with a football stadium (Chapter 31), this film's DTS-HD MA 7.1 mix is the sort of unbridled riot of positional effects and booming LFE that brings the best out of your speaker setup. Dialogue is also picked out with punch and remains audible at all times, while John Ottman's powerful synth-tinged score serves to drive the action on to greater and greater heights.
Audio rating: 5/5

Extras: The 2D platter includes five inconsequential deleted scenes (with optional commentary from Singer) that apparently won't appear in 'any other version of the film', four behind-the-scenes featurettes, a gag reel, three image galleries and three trailers.

In other words, it looks like all the really good stuff is being saved for the 'Extended Cut' Blu-ray that has already been teased for release in 2015.
Extras rating: 2/5

We say: A strong hi-def showing for a fun comic book flick – even if it looks set to be superseded within the year

X-Men: Days of Future Past 3D, 20th Century Fox, All-region BD, £28 Approx
HCC VERDICT: 4/5