X-MEN 1 & 2 United (vhs) 2-tapes, full and 50 similar items

All stand-alone physical copies are going Out Of Print (OOP) and is only available in pricey sets. Both boxes and cassettes look almost new considering the foil packaging mars easily. Pre-viewed both for quality and X2: X-Men United played great and has closed captions available with 4 deleted scenes not shown in theatres after the feature. Pre-viewed X-Men and it was a little jittery at 1 hour and 10 minutes (senator's death by liquifying). And after the feature, at the very end of Bryan Singer's special featurette interview there was a few quick lines, otherwise it all played great too. X-MEN: Wheelchair-bound telepath Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), aka Professor X, runs a school to help others use their mutant powers. The good guys, who seek to work with humans, fight against a Magneto (Ian McKellen)-led Brotherhood, who feel mankind is expendable. The story is simple enough for newbies who never read the comics (like myself) to follow and takes itself seriously (no camp allowed) but doesn't have a lot of surprises and, except for Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), the characters aren't very involving. The setup calls for a sequel: X2: X-Men United has the regulars back as Prof. Xavier's X-Men must join forces with Magneto's mutants to battle a greater evil: A power-mad, mutant-hating general (Brian Cox) is out to find and eliminate all mutants. Cox is great as the general, full of self-righteousness and silky menace, properly denying his character the small moments of sympathy allowed to McKellen's Magneto. The story is better than in the original, even though it jams as much, if not more spectacle into the plot and lingers too long on the teen romance between Rogue and Iceman. The special effects are fantastic, but they don't overshadow the story. Script provides a well-excecuted and exciting central plot, while leaving plenty of threads and new characters that audiences will be anxious to follow in the next X-Men.