Icons Unearthed: Marvel (2003/Mill Creek Blu-ray Set)/Rick & Morty: Season 8 (2025/Cartoon Network/Adult Swim/Warner Blu-ray)/The X Trilogy (2022, 2024/A24 Blu-ray Box Set)

Picture: B/B/B+ Sound: B/B/B+ Extras: C+/C/B- Main Programs: B/C+/B

These wide-ranging genre releases have plenty of interest...

Marvel Studios has become one of the biggest forces in Hollywood, but the infamous studio was not always what it is now. This insightful documentary, Icons Unearthed: Marvel (2003), tells the story of Marvel's humble beginnings as a small comic book company to its many small screen and big screen failures to finally the shift in the late '90s to what it has become today. The documentary series is five episodes in length, and definitely will teach any fan a thing or two about the inner workings of the studio in a way that hasn't been done before. Unofficial and unauthorized, the Icons Unearthed series continues to enlighten and tell stories of historic franchises in easy to digest ways as they did with The Simpsons, James Bond and others.

Marvel started out as a small time comic book label in competition with DC and seemed to always be riding its coat-tails until Stan Lee stepped in with Jack Kirby and brought some of the company's most iconic characters to life including The Fantastic Four and eventually Spider-Man. But sales weren't always strong and the company went through many ups and downs. The doc also helps bring to light the big names involved that steered the company from collapse in the '90s and how Blade (see 4K review elsewhere on this site) was the first truly successful Marvel feature film which lead into them selling key characters to other studios which resulted in the first X-Men, Hulk, and Spider-Man films. The doc also explores the risks that the studios took with Iron Man and how Kevin Feige came into becoming Marvel's president in a risky multi-movie gamble that culminated into The Avengers and then the post of that.

Interviews include several notable comic legends and contributors to the story of Marvel which include Todd McFarlane, Lou Ferrigno, Mark Millar, Clark Gregg, J.J. Field, and J. Michael Straczynski. The documentary mini-series is directed by Brian Volk-Weiss.

Icons Unearthed Marvel is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and a lossless, English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo mix which is fine for this documentary collection. I did notice a few stills in the program that it cut to that were a little soft in resolution, but the interviews and clips they chose look good for the most part. The documentary is cleanly and professionally made and has a fluid feel that's easy to take in.

Special Features include over five hours of full, unseen interviews with Lou Ferrigno, Mark Millar, Clark Gregg, J.J. Field, and J. Michael Straczynski.

I would suggest Icons Unearthed: Marvel to any fan of Marvel Comics or the Marvel movies in general. Very fun and nice to hear from many iconic Marvel creators in this as well.

Rick & Morty: Season 8 (2025) continues the surprisingly strong winning ways of the hit TV show, though some fans and casual watches were at least a little underwhelmed this time out. The ten shows we get this time are still amusing enough, even varying in amusement depending on the episodic situation, but several of us have covered the series over all these years and you can look up all of our Blu-ray and DVD coverage starting with this link and going backwards:

https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16506/Knuckles+4K+(2024/Sega/Paramount+4K+Blu-ray+Set

I understand the appeal, but I could only ever get into it so much, though the use of color and its style are a plus like we get with The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park. Unfortunately, event he best shows that run after many, many seasons eventually have weekly TV grid issues that eventually effect the episodes and some will eventually let the viewer down or not work like they should. At least it still looks and sounds good.

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Morty continue to be as solid as new as anything here, with a solid color palette that is much better on Blu-ray than the Morty DVDs we've covered of late. The lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo sound is also fine and remains as solid as just about any animated TV series currently being produced.

Though a sticker on the box says 'Special Features' as if we have several of them here, we only get the Inside Season 8 featurette (running just over 9 minutes) as an extra.

And last but not least, landing on disc is the limited edition Blu-ray box set of Ti West's X Trilogy (X (2022), Pearl (2022), Maxxxine (2024) from the wonderful people over at A24.

Mia Goth stars in the hit trilogy which also features a lot of big names including Jenna Ortega, David Corenswet, Sophie Thatcher, Lily Collins, Brittany Snow, Elizabeth Debicki, Simon Prast, and Kevin Bacon to name a few.

The set is also available on 4K UHD, but we are covering the Blu-ray version here.

Ti West is no doubt an interesting filmmaker in his own right since his early days of making films for Glass Eye Pix in New York in association with Larry Fesseden. Years later he made the strong demonic cult film The House of The Devil followed by The Innkeepers to then The X Trilogy, which really solidified his place in Hollywood.

In X, a small filmmaking trope set out to make an adult film on a desolate farm. Little do they know but the inhabitant is a vicious serial killer named Pearl.

In Pearl, we meet the killer at a young age whilst she is tending to her ailing father with Hollywood aspirations. As she yearns for a life like the ones she sees on screen, she ends up fighting her inner demons that come to surface and turn her into a mind warped killer.

In Maxxxine, a promising actress named Maxine Minx (who looks a lot like Pearl) starts to rise in prominence in 1980s Hollywood from her adult film days. As she rises to fame, a serial killer is also on the loose with a mysterious tie to her past.

A24 knocked it out of the park with this release. This has to be one of the coolest box sets I have ever seen in terms of design and execution and has beautiful and unique artwork throughout with very cool designs for the discs themselves. A24 definitely has a grasp on making physical media releases really pop with the designs they choose and the unique way they present the packaging that makes more desirable than standard Hollywood releases.

All of the films are presented in 1080p high definition in an MPEG-4 AVC codec.

X has a 1.89:1 widescreen aspect ratio with an audio mix in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit).

Maxxxine has a 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio with audio mixes in lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems at 48kHz, 24-bit).

Nothing too new in terms of picture and sound quality here as they are the same releases from before, but with better packaging. The presentations are all strong for the format with no glaring issues.

Special Features include:

Incredible oversized collectible packaging with collectible booklet

X includes Commentary with D.P. Eliot Rockett and Production Designer Tom Hammock, Pearl Makeup Timelapse, ''The X Factor'' featurette and an Original Theatrical Trailer.

Pearl includes a feature length audio commentary with D.P. Eliot Rockett and Production Designer Tom Hammock, ''Coming Out of Her Shell: The Creation of Pearl'' featurette, ''Time After Time'' featurette and an Original Theatrical Trailer.

MaXXXine includes a feature length audio commentary with Production Designer Jason Kisvarday and Set Decorator Kelsi Ephraim, ''The Belly of the Beast'' featurette, ''XXX Marks the Spot'' featurette, ''Hollywood is a Killer'' featurette, Deep Dive with Composer Tyler Bates, Q&A with Ti West and Original Theatrical Trailers.

This collector's edition of the X Trilogy looks great on the shelf and is a must own for super fans and/or if you have been meaning to get all three of them together. If you have the previous releases there isn't much new here aside from the booklet and packaging.

- Nicholas Sheffo (Morty) and James Lockhart

https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/