Iron Man (Ultimate 2-Disc Edition) - Blu-ray Review

It may have been the summer of the Bat, but the Man of Iron was a close second in the superhero sweepstakes. The Bat may have dominated the box office, but it was Iron Man that got things rolling.

Fans are in for a treat in this two-disc edition that features a fantastic Blu-ray presentation and tons of special features.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the son of the founder of Stark Industries, a multimillion dollar weapons firm. Tony has lived the life of a playboy industrialist with his father’s partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), running the more mundane aspects of the business. Tony is more like a rock star than an executive in weapons manufacturing. He’s in Afghanistan demonstrating his company’s new weapon, the Jericho missile. On the way back from the demonstration, his convoy is attacked. Tony is struck by some shrapnel and passes out. When he awakens he is in the cave of the terrorists known as the Ten Rings. Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub) has hooked up a car battery to an electromagnet attached to a car battery to keep the shrapnel from Tony’s heart. The terrorists want Tony to build them the Jericho missile and have set up a laboratory in the cave for this purpose. The first item on Tony’s agenda is to build a miniature arc reactor to power the electromagnet instead of the bulky car battery. In the intervening months Tony and Dr. Yinsen appear to be working on the missile, but Tony is really building an armored suit that will aid he and Dr. Yinsen’s escape. He does escape and when Tony is picked up by the company’s military liaison Col. James Rhodes (Terrence Howard) and returned to civilization. Tony’s personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) greets him at the airport and Tony immediately tells her to set up a press conference.

At the press conference he says that Stark Industries will no longer make weaponry, shocking both the press and Stane and the company board, who know nothing about Tony’s decision. Stark then isolates himself to produce a more efficient version of his miniature arc reactor as well as work on a more high tech version of the metal suit that saved his bacon in the desert. Robert Downey Jr. sorta reminds me of William Shatner. Not in acting styles, but just about when you think his he’s done – his career is revived. Shatner’s career was pretty dire and then Boston Legal happened. Downey had some extremely public run-ins with the law, but now he’s cleaned up his life and donned the Iron Man suit and voila. Downey is absolutely fantastic in Iron Man and it may well reflect his life to a degree since he starts off as a drunken playboy but grows up during the course of the film finally donning the suit of a super hero (and being replaced by groovy CGI). The film hits more high notes than it does low. Jeff Bridges make a memorable villain (I told my coworker, the Dude’s gone bad). Paltrow seems to disappear into the background, only to turn up in the big finale to be put in danger. I’m eagerly anticipating the sequel and director Jon Favreau (who cameos as Tony Stark’s chauffer) has even hinted at a trilogy. The Dark Knight may have burnt up the box office, but Iron Man is a great film and well worth the look.

Iron Man is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1). The transfer looks fantastic and fans will be delighted. Special features are abundant and all in high definition. Disc one starts off with a virtual look the “Hall of Armor” that has 360 degree renditions of three of Iron Man’s suits and the villain’s suit. Next is the excellent 47 minute “Invincible Iron Man” that looks at the comic book history of the character. There are also 23 minutes of deleted/extended scenes and a BD-Live (aka Profile 2.0, internet connection capable) trivia game. Disc two starts off with the 1 hour 49 minute “I am Iron Man” (cue Ozzy) making of feature. The 27 minute “Wired” looks at the visual effects used in bringing him to life. The features also include the 6 minute screen test that Robert Downey Jr. did. The 4 minute “The Actor’s Process” takes a scene and has Favreau, Downey, and Bridges rehearsing a scene. The 2 minute “Wildly Popular Iron Man trailer to be adapted into Full-Length Film” is an amusing bit from the Onion. Finally there are 8 minutes of theatrical trailers and four galleries. Iron Man is a fantastic film and looks delicious on Blu-ray. The special features are excellent; I especially liked the history of the character. Until Batman arrives, in time for Christmas, this excellent disc is the superhero Blu-ray to beat.