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Iron Man
(Ultimate 2-Disc Edition) |
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| Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth
Paltrow Directed by: Jon Favreau |
Theatrical release: 2008
DVD release: 2008
Released by: ParamountDolby Digital
5.1
Widescreen |
Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a
hard-drinking, womanizing arms manufacturer -- not exactly the shining hero every little
kid wants to grow up to be. He's only shaken out of his self-centered mindset when he's
nearly killed by one of his own bombs while on a sales-pitch mission. Rather than accept
his fate, he builds a suit of armor to escape his captors and dedicates his life to
destroying the weapons his company has built, operating as the invincible Iron Man.
| Blu-ray Iron Man Soars to Even
Greater Heights  Everything Josh Barber said about Iron Man applies in spades to the
Blu-ray Disc release. The picture is virtually beyond reproach -- reference quality, with
rich colors, inky blacks, excellent shadow detail, and definition so accurate that the
term "home theater" really has some meaning. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio tracks
are wonderfully transparent and clear, but they seem a trifle undernourished in the big
scenes. The explosions are loud, well focused, and clear all right, but given a lossless
audio system and good dynamic range, they should be louder. They were in the theater.
The Iron Man Blu-ray has all of the neat features
that the DVD does but in HD. Those comic-strip examples in the documentary mentioned are
razor-sharp without edge enhancement. There’s no problem reading the dialogue in the
balloons. The Blu-ray set has a few exclusive extras not found on the DVD. "Hall of
Armor" is really cool. It exhibits the four different suits of armor seen in the
film. You select one, then you can rotate it 360-degrees in HD with jaw dropping clarity
and pick out specific features, such as the boots, and do the same thing. If you have a
player that is 2.0 profile compliant (take note PS3 owners) there are BD Live features
that can be accessed. Paramount is not releasing these until the street date, so at the
time I am writing this it is not known exactly what they will be. Probably cool, because
everything else about this release is. If you’re looking for a disc with which to
demo your home-theater system, you can’t go wrong with this one.
. . . Rad Bennett
radb@hometheatersound.com |
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Robert Downey, Jr. was a superb choice for the title role.
After all, this is a character all about addiction yet seeking redemption, something he
can identify with. Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges all bring their A
games as well.
The image quality is very high, with impressive detail in
the dark scenes and no edge-enhancement halos in the light. The special effects are just
as seamless as they were in theaters. The audio is clear with a good balance between
dialogue and the many, many explosions.
The only bonus features on the first disc of the two-disc
set are 25 minutes of deleted scenes, a preview for the Iron Man: Armored Adventures
animated series (coming later this year) and a link to the trailers that are shown
automatically when you insert the disc.
The second disc is absolutely crammed with extra material,
most of it very good. We begin with the seven-part "I Am Iron Man," a nearly
two-hour piece covering the nuts and bolts of production: why Iron Man was chosen to be
made into a movie, how the suits were designed, creating the world of the film with
realistic characters, and much more. This is a bit more fun than the typical making-of
featurette, because it's less about interviews after the fact and more about video shot at
the time.
For 45 minutes, "The Invincible Iron Man"
discusses the origins of the comic character and features interviews with many of the
creators who have worked on the comic book over the years. If watching the movie got you
interested in checking out the source material, this is a good primer.
"Wired: the Visual Effects of Iron Man"
doesn't just break down the way Industrial Light & Magic made Iron Man fly, but also
smaller things, like designing the internal head-up display, compositing scenes and even
determining what the armor's energy output should look like. This segment is a solid 26
minutes and will have you noticing new things about the movie the next time you watch it
through.
Then we have a similar pair of features. "Robert
Downey Jr. Screen Test" is pretty self-explanatory, but it isn't immediately clear
that "The Actor's Process" is going to be about Downey and Jeff Bridges
rehearsing a scene under Jon Favreau's direction. Together the two features run about ten
minutes.
The disc is rounded out by four still galleries and a short
video from The Onion -- yes, the fake newspaper. "Wildly Popular Iron Man
Trailer to be Adapted into Full-Length Film" is a two-minute faux news segment with
an anchor and a reporter from Entertainment Weekly discussing how difficult and
risky it is to turn a trailer into a feature movie. Fun, as is the whole release.
There is a single-disc version of the movie, but with such
a good group of extras in this two-disc version, you will be better off going for it. |
