All "BD Live Rumors" aside, here's the scoop on this eagerly-awaited title...you can just tell director Jon Favreau had a little bit of fun bringing this legendary Marvel character to the screen -- but it's also injected with a serious edge that makes for one of the better comic adaptations we've seen. Sure --
Iron Man is by no means any
Spider-Man 2 or
Dark Knight, but it's sure better than, say, Ang Lee's
The Hulk, any of the Joel Schumacher
Batman sequels or the
Superman films after II...well, you get the point.
In the continuing trend to bring comic characters to life,
Iron Man tells the story of billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (played convincingly by Robert Downey Jr.) who is taken hostage by a rogue element of terrorists when he is doing a weapons demonstration for the American military in the Middle Eastern desert. The terrorists force him to build one of his missile systems as they want to dominate the black market with it; meantime, Tony's body has been compromised due to an explosion prior to his kidnapping...the explosion has caused his heart to now require a special chamber that's connected to a battery. I wasn't a big fan of this particular Marvel book, so I am not sure just how much of this is following the accurate storyline of the comic. At any rate, with the help of one of the guys he is held captive with, Tony builds an armor-plated super suit with wild weaponry in order to escape from the terrorists.
As the U.S. military finds Tony out in the desert after his escape with his suit mangled, a plot involving his second in command (played by Jeff Bridges) being behind Tony's kidnapping so he would be killed and out of the way is unveiled. Other characters from the comic are explored here as well, such as Stark's loyal personal assistant Pepper Potts (played by the very sexy Gwyneth Paltrow) as well as the prerequisite Stan Lee cameo. As in some other Marvel adaptations such as the bachelor party scene in
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer,
Iron Man is loaded with sequences of smokin' hot women all over Tony Stark for his money and celebrity; I mean, these slammin' chicks are everywhere in this film -- from the craps table at Caesars Palace in Vegas to sexy news reporters in short skirts, there's plenty of eye candy beyond Paltrow's character.
The premise of the film adaptation of
Iron Man is that Tony gets fed up with his company, Stark Industries, being a weapons building giant that's selling weapons of mass destruction to people like the terrorists that held him hostage; the character goes through a complete change of identity -- and that's the film's greatest strength I think...watching Downey go from cold, self-centered billionaire to realizing there's something better he can do with his resources. When word gets out that Stark Industries is no longer going to be making weapons after Downey holds a press conference, Bridges becomes irate and attempts to take him out of the picture. Tony utilizes his high tech computer and robotic system in his lab to create an armor suit much like he built to escape from the terrorists -- and hence Iron Man is born. The armor is eventually dyed red and gold, and it actually looks pretty cool in the flying sequences. Armed with propelling rockets and all kinds of weaponry, Tony heads back to the terrorist camp he was kept captive in and in a very cool scene takes these guys out one by one.
Of course, with every comic book film adaptation there must be the final hero vs. villain fight sequence, and here it comes in the form of Bridges, who figures out Tony's "recipe" for making the flying suit and builds one of his own that's much larger and more powerful than Tony's; the "official" name to this adversary is "Iron Monger," but it's never said in the narrative of this film (so it's supposed to be Iron Man vs. Iron Monger)...the end fight sequence is actually one of the worst parts of the film as it just looks silly on the screen; here are these two armor-suited guys beating each other up on a California highway, throwing cars and talking in robotic, metallic voices from beneath their suits...I don't know. To me it just didn't work -- it was like watching
Transformers again and I didn't like that to begin with. This final sequence doesn't hold a candle to the closing fight sequences in the
Spider-Man films, that's for sure.
You all know the connection between the end of
The Incredible Hulk and
Iron Man, right?
VIDEO:
1080p HIGH DEFINITION
In typical Paramount fashion, there's no specific information on this transfer listed on the slipcase of this "Ultimate 2-Disc Edition" except for the fact that it's 1080p; at any rate, the widescreen transfer seems to be around 2.40:1 and although there's been nothing but wonderful things said about this video quality, it seemed "okay" to me. The opening sequence in the desert showed a great deal of promise with lots of contrast and punch -- the detail on characters' faces in the opening humvee shot are amazing; yet, as the film goes on, parts get soft and even with my sharpness on my display turned down, there's still a good amount of film grain that distracts from the visuals. I wish some of these Blu-ray transfers would be cleaned up if even just a little bit before they're released to eliminate some of the buzzy grain that runs in the background of certain shots; I find it distracting yet I know others love it and it's a true representation of the film stock.
I just didn't find it to be the outrageously amazing and pristine video that others who are reviewing it have found. For the most part,
Iron Man is a solid, yet average, transfer.
AUDIO:
ENGLISH 5.1 DOLBY TRUEHD; FRENCH, SPANISH 5.1 DOLBY DIGITAL
The audio, as expected, fared better than the video. I couldn't even get this TrueHD track to reference levels because I watched the disc so late...but what I heard was pretty satisfying. While there are some disappointing moments -- such as when flying missiles or weapons could have reached the surround channels -- this is an active track from start to finish. The attack sequence on Downey's humvee in the beginning throws debris and gunfire all around the soundstage and there's really nothing wrong with this track that I can even comment on.
I know there have been BD Live issues with these discs, but I was only interested in the film itself and the audio and video parameters so I cannot comment on the extras or the interactivity; I usually love the documentaries on comic book film extras where they discuss the villains and bringing the heros to life, so I will probably watch the
Iron Man extras over the next couple of days.
Thanks for reading, friends...discuss away!
