DVD/Blu-Ray Review - Iron Man: Ultimate 2 Disc Edition

The Film:

Iron Man is a new big screen adaptation and stars Robert Downey Jr. as billionaire weapons developer Tony Stark who finds himself in captivity in Afghanistan, but after managing to escape his captors, he returns home and finds he’s a changed man, one wanting to protect the people he put in harm’s way.

Iron Man ranks second behind The Dark Knight (look for extensive coverage of that release soon) as the best film of the 08 blockbuster season, one that sadly misfired more than anything else, Downey is very solid as Stark as is Jeff Bridges though some might have trouble picturing The Dude as a villain but the real surprise was Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, after many misfires with female roles in these kinds of films, Paltrow hits every note perfectly as does director Jon Favreau and the late great Stan Winston with his effects work, one could not ask for a more fitting end to an amazing screen legacy sadly cut very short: 3 and a half out of 5.

The DVD:

Iron Man comes in a new single disc and 2 disc DVD edition as well as a 2-disc Blu-Ray edition, what I am looking at here is the 2 disc DVD edition and I suppose all of you reading this are probably asking themselves this: how do I feel about it?

Well first off, lets start off with the video quality and sadly, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, certain scenes such as exterior shots look very good and have a real sparkle to them but some of the scenes in Afghanistan look very rough and some of the night scenes look too similar to last year’s Transformers, one last note is the use of player generated subtitles for the Afghan spoken in the film instead of the ones burned onto theatre prints, although its not that bad this time, I do wish this practice would cease, all in all the video gets a 3 out of 5.

Despite my problems with the video, the audio is a huger step up, excellently capturing the feel of the sound mix as it was heard in theatres, from the ear device used by Jeff Bridges to the feeling of flight created by Iron Man, this mix is a very good one and should please fans: 4 and a half out of 5.

And now, onto the extras which I will breakdown disc by disc:

Disc 1:

Deleted and Extended Scenes: Presented here are 11 deleted scenes which for the most part are good and there are a couple of gems to be found here, but like most deleted scenes, these were wisely left out as the film would become bogged down and overlong if they were left in.

Disc 2:

Featurette – I am Iron Man: This is a seven part look at the making of the film similar in style to the Beginning making of on the Phantom Menace DVD, this is actually a rather solid making of as it nicely goes into the shoot in a way that isn’t normally covered on most discs for newer films, one sad note however was the interview footage with Stan Winston who died not long after the film’s release and this film rightly serves as a fitting end to an amazing legacy, this legend and titan will be truly missed.

Featurette – The Invincible Iron Man: This is a six part look at the history of the Iron Man character as well as the famous villains, heroes and storylines that have come with him throughout the years, while I enjoyed this extra I wish that the “Demon in a Bottle” segment was longer, as I would like to have known more about that story.

Featurette – Wired: The Visual Effects of Iron Man: This is a near half hour look at the creation of the main visual effects of the film, whilst this feature was okay, watching people sitting in front of computer monitors does get tiresome after a while.

Robert Downey Jr. Screen Tests: Here are three screen tests with Robert Downey Jr. testing for the role of Tony Stark; personally I thought Downey’s casting was spot on so thumbs up for including the tests that got him the job.

The Actors Process: Here we see Downey as well as Jeff Bridges showing us rehearsals in their roles before shooting begins, I’m actually a little indifferent to this feature for while it’s a good inclusion pits a pity that we don’t get any between Downey and Paltrow, as they made a great pair.

The Onion “Iron Man Trailer” Segment: This is a weird extra concerning a faux E! style segment discussing the buzz to the film’s trailer, just like the actors feature, this left me indifferent.

Still Galleries: Presented here are four still galleries, concerning concepts, tech, production and posters, this is actually one of the better extras on this set as you get to see some of the original concepts devised for the movie.

The Blu-Ray version:

We aren’t done yet folks for I have now had a chance to look at the Blu-Ray version and in terms of comparing it to the 2-disc DVD version, there is actually a slight tilt in favor of the Blu-Ray version as the Video Quality to me anyway, felt more natural and less filtered as the DVD version, the audio was pretty much the 5.1 track from the DVD version but remixed for HD resolution, so only a marginal increase there.

On the extras front, there are only a couple of major exclusives, first is the hall of Armour which gives viewers a chance to examine up close the various Iron Man suits in the movie, personally I think this extra does not do the suits justice as they don’t have the same element of beauty that they had in the film.

Next is a BD-Live trivia quiz, which I have not looked at and last but not least is the teaser and theatrical trailers made for the film on Disc 2, the teaser and main trailers are good but the international trailers aren’t, one gets the feeling these were left off the DVD version due to disc space reasons.

Final Thoughts:

Iron Man is a great entertainment with top notch casting and effects but whilst the current DVD and Blu-Ray versions are good, they aren’t great, one gets the feeling that there will be a better release down the track but the film itself is the reason you should buy this.