I am Iron Man

Introduction

Another comic book creation from the mind of Stan Lee arrives on DVD. This time around your hero is a billionaire genius weapons manufacturer called Tony Stark who finds out that necessity really is the mother of invention, which leads him to create a suit of armour with a one or two little bits of technology added... Not everybody is excited by his new invention though, and some of his colleagues are distinctly shifty...

Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow, this was one of the big blockbusters of 2008.

Video and Audio

I think we are finally reaching a point where these sections are becoming redundant for big Hollywood blockbusters. The video and audio are both excellent as you would expect and there's nothing whatsoever to moan about. It looks and sounds great, and only if it didn't would I need to go on about it here. When DVD was the new shiny thing on the block, this stuff was important, but now you really can take it as read that the technical bits of the disc will usually be great if they follow so quickly on from the cinema release.

Extra Features

This is where the "meat" is.

On disc 1 there are a reasonable selection of deleted and extended scenes, and as usual it's pretty easy to spot why these were cut, although there are one or two that they could probably have left in. Worth seeing anyway.



Disc 2 is where everything else is to be found.

There are 2 big documentary features, one concentrating on the making of the film, and the other looking at the Iron Man comics and how things have evolved.

The one about the film will have the biggest audience, the one about the comics might have a smaller potential viewing population. They are both very good and certainly worth watching if you enjoy this kind of thing.

There are also smaller features such as "Wired: The Visual Effects of Iron Man", screen test footage, rehearsal footage, image galleries and an amusing little Onion sketch "Wildly Popular Iron Man Trailer to be Adapted into Full Length Film".

Conclusion

You are probably approaching this in one of two camps. Either you saw the film at the cinema and loved it (and want to check out the DVD before buying) or you are wondering if you should watch this.

I think that you should. Yes, it's a superhero story. Yes, it's from a comic-book. Yes, it's all a bit over the top sometimes. But it's good fun and there is some intelligence here, so it's not just mindless action all the way. It has just that bit from than your average all-action blockbuster. Yes there is a character called Pepper Potts, but the film is all about Tony Stark and how he changes. There's action mixed with a little thinking.



And there's going to be a sequel, so you'll need to watch this one first to get all that character development and back story out of the way. The next one will probably be a lot more action oriented. That's not to say that there's no action in this film, just that a delicate balance has been struck between action and introducing the characters.

So, in summary a good film, well worth watching if you're a fan of the genre, if you're just casually acquainted with it or if you just like an action film to have something other than just pure action.