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The Main Characters
--Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a powerful billionaire industrialist who dons the Iron Man armor to first save his life, then protect innocents from terrorists using his technology.
--Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is Tony’s beautiful secretary, a strong woman who is always there for them and one of the only people Tony can trust.
--Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) is the second in command at Stark Industries and someone Tony considers both a friend and a mentor.
The Setting
Afghanistan, as well as his palatial estate in Malibu, California.
The Film (2:05:53)
The story of Iron Man is quite simple. It was originally a 13-page story in Tales of Suspense back in the early 1960’s in the days of Vietnam, so updating the story to today’s times wasn’t too difficult. Tony is still an industrial billionaire playboy whose Stark Industries makes weapons for the military, and he still ends up over the ocean in a war-torn atmosphere (Afghanistan in the modernization of it all) and he manages to get injured (by his own missile no less) and captured by those terrorists. He has shrapnel heading to his heart and only a battery is keeping the shrapnel from reaching his heart and killing him. He meets a friend while he’s imprisoned who helps him build an iron suit in order to escape his captors and return home. While at home he learns some troubling news. It seems terrorists are getting his weapons from someone, and Tony must don the new and improved armor to find who is dealing his weapons under the table.
Movie Review
I liked my original review which I posted on LiveJournal after watching it on opening night, and my thoughts still stand, so I am going to paste that here. The movie itself I can honestly say, is one of the best comic book movies I have seen in years, right up there with Spider-Man and Batman Begins. It had everything. The intro showed Tony getting captured right away, they show an excellent yet current representation of his origin (captured by whoever the US is fighting at the time and told to build a weapon but he makes Iron Man instead), his villain made sense (Obidiah Stane, the ruthless executive at Stark Industries who builds his own suit of armor), four different variations of the armor, set-ups for next movie (the Ten-Rings terrorist group led by someone who could play Mandarin and a tease of Jim Rhodes and War Machine) and it was just a witty, funny, well-written, and excellent comic book adaptation. There were no glaring plot holes I had problems with (minor gripe is Stane being very familiar with the armor when it took Tony awhile) and the acting was just top-notch. When you get the top stars you will get a great job. Downy Jr. as Tony Stark just fit. He had that playboy mentality down to a T, and his attitude just exuded what we expect of Tony. Gwyneth was just fantastic as Pepper Potts and she had a subtle sensuality about her that shows what Tony sees in her but a professionalism that keeps them apart. Favreau hit a homerun with this movie. SHIELD makes their movie debut and guys, stick around for the end of the credits to see an awesome tag at the end which I won't spoil here. Awesome movie, and this is easily the best comic book movie Marvel has put out, and one of the best ones ever, right up there with the original Superman Movie. ****.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Deleted/Extended Scenes (24:02)
---A) Convoy Ambush (3:27)
This is an extended scene, showing more of Tony inside the jeep being attacked. It doesn’t really add to the scene or anything. Tony does pick up a gun and start firing it.
---B) Craps Table With Tony & Rhodey (1:51)
Tony plays Roulette with Rhodes after the Craps table.
---C) Tony & Rhodey on Stark Jet and Military Ceremony (4:21)
While on the plan, Tony has a stripper’s pole pop out of the ground, as Rhodes quotes Popeye.
---D) Rhodey and General Gabriel (0:52)
The General talks to Rhodes about going back to look for Tony three months after Tony’s been captured.
---E) Tony Comes Home (1:32)
Tony returns home for the first time, and talks to Jarvis.
---F) Tony Begins Mark II (0:52)
Tony works on Mark II with a cool keyboard.
---G) Dubai Party (3:33)
Pepper comes downstairs to see the cars wrecked and the glass shattered, and Tony wants to throw a party in Dubai, right now. Tony shows up and walks off with two gorgeous girls, then picks up a third. Stark later flies off as Pepper sets up the fireworks.
---H) Pepper Discovers Tony As Iron Man (0:52)
Pepper makes the discovery in Dubai, as Tony’s sitting on the chair with his smoldering Iron Man suit.
---I) Obadiah Addresses Scientists (1:55)
Stane still is pissed at the scientists and their ineptitude at making the suit, then gives them a pep talk.
---J) Rhodey Saves Iron Man on Freeway (1:25)
Rhodes saves Iron Man after he’s been tossed around a bit by driving his car into Iron Monger.
---K) Rooftop Battle (3:23)
Pepper makes the generator explode, Monger gets electrocuted but doesn’t fall in yet, allowing Stane and Stark to lie on top of the glass. Stane reaches out for help, and Stark actually holds on. He still ends up falling in when a piece of Tony’s armor falls off. Good, the prick got what he deserved!
2) Iron Man: Armored Adventures (0:59)
This is a one-minute spot for the new Iron Man animated show.
3) Previews (3:48)
These are the same ones that started off the DVD that I mention in the overall review section.
---Disc Two---
1) I Am Iron Man (1:48:56)
This is an incredible 7-part making of featurette. They talk about the movies humble beginnings, which entails quite a bit. Choosing the effects company, and making the original armor. After the armor was made, it was unveiled to Favreau and the rest of the crew. They show some great scenes of the guys and Downey Jr. working with the armor and having it on. Favreau then talks about casting the film, starting with Robert, and saying how Marvel being a new studio didn’t have the shackles that other studios did. One of the crew says that Robert brought his own experiences from prison to the cave scenes. Gwyneth says her first scene in the film was when she danced with Tony Stark, her first big mainstream role since taking time off to be with her kids. Jeff Bridges talks about shaving his head, something he hasn’t done before. Favreau talks about his cameo as Happy Hogan. Robert says he was a big Sgt. Rock fan, so a hero who makes his own armor and uses it is somewhat of a, “nerdgasm,” according to him. Favreau talks about losing 75 pounds of weight from the time filming started to the end of filming. Everyone says that the filming was done in an small, independant film sort of way. Bridges talks about an early script where he wasn’t going to wear the Iron Monger suit, but Mandarin was going to. The script was changed around and Bridges got to wear the suit, to his joy. The final scene filmed was at the casino. The film was made on time, and under budget. That’s impressive. I bet Favreau will be back for the next one. Of course, filming is only one part, and all the editing and visual effects come after the filming was done. They talk a lot about the ending credits sequence, which was pretty cool. They show Favreau seeing the mini-mates toys and wanting to get them, and the person showing him that he can buy them at a store and the reaction was funny. Favreau says that he thinks the film will do well and this may change his career, and some scenes from the red carpet.
2) The Invincible Iron Man (47:03)
This is the always awesome comic-book origin feature, and a history of the comic book character himself. Where else could we start but with Stan and how he came up with the character of Iron Man and Tony Stark. He said Tony couldn’t be a more unlikeable person, due to his money, bravado and good looks, and was based on Howard Hughes. Stan says that of all the books, Tony got the most female fan mail. Gerry Conway makes an appearance on here, and he drew issues of Iron Man back in its Tales of Suspense days. Gene Colan, who had a very long run on the title, is on here, too. Tom Brevoort, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Marvel Universe, talks about Iron Man going into the Avengers and SHIELD days. Odd note, In Gerry’s room he has some Marvel Statues, but some are blurred out? One looks like Daredevil who was in a movie from another studio and that’s probably why. John Romita Jr. talks about doing Iron Man as his first monthly title. Bob Layton is on here, and rightfully so, as one of the great Iron Man inkers. Demon In A Bottle was mentioned and its one of the seminal Iron Man stories, though not in that great detail. Extremis is mentioned, and it is a much newer story than Demon. Warren talks about Extremis and his work on the title. Adi Granov talks about his art on Extremis, as well. Writer Joe Casey talk about the Rogue’s Gallery of Iron Man, especially Mandarin. They do mention Civil War, as Joe Quesada talks about Knauf’s work on the title, post Civil War. Dan and Charlie Knauf shows up on here, too. Patrick Zircher, who drew the Knauf’s storyline, is on here, too. Patrick’s 8 year-old daughter, Genevieve, wanted to be on the DVD with her Iron Man drawing, which was pretty cool. Ellis talks about the Ultimate Human story he wrote which featured Ultimate Iron Man. This was a good look at the Iron Man mythos, but really overlooks the great Michelinie work on the title in the 80’s, from Demon in a Bottle (which they didn’t spend much time on) and the Doom storylines (which were barely touched on). His 90’s comics were completely overlooked, including the Armor Wars and even the animated TV show. It was like, here is Iron Man in the 60’s, stuff happened in between, and now we are at Extremis and Civil War.
3) Wired: The Visual Effects of Iron Man (27:02)
This is all about the Visual Effects, and they talk about shopping around companies, even showing the ILM test for Iron Man, which looks pretty damn good. ILM, The Orphanage, and The Embassy worked on the effects for the film. ILM did most of the work, Embassy did the Mark I stuff, and Orphanage did some of the line work. We take a look at the three different companies and the work they were doing.
4) Robert Downey Jr. Screen Test (6:02)
This is a really cool addition, the screen test of Robert Downey. They show the scene of Tony being questioned by the reporter that he would sleep with. Some of the lines were different but Stark was still his snarky self. They also do the scene where Tony was in the armored car right at the beginning of the movie with entirely different dialogue. Finally there’s a scene with Tony and Rhodes where Tony first tells Rhodes about him being Iron Man.
5) The Actor’s Process (4:11)
Robert and Jeff rehearse a scene with Jon Favreau. This is a lot of fun to see how the actors actually do their work.
6) The Onion Feature (2:39)
The full title is: “Wildly Popular Iron Man Trailer to Be Adapted into Full-Length Film.” This is actually funny, with the Iron Man trailer being made into a full film, from 90 seconds to over 90 minutes, and possibly alienating the trailer’s core fanbase. Just a really funny jab at how comic fans look at the source material and how its made into a movie.
7) Galleries
This is a huge gallery, ranging from Concept Art to Tech to Unit Photography to Posters. I didn’t go through any of them, but there seemed to be a lot of things on there for those interested.
8) Credits
I’ll be honest, I didn’t check this out.
B) Audio/Video
The DVD case features the best thing I ever read about the video format. “This film is in widescreen format. The black bars on the top and bottom of the screen are normal.” Can it be that we are in the year 2008 and people still don’t know what widescreen is? Just a fantastic transfer all around.
C) Packaging / Liner Notes
This has a really cool slipcase, with the very shiny cover and a cut-out where the heart generator in the armor was. You pull out the DVD and it is just Downey as Stark with the generator in his chest. Other than that, there are no other liner notes included.
D) Easter Eggs
---Disc One---
1) Stan Lee (1:52)
To access this, go to the Special Features, highlight Main Menu, and hit left once to highlight the Iron Man logo. Press Enter. This is Stan Lee talking about Robert Downey Jr. Robert says he’s grateful to Stan for creating the character, and Stan he’s grateful for having him play Tony and giving Robert acting tips. This was a nice egg.
Overall Review
The obligatory trailers starts this off. We have a brief look at the Star Trek movie coming out in 2009, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and the Incredible Hulk. This was just an awesome collection. From the close to two-hour making of that stayed interesting the whole time, to the 47-minute comic feature, to the deleted scenes, to of course the awesome movie, this is just a great collection you need to get. It isn’t just a comic-book movie. It really is a genre all its own. It has action, it has adventure, it has humor, it has some fantastic characters and even better actors, and this is for my money one of the best comic book adaptations ever put onto film, and one of the better comic book DVD’s laid to disc. You need to get this now.
Overall Rating
10.0
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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