BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: After surviving an unexpected attack in enemy territory, jet-setting industrialist Tony Stark builds a high-tech suit of armour and vows to protect the world as Iron Man. Straight from the pages of the legendary comic book, Iron Man is a hero who is built – not born – to be unlike any other!

FILM REVIEW: “Iron Man” is something of a surprise. Given the amount of comic book heroes being given cinematic realisation, this film manages to offer a rather fresh and invigorating superhero unlike any other put to film thus far. A large part of that must go to Robert Downey Jr. who manages to convey the right amount of arrogance, empathy and wit to allow you to believe in his ultra-rich and genius character who manages to build the ultimate weapon for the purpose of doing good in the world. The film is filled with some spectacular visuals, some great action scenes and some wonderful characters which gel together to make a very fun, big Hollywood comic book movie that one can enjoy purely as an entertainment.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is an arrogant billionaire playboy who is also an engineering genius. Through his company he creates the world’s latest weapons. His exotic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse when he is captured by terrorists who are using his weapons to fight America and the free world. Horrified by what he sees, he manages to escape and dedicates his life to putting his talents to good use rather than to profiteering from weapons sales. This does not go down well with his partner Obadiah (Jeff Bridges) who does not want things to change. Building the Iron Man suit, Stark flys out in to the world to stop bad guys from doing their things, leading to some very cool sequences and big spectaculars.

What works so well about this film is the playful tone. One might argue that Tony Stark has a lot in common with Bruce Wayne; they are both playboys, both immensely rich and do not have any superpowers. However Bruce’s story is tragic and dark as he turns becomes Batman, whereas Tony’s is more fun as he uses his arrogance to outsmart the bad guys. Whenever he puts on the suit its just plain cool; he gets to fly around alongside fighter planes, blast bad guys in to oblivion with energy poundings from his hand and fire rockets and guns from his fingertips. Coupled with a rock soundtrack and some very good fight choreography, sequence design and visual effects, and you have a very cool comic book character translated faithfully to the screen.

Robert Downey Jr. is the master-stroke of this film. At its core, “Iron Man” is a film that should only play to five year old boys but somehow Downey Jr manages to make the film more real and accessible to adults. You enjoy watching him go about his business, even if it seems ridiculous that he could be such a genius as to create all these things and pull it off.

The supporting cast are also very good. Jeff Bridges makes for an effective bad guy; he does not reveal himself straight away but you know he will be up to no good with his glaring look. Gwenyth Paltrow is highly effective as Stark’s assistant and manages to get in some good screen time herself with Downey Jr.

Overall, “Iron Man” is a lot of fun, with great action, visuals and characters.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The video transfer for this DVD is sublime, offerring crystal clear pictures, amazing colours with vibrancy and sharpness. The images are glorious to watch. The soundtrack has likewise been brilliantly transferred, making full use of the surrounds with pulsating action sounds that you will hear from every speaker. Overall, this film has been given a great transfer to DVD.

EXTRAS REVIEW: The extras package on this DVD are good, but tend to be somewhat dry and focusing on the technical aspects of the production. There is a 7-part making of documentary which goes in to the establishment of the character and Marvel’s decision to fully fund the film itself. There is history on the character from the comic books, but by and large, the featurettes move to focus on the creation of Iron Man from a technical standpoint which becomes dry after a little while. There are also some deleted/extended scenes, still galleries, subtitles and trailers. Overall, there is a lot of material here to go through but it’s not all interesting.

BOTTOM LINE: Worth having in the collection.