Iron Man [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray] [2008]

Iron man series is a great collection to have. I purchased all three set to upgrade my original collection to the new 4k version. With the steelbook case, it's a no brainer. Then Best Buy drops the price to $14.99 each which is an added icing on the cake. The part 3 is good. But the 1st two are the best. Happy buyer!!!

Fabulous transfer. No grain. Looked 3D at times. Beautiful steelbook. A bald Jeff Bridges, made a great villian. Sound could of been louder. Doby vision would of even made it better.

Beautiful artwork and finally a 4k release! I love the back cover art progression through the trilogy. Where it all began for the MCU

Yep. This is definitely the Iron Man movie. It showed up 2 days earlier than it’s listed arrival date so that was cool. What wasn’t cool was that the case came snapped it two right out of the shipping package. The discs were fine but I still wouldn't mind having a case that can actually close :P

This was very entertaining and looked great in 4K. I have been waiting to see this, and I’m glad I purchased it.

Comic book films in 2008 were still on unfirm ground, in terms of popularity amongst audiences and critics. Ever since the seemingly one-two punch of critical and box-office failures Steel and Batman & Robin, comic book movies were largely avoided like the plague in the Cineplex and the studio board rooms. Blade released the very next year and did well at the box office though malnourished with some critics, but it was enough to get some more projects off the ground. X-Men, Spider-Man, Hellboy and Batman Begins all helped lift comic book films into new heights, despite the majority of films based on comics released between 2000-2007 were utterly forgettable at best to cinematic infamy at it's worst. But around the time when Fantastic Four and Elektra were disappointing audiences with their underwhelming films, Marvel planted the seeds that would sow the most popular films over the next decade, the legendary MCU. But I didn't think it would work, like at all. I didn't think that an interconnected universe with various comic book characters would appeal to the average Joe. I mean the most hyped film for me in 2008 was The Dark Knight, and I figured that would kill any chances of major lasting power to the MCU, despite a 2 month release difference between those two films. I also figured that hiring past his prime Robert Downey, Jr. and the director of Elf, Jon Favreau, were follies of epic proportions. May 2008 came around and audiences and critics were floored by their love of the newest hot property in town, Iron Man. Most people around that time didn't even know that Tony Stark/Iron Man was a comic book character, they probably knew the Black Sabbath song more than the comics. He didn't have the same recognition as others such as Batman and Spider-Man, but Marvel managed to make the film work. Tony Stark is a genius-playboy-philanrhropist-billionaire weapon manufacturer overseas in Afghanistan demonstrating the latest in Stark technology. After a successful demo, his convoy is attacked by the Ten Rings terrorist group, seriously injuring Stark and killing the rest. The group save Stark from certain death by jerry-rigging a car battery powering a magnet that is keeping the shrapnel from his attack from plunging into his heart. He is ordered to build them a bomb that will kill thousands of people. Partnering with a fellow prisoner/scientist, he decides to build a suit to aid in their escape. After a bittersweet, yet successful, escape, Stark ends his weapon making ways and decides to don the mantle of Iron Man. Trying to balance the tightrope act of protecting his identity as Iron Man, his growing relationship with assistant Pepper Potts (Gywnetth Paltrow) and growing trouble with Stark CEO Obidiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), Ten Rings and the US government, he must do whatever it takes to be Iron Man. I had opted to pass on seeing this in theaters, decidedly waiting on the DVD to come in from Netflix, and view it on my TV. To say I was thrilled with the movie, was an absolute shock! I mean I had saw that everyone loved it, and did amazing box office, but I still was skeptical that it could be that good. Man, I was floored by how the film was that good, and still love it today. Downey, Jr. was the key reason the film worked, that and impressive direction from Favreau, despite never having helmed anything of this scope or calibre. They were a perfect symphony of playing the right notes with the right set of instruments at the correct time and rhythm band pitch. The casting was very impressive, as is the sound, special effects, camera work, set and sound design. The only negative was the screenplay. It wasn't finished before filming, had a fairly standard issue plot, but with the comedic instincts of Favreau, he insisted upon improv, and it works! This film is a great start to the MCU and is a must see for any fans of action or comic book films. The original 2008 DVD and BluRay had some amazing discs are the time, when it came to picture band sound quality, the BluRay especially being a demo worthy disc. Over the course of ten years, the release changed hands from Paramount to Disney, and it kinda scared me, honestly. Disney has grown particularly stingy to extras, has had some still prevalent audio tinkering that requires a change to your audio set-ups and have even used some less-than-ideal DNR to reduce film grain on their 4k discs. Unfortunately, the Disney touch has struck again. The 4k disc carries only the film on the disc, and at first, it looks like a good picture. But then, you start noticing that it looks oddly smoothed over, like it was a digitally shot film. That'd be okay, except this was shot on 35mm film, so it doesn't look as I feel it should. There is still grain present, but it's largely frozen in place on scenes, but luckily the details are still intact. Skin, costumes, sets and colors all benefit from the increased resolution (A 2K DI, so it's an upscaled image) and the HDR10 makes it pop when it's well-lit and colorful. The shadow and blacks are also very nicely resolved and do not suffer from any noticeable crush. Still, I hate how Disney scrubbed the grain away just to make it fall in line with the look of Iron Man 3 (shot digitally, of course). But all is not lost, as the original 2008 disc is included and still looks gorgeous and filmic, as it should! Yes, it's in 1080p, but it upscaled nicely on a 4k tv, though the pleasant HDR10 was missed. The audio has the infamous "At-mouse" sound, that being a Dolby Atmos track, but it's still a nice listen. After turning up the volume a bit, it starts to rock the house with a lovely soundfield that takes advantage of the 11.1 surround sound and sounds relatively nice, despite that flaw. The standard blue still carries the terrific 5.1 DTS-HD track and still packs punch without a need for adjustments! Moving to the extras are also an irritating time, as Disney dropped Disc 2 of the excellent (and OOP, yet easy to find, Paramount 2-disc set) extras disc and just give us the stuff that was on the original single disc. Included is BluRay Live capabilities, an interactive museum of Iron Man suits, and deleted scenes. Despite it having released over a decade ago, it would've been nice of Disney to have Favreau record an audio commentary track for the 10 year anniversary, or at least get the love commentary recorded at an expo 12 years ago. Heck, I would've accepted just the second disc from the original set, but Disney is charging a premium just for a flawed 4k disc and no new extras on disc or even any old extras. Luckily, the digital copy included, does have the missing extras and a brief, all-new featurette, but it's all in vain. It is worth it to own Iron Man, but until a proper 4k release can be had, I'd stick with the standard BluRay for the time being. Unless it's on sale, then by all means snatch it up.

If you don't already know it, this is the film that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Robert Downey Jr. looks like he was born to play this role. His combination of genius, ego, comic, eccentric billionaire industrialist and playboy are morally-challenged when he is kidnapped by terrorists in Afghanistan and he suffers shrapnel wounds to his heart. After he escapes in an "iron suit of armor" made from parts of one of his own company's weapons, he develops a new state-of-the-art iron suit of armor that can fly and has several weapons systems. A journalist finds out that his weapons have fallen into the hands of the terrorists who kidnaped him, and are being used to terrorize the local inhabitants, and challanges him to explain how they got a hold of his company's weapons. He then uses his suit to confront the terrorists and destroy their weapons stockpile. When he finds out that his business partner was behind his kidnapping, and sold his company's weapons to the terrorists, he races against the clock to stop his partner from developing an iron suit of his own and taking over the company. In the end, after defeating his colleague, he admits to the world that he is "Iron Man", and is confronted by a mysterious man who tells him that he has just become part of a much larger, mysterious group of "enhanced individuals". Thus the Marvel Cinematic Universe is born! If you have not seen this movie yet, and you love any of the Avengers and / or other Marvel superheroes other than Spiderman (i.e. Thor, Captain America for starters), then you will really enjoy this terrific movie, and especially R.D. Jr's awesome performance.

There is enough folks out there to describe the movie content so I'll add this - Both blu-ray and 4k look good. The 4k is not a vast improvement in the video but there is enough difference that given the choice, I'd rather play the 4k disc. The digital copy is UHD which is nice since sometimes it is hit and miss if you get UHD. It streams as expected and I would say it looks more like a slightly sharpened blu-ray play. The metal case is very nice and this item was on sale putting it at the same price as a less expensive 4k disc. I think it would make a nice gift due to the metal case and price. The delivery was very odd. It gave one date, then later said it was coming early then gave an update putting it back to a date further out and then delivered the next day. Depending on which link used would give a different date. It did come earlier than the original date (which was a few days) and no real harm done other than having waited for the earlier correction date. BB used US postal services to ship which probably explains things. I picked this item up along with Captain America and Thor. These were the first movies of each series and all remain my favourites. As for Robert Downy Jr., I still get a kick having remembered him in smaller roles of movies such as Weird Science and Back to School and having now graduated to Tony Stark.