Iron Man - The Ultimate 2-Disc Edition product reviews

This is the beginning of a beautiful thing. Marvel finally getting it right, with respects to their superheroes. After the flop that was "Hulk", I had hung onto the hope that something would come of Iron Man. And I was not let down.

Initially, Robert Downey Jr. was too arrogant to me. His character, Tony Stark, was narcissistic to a level that I wanted to see him blown up, but as the movie moved on it became more apparent as to why he was this way. He is the man that has everything. Rich. Smart. Famous. Women wanted him, and men wanted to be him.

But one near-death experience, that left him living in a constant state of near-death, showed him the errors of his ways, and made him take responsibility for his creations. In an ass-kicking way.

The evolution of the Iron Man suit, is a trend that continues throughout the following sequels, and the evolution of Tony Stark as a character, as he consistently rises up again, after every time he gets cut back down. Overcoming weaknesses and turning them into strengths, Iron Man shows the ability to win with both brute force AND intelligence.

A stellar performance that kicked off the Marvel Universe for the silver screen, and an instant classic.

As a kid I used to read the occasional "Iron Man" comic, and always thought they were pretty cool but just another comicbook hero... and not even an alien or supernatural one at that... just a good guy in a suped-up tin suit.

That attitude stayed with me for years... until I finally gave in to the nagging and took my family to see this movie. Afterwards, I went home and dug out all my old comics and sat down to enjoy some R&R, sun, and comic infusion. Seeing the comic through older eyes, it was a revelation. But back to the movie...

If rumours are to be trusted, the script wasn't fully finished when filming began, and Robert Downey Jr had to ad-lib much of the dialogue... I could easily believe this, as it flowed with a natural pace and in more than one scene I spotted a few confused faces as actors tried to figure out a quick reply to something unexpected... such as when "Tony Stark" asked all the reporters to sit down at the press conference... a bit of careful frame-by-frame'ing and some lip-reading showed a few faces givving "Say what? Are we supposed to do this or not?" type comments/expressions. I love it when they do things like that... it gives it a much more 'real-world' feel. It's the little things that make the movie...

After looking in to the behind-the-scenes info about the movie, it is clear to see why this movie topped the box-office so fast and so hard... so much went into the film, in terms of time, effort and design, that it would have shocked me to see it fail. I am, however, *very* glad that back in 1999 when first attempts were made to film it, that Quentin Tarantino failed to follow through, though it would have been absolutely great to have seen Joss Whedon's interpretation of it, if his attempt had been successful in 2001.

Overall, if you like seriously action-packed, humour-filled, seat-gripping movies, you simply have to get this... although you probably have by now anyway. With the bumper crop of bonus extras, the 2-disc Ultimate Edition is well worth getting, but if you are just after the movie, there is a 1-disc version out too.