While, by 2008, there had been other superhero movies like Spiderman and the original Fantastic Four movies made and relatively successful, this is the first movie in what would become a 20+ movie and counting franchise of movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that has dominated not only the superhero movie genre but really the movie landscape as a whole for more than a decade.
The movie is the origin story of Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) and his superhero alter-ego, Iron Man. Stark is an ultra-rich, ultra-smart, and sometimes too smooth for his own good, tech genius. He is the head of Stark Industries which is basically a weapons developer that makes weapons for the military and anyone who is the highest bidder. After a demonstration of his newest missile technology for the military in a fictitious middle-eastern country, the convoy he is in is attacked and he is taken, prisoner and forced to make a missile for a group of terrorists. Instead of making them a missile, he develops the first Iron Man suit, breaks out, and upon being rescued, he determines to take the company in a new direction and develop a better suit that he can use to fight bad guys.
The movie has a great supporting cast including Gweneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Tony's assistant and potential love interest, Terrance Howard as James Rhodes, Tony's friend and military liaison, Jon Favreau whom both directed the movie and played Happy Hogan, Tony's driver, Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane, a partner in Stark Industries, Leslie Bibb as reported Christine Everhart, Paul Bettany as the voice of Jarvis, Tony's artificially intelligent assistant, and Clark Gregg, as Phil Coulson.
For those who get the 4k Disc, the movie looks very good in the UHD format, but it does not get as good a video upgrade as some of the other movies have. It is probably not something you would likely notice unless you are a big-time A/V wonk, but it is not a giant video upgrade over the Blu-Ray disc. The audio upgrade to Dolby Atmos is wonderful and the movie sounds great even if you have a modest sound system. For extras, they are somewhat sparse. There is a Hall of Armor interactive gallery with details about the different versions of the Iron Man suits in the movie, about 23 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, and a six different featurettes under the title "The Invincible Iron Man" that can be played all together at one time, that is essentially an hour-long documentary on the history of the character in the comics. It is important to note, that when the movie was originally released on Blu-Ray, it was released in various retailer exclusives that had different bonus content. None of that exclusive content was brought over to this one, so if you have a retailer exclusive Blu-Ray then you will want to keep that one as well (if the extras are important to you).
Overall, the movie is great. Had the movie not worked, there probably never would have been an MCU, and at the time, casting Robert Downey Jr. as essentially in the lead role of not only this movie but the leader of many of the movies that would come after that was a huge risk given his history of drug abuse.. You can tell that he took the role (and the movie) very seriously, and was perfectly cast for the role of Tony Stark. But really, all of the actors did a wonderful job in their roles, whether large or small. I highly recommend the movie if you are a fan of action and/or superhero movies. Whether it is worth the double-dip to upgrade from the Blu-Ray (assuming you purchased the Blu-Ray when it was first released on disc) is hard to say. If you have a great home-theater setup (or plan to build one) then it probably is. If not, the regular Blu-Ray is probably fine.
The movie is the origin story of Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) and his superhero alter-ego, Iron Man. Stark is an ultra-rich, ultra-smart, and sometimes too smooth for his own good, tech genius. He is the head of Stark Industries which is basically a weapons developer that makes weapons for the military and anyone who is the highest bidder. After a demonstration of his newest missile technology for the military in a fictitious middle-eastern country, the convoy he is in is attacked and he is taken, prisoner and forced to make a missile for a group of terrorists. Instead of making them a missile, he develops the first Iron Man suit, breaks out, and upon being rescued, he determines to take the company in a new direction and develop a better suit that he can use to fight bad guys.
The movie has a great supporting cast including Gweneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Tony's assistant and potential love interest, Terrance Howard as James Rhodes, Tony's friend and military liaison, Jon Favreau whom both directed the movie and played Happy Hogan, Tony's driver, Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane, a partner in Stark Industries, Leslie Bibb as reported Christine Everhart, Paul Bettany as the voice of Jarvis, Tony's artificially intelligent assistant, and Clark Gregg, as Phil Coulson.
For those who get the 4k Disc, the movie looks very good in the UHD format, but it does not get as good a video upgrade as some of the other movies have. It is probably not something you would likely notice unless you are a big-time A/V wonk, but it is not a giant video upgrade over the Blu-Ray disc. The audio upgrade to Dolby Atmos is wonderful and the movie sounds great even if you have a modest sound system. For extras, they are somewhat sparse. There is a Hall of Armor interactive gallery with details about the different versions of the Iron Man suits in the movie, about 23 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, and a six different featurettes under the title "The Invincible Iron Man" that can be played all together at one time, that is essentially an hour-long documentary on the history of the character in the comics. It is important to note, that when the movie was originally released on Blu-Ray, it was released in various retailer exclusives that had different bonus content. None of that exclusive content was brought over to this one, so if you have a retailer exclusive Blu-Ray then you will want to keep that one as well (if the extras are important to you).
Overall, the movie is great. Had the movie not worked, there probably never would have been an MCU, and at the time, casting Robert Downey Jr. as essentially in the lead role of not only this movie but the leader of many of the movies that would come after that was a huge risk given his history of drug abuse.. You can tell that he took the role (and the movie) very seriously, and was perfectly cast for the role of Tony Stark. But really, all of the actors did a wonderful job in their roles, whether large or small. I highly recommend the movie if you are a fan of action and/or superhero movies. Whether it is worth the double-dip to upgrade from the Blu-Ray (assuming you purchased the Blu-Ray when it was first released on disc) is hard to say. If you have a great home-theater setup (or plan to build one) then it probably is. If not, the regular Blu-Ray is probably fine.
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