IRON Man (Cert 12, 121 mins, Paramount Home Entertainment, Action/Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/two-disc DVD £24.99/Blu-ray £29.99) Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, Shaun Toub, Faran Tahir.
Inventor and consummate playboy Tony Stark (Downey Jr) is CEO of global weapons manufacturing business Stark Industries.
During a demonstration of the devastating Jericho missile close to Bagram air base in Afghanistan, insurgents capture Tony and compel him to build another Jericho missile, this time to engage American forces.
Instead, Tony orchestrates a daring escape with fellow prisoner of war Yinsen (Toub), wearing a crude, yet ultra-strong, suit of armour.
Found wandering the desert by his good friend, Lieutenant Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Howard), Tony returns home a changed man and announces the immediate shutdown of the weapons manufacturing arm of Stark Industries.
Unfortunately, members of the board including Obadiah Stane (Bridges) have other ideas and freeze Tony out. He is soon fighting for control of his own company, aided by feisty assistant Virginia “Pepper” Potts (Paltrow).
Iron Man is terrifically entertaining, fuelled by Jon Favreau’s kinetic direction, strong performances and some thrilling action sequences.
The central role of the billionaire industrialist, whose conscience is pricked after a brush with death, fits Downey Jr like a titanium-plated glove.
He’s charming and roguish yet reckless with other people’s emotions, and he galvanises a sizzling screen chemistry with Paltrow as the beautiful personal assistant who barely flutters an eyelash at her employer’s endlessly array of one-night stands.
Favreau devotes the majority of the opening hour to developing characters then lights the fuse on an action-oriented second half, awash with spectacular visual effects courtesy of the technical wizards at Industrial Light & Magic.
A post-end credits scene whets our appetite nicely for the sequel in 2010.
DVD Extras: Deleted and extended scenes; two-disc: deleted and extended scenes, seven-part “I Am Iron Man” featurette (The Journey Begins, The Suit That Makes The Iron Man, The Walk Of Destruction, Grounded In Reality, Beneath The Armour, It’s All In The Detail, A Good Story, Well Told), six-part “The Invincible Iron Man” featurette (Origins, Friends & Foes, The Definitive Iron Man, Demon In A Bottle, Extremis And Beyond, Ultimate Iron Man), “Wired: The Visual Effects Of Iron Man” featurette, Robert Downey Jr screen test, “The Actor’s Process” scene rehearsal with cast, The Onion “Wildly Popular Iron Man Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film”, image galleries; Blu-ray: deleted and extended scenes, seven-part “I Am Iron Man” featurette (The Journey Begins, The Suit That Makes The Iron Man, The Walk Of Destruction, Grounded In Reality, Beneath The Armour, It’s All In The Detail, A Good Story, Well Told), six-part “The Invincible Iron Man” featurette (Origins, Friends & Foes, The Definitive Iron Man, Demon In A Bottle, Extremis And Beyond, Ultimate Iron Man), “Hall Of Armour” featurette, “Wired: The Visual Effects Of Iron Man” featurette, Robert Downey Jr screen test, “The Actor’s Process” scene rehearsal with cast, The Onion “Wildly Popular Iron Man Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film”, BD Live: Iron Man IQ, image galleries, theatrical trailers.
Rating: Four out of five.
| 
