Today's Show:
There's never a bad reason to watch another Blu-ray movie, especially if that movie is about a Marvel comics hero. We've compiled lists in the past of our favorite DVDs to use to show off a home theater. It seems like just about every Blu-ray movie coming out these days can easily be added to the list - for sure the block-bluster movies from the big studios. Iron Man is no exception. If you're looking for a fun movie that looks and sounds great, look no further.

Iron Man on Blu-ray from Paramount Pictures
(Ultimate Two-Disc Edition + BD Live, Buy Now)

Key Tech Specs:

• Released 2008, 125 minutes running time, Rated PG-13
• Video 1080p MPEG-4 AVC
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Audio Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
• Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• 50GB Blu-ray Disc Two-disc set

Impression:
Was there really ever any doubt that the studio that brought you Transformers on HD-DVD, then made it even better (at least audio-wise) on Blu-ray would hit it out of the park again with Iron Man? We don't think so. From a technical point of view the movie was excellent. Video was as good as any Blu-ray disc we've seen. Colors were bright and vivid when they needed to be, like when Iron Man was flying through the air or fighting bad guys, and somewhat muted and gritty when they needed to be, like when Tony was in captivity or walking through the desert. We didn't see any visual artifacts or discoloration. At points we tried hard to analyze the video quality, but we'll admit that there were some scenes we were just too drawn into to really care. (We went back and watched those, and analytically they looked just as good as everything else.)

Of course high definition isn't complete without the surround sound audio, and this disc made sure every speaker in your 5.1 system had something important to do. There has always been so much potential for amazing surround sound in home theater, but it hasn't been until the new codecs like Dolby TrueHD that we've really seen it come to life. You can almost feel Tony crashing into walls or destroying incredibly expensive cars. In fact, with the subwoofer cranking, you can feel it. While some movies use the surround channels for obvious stuff like fly-bys and explosions, Iron Man uses every speaker for discrete effects, even small effect, in a way that really brings you into the middle of the movie. You feel like you're in the cave, or flying through the air, or sitting in a press conference. It's awesome.

The main disc also feature some interactive quizzes about the movie, the comic character and the cast for those with BD-Live capable players. The presentation is nice, but there really isn't anything there that would make you want to get the disc. Luckily the movie itself is reason enough. When the disc first launched everyone tried to access the BD-Live server and once and brought them to their knees. It's been out long enough now that we didn't have any trouble with it. Beyond BD-Live, one really cool aspect of this disc - which sets it apart from many others - is that all of the special feature videos are in high definition. Pretty cool if you're into that sort of thing.

Other Features:

• "The Invincible Iron Man"
• Hall of Armor
• Deleted/Extended Scenes
• "I Am Iron Man"
• "Wired: The Visual Effects of Iron Man"
• Rehearsal Footage - "The Actor’s Process"
• Still Gallery
• Theatrical Trailers

Conclusion:
In the interest of full disclosure, Braden must admit that he owns a couple of T-Shirts with the Avengers on them, and has an Iron Man and a Captain America bobble head on his desk, right next to the Optimus Prime helmet. But that doesn't make us impartial. It's a fun movie. Very well made, it executes at a fluid and steady pace that never seems to drag or lose your attention. And on top of that it's one of the best Blu-ray movies we've seen yet. This is one you may want to buy.

Posted by The HT Guys, November 24, 2008 11:03 PM