Iron Man DVD showcases movie magic

A franchise's Stark beginnings

Robert Downey, Jr. is a marvel as Tony Stark. To witness him having the time of his life as Iron Man especially resonates given the actor's troubled past.

Iron Man, as most people know, arrived in theaters in early May and broke box office records. Its arrival on DVD this week allows fans and new viewers alike to delve deeper into the world that crafted a comic book masterpiece.

Directed by Jon Favreau with such precision it's nice to see his Elf and Made were simply warm up acts. This is a director with a future in Hollywood that could match Spielberg. Hey, it's not heresy. This is Spielberg's biggest fan!

Favreau is also in the film as Downey's driver, and the great cast continues with Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges in his military contracting best, Terrence Howard as the military friend of Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark's trusty assistant.

It is fascinating to watch Paltrow in Iron Man, who normally plays such strong and intelligent women, inhabit a role that is nothing more than eye candy for this film. As the franchise gets going, hopefully, filmmakers will give her more to do.

Iron extras

The extras on the Iron Man DVD are a bounty for any film fan. There are 11 deleted or extended scenes to further wet the appetite for more Iron. An Iron Man animated feature coming to Nicktoons in 2009 gets the full preview in what looks like a fascinating continuation on the small screen of the Tony Stark story.

What DVD would be remiss without including the theatrical previews of varying size, here we get three, and also as this is Marvel's first time as production studio, to see how they've handled their first major blockbuster DVD releases is hardly a surprise. These imaginative minds behind some of comic book cinema's best know how to put together a bonus laden DVD.

The 110-minute documentary I Am Iron Man on the second disc is about as an involved a documentary as I've seen recently that chronicles the sketch to screen process of turning what serves as artwork into cinematic eye candy.

Also, do not miss the Onion's spoof included in disc two. Onion TV takes a dead-on look at the film fanatic and how it would react to the taking a beloved trailer and making it a full feature. "What if they ruin the integrity of the trailer," one anchor asks. For a film like Iron Man that carves its action with light humor, having the Onion piece on the DVD is priceless.

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