Iron Man

For a comic book flick, there's a lot more to Iron Man than simply bone-crunching fight scenes and computer-generated special effects. Robert Downey Jr. brings unusual depth and welcome humor to his characterization of Tony Stark, a millionaire weapons-system manufacturer who becomes disenchanted with his life's work after being critically wounded and captured while touring with American soldiers in Afghanistan. Imprisoned by terrorists, Stark works with another inmate scientist to rig up a weapon-loaded suit of iron to blast his way out of captivity (he later develops a more fully-loaded, streamlined version of the gear), and ultimately finds himself pitted against his renegade business partner (Jeff Bridges), who's been selling Stark-made weapons to Middle Eastern terrorists. Director Jon Favreau maintains fidelity to the long-running Marvel Comics series, while also giving the characters added dimension (under his guidance, Gwyneth Paltrow does an especially good job of fleshing out Stark's Girl Friday, Pepper Potts), and even though the action sequences employ lots of computer-generated imagery, what's really impressive is the staged choreography of the elaborate battle scenes. A flamboyant, colorful, altogether engaging popcorn movie, this is highly recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include the feature-length seven-part “making-of” documentary “I Am Iron Man” (109 min.), “The Invincible Iron Man” six-part history of the Marvel Comics hero (47 min.), a “Wired: The Visual Effects” featurette (27 min.), 11 deleted/extended scenes (24 min.), a six-minute screen test for star Robert Downey Jr., “The Actor's Process” featurette (4 min.), a clip from The Onion website on Iron Man (2 min.), stills galleries, and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray is the “Hall of Armor” 3-D gallery and an I.Q. trivia quiz. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a winning superhero flick.] (E. Hulse)