Iron Man

Iron Man is rapidly becoming the poster hero for the Blu-ray generation. Paramount says that Shellhead shifted 500,000 Blu-rays on its first day of release in the US, with a huge percentage of the movie's overall sales going to the Blu-ray format.

Retail data suggests in certain locations as much as 30 per cent of copies sold of the movie were in BD format. In comparison, the mega-blockbuster I am legend on Blu-ray made up 9 per cent of its disc sales. Rarely has a film seemed better suited to Blu-ray.

The image, framed at 2.35:1, is breathtakingly sharp and detailed. The AVC encode is one of the nicest I've seen on the format.

The hi-def picture doesn't reveal flaws in the FX, more celebrates their authenticity. The visual effects look gorgeous, with the CG suit seamlessly integrated with both physical effects and the location shoots. The Afghanistan armour is a tour de force of animation that is only really appreciated when you see the work that went into it on the disc's visual effects documentary. And then there's the movie's lossless Dolby TrueHD sound mix, which is titanic, offering sensational clarity and imaging positioning with manifold LFE.

As a movie, Iron Man isn't as great as the sum of its parts might intimate, and it suffers from its rather predictable villain and climax, but the individual sequences which comprise Stark's back-story are sublime. From the opening ambush to his first flight in the IM duds, the chapters are tight, exciting and kick major AV butt. There are obviously similarities in approach to Christopher Nolan's Batman reboot, but star Downey's wisecrackin' makes for a much more likeable hero than Bale's brooding crusader.

The two disc edition also features a raft of interesting supplemental content, although I immediately felt cheated that there wasn't a commentary track. At the very least I wanted a Bonus View PIP with Favreau, but I got nada.

That said, you'll not feel too shortchanged. One of the best extras is The Invincible Iron Man (rated 4/5), a 47min documentary in HD which covers key aspects of the character, from his origin through to his Ultimate re-invention.

There are plenty of industry talking heads which will stoke up comic fanboys, including Stan Lee (pictured), Gerry Conway, Gene Colan, Tom Brevoort, John Romita Jr, Bob Layton, Warren Ellis and Joe Quesada. It's comic book geek heaven!

Also fascinating is Wired: The Visual Effects of Iron Man (rated 5/5), a self-explanatory 27m feature which covers the creation of the various special effects by a trio of FX houses, and I Am Iron Man (rated 4/5), a comprehensive making-of documentary that covers most aspects of the film's production, which runs for close to two hours.

Other diversions of note include a selection of deleted and extended scenes, which are moderately interesting; Robert Downey Jr's screen test and a scene walkthrough with co-star Jeff Bridges; an Iron Man skit from The Onion; four trailers and a cool photo/art gallery.

The latter is intriguing as the production designs for Obadiah Stane's Iron Monger suit are clearly tagged as Iron Man's better known Soviet nemesis, the Crimson Dynamo. A touch of cold war zest would have really brought the second half of the picture to life, methinks.

The disc is also BD Live enabled. The BD Live feature offers the opportunity to take part in an in-movie trivia game. 10 Iron Man IQ quizzes are available, 'carefully crafted by Marvel Entertainment' to see how much you know about the movie and the comics.

These appear as an overlay on video and are reasonable value. A future download promises to allow viewers to create and post their own IQ challenges over the movie.

A surprise box-office hit, it's no surprise that Jon Favreau has been given the green light to complete an Iron Man trilogy, with the mandarin as the big bad guy, while the Avengers teaser tacked on after the end credits is certain to excite fans further. With Robert Downey Jr's appearance at the close of The Incredible Hulk, and that movie's Easter Egg of Captain America it's clear that Marvel intends to create an interlocking, coherent movie universe which reflects its comic book world.

Favreau though has his doubts about making an Avengers movie work, particularly selling the concept of Thor to modern movie-goers. 'We were very restrained with how we used our superhero-ism in our movie,' he says, 'and we did that by keeping it all tech-based.

OK, I could maybe buy that with the super soldier thing, but how do you make that all feel of the same world that our movie does? That's going to be the challenge moving forward.'

Overall, Iron Man should be considered an essential purchase for any Blu-ray owner. It's an immaculate, inspirational release for the format that you'll want to spin time and again.

Paramount Home Video, All-region Blu-ray, £30, On sale from October 27
HCC VERDICT: 5/5