Iron Man Ultimate Two-Disc Edition Blu-ray

Visual effects movies such as Iron Man are perfect for high-definition screening, and this invincible superhero delivers, with his metallic red and gold suit shining and repulsor ray explosions bursting out of the subwoofers. The movie itself is the star, but fans will be pleased to see that Paramount has not skimped on the extras. The seven-part making-of documentary—which is full of behind-the-scenes secrets—is so extensive, it might have to be watched in two sittings. A BD-exclusive feature allows fans to explore all of Iron Man’s suits with 360-degree displays and zoom in functions for detailed information about what each part does. Even fans of the comic books will be pleased, particularly with the interesting featurette on the character’s origins.

Shelf Talk: Iron Man is the first of the big summer box-office tentpoles to be released on DVD and Blu-ray and will do good business based on its fan base alone. The audio and video is so good on the DVD that the Blu-ray is only slightly sharper. However, the film is squarely in the early adopter demographic, and Paramount has included BD-only features (a BD Live Iron Man IQ and “Hall of Armor”) to entice consumers to choose the high-def release.