“For comic book fans who have been waiting for a film on the Invincible Iron Man, this film definitely delivers with a lot of action, cool special effects and also a very awesome performance by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.”

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FILM:  IRON MAN

COMPANY: Paramount

DVD INFORMATION: Color, Subtitled, NTSC, Widescreen

RATED: PG-13

DURATION: 125 minutes

Screenplay by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcom,  Matt Holloway

Directed by Jon Favreau

Executive Producers: Louis Desposito, Peter Billingsley, Jon Favreau, Ari Aradm Stan Lee David Maisel

Producer: Avi Arad, Kevin Fege

Editor: Asim Nuraney

Music:  Ramin Djawadi

Director of Photography: Matthew Libatique

STARRING:

Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow

Suit up for Action with Robert Downey Jr. in the ultimate adventure movie you’ve been waiting for, Iron Man!  When jet-setting genius-industrialist Tony Stark is captured in enemy territory, he builds a high-tech suit of armor to escape.  Now, he’s on a mission to save the world as a hero who’s built, not born, to be unlike any other.  Co-starring Gwynneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges, it’s a fantastic, high-flying journey that is “hugely entertaining” (Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal).

I’ve been a big fan of the Iron Man comic book series for such a long time and from the “Tales of Suspense” comic books, as a young child, I would always be into the “Avengers” and even be this happy child with his “Secret Wars” Iron Man toy.

Years before “IRON MAN” became a movie, I’ve always pictured Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.  He had the look and even back then with Downey Jr.’s personal life, there is some instances that mirror Tony Stark’s challenges in the comic books.  So, suffice to say that I was quite happy with him being cast for the film.

As for the the film, I had no doubt in my mind that “IRON MAN” would be a blockbuster hit in the Summer but I purposely waited for it to come out on DVD, so I can watch it on my own personal home theater and watch it with no distractions.

This film focuses on Tony Stark, the millionaire who runs Stark Industries which creates weapons for the military but while on a meeting to the Middle East, Stark’s military escort are gun down and eventually the suave millionaire gets caught in a blast (from weapons created by his company), next thing you know, Stark is being operated on and being held by prisoner by terrorists.

While under captivity, Stark creates his first Iron Man uniform and uses it to escape his captors.  Upon returning back to America, Stark’s perspective of the world and his company has changed.  Also, his goal to develop a more technologically advanced mobile suit armor becomes his obsession and leads him to take on the terrorist who have been using his companies weapons for evil but most of all prepare for the lies and deceptions that await him.

AUDIO & VIDEO:

The version that I am reviewing is the regular widescreen DVD, not the awesome Blu-ray version packed with a lot of extras.  But the audio for this version is Dolby Digital 5.1 and video is widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TV’s.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

This “IRON MAN” DVD version features deleted and extended scenes.   Deleted scenes that I’m glad the director chose to eliminate from the final cut of the film.

There are three versions of this release on DVD/Blu-Ray.  This version is the single disc version, the double disc version features many featurettes including a 108-minute documentary, a six part documentary and more.  The Blu-ray version has received almost perfect stars for its amount of content and BD-Live.  So, if you have a Blu-ray player, the Blu-ray version of “IRON MAN” is what is recommended.

After watching it, I definitely enjoyed the film but like any superhero film, as the first film always focuses on the origin, this series will be judged on its continuing storylines.  Similar to like the “X-Men”, “Spider-Man” and the “Fantastic Four” films, there is always the “origin” that not many people are too enthusiastic about and want to see more battles.

Fortunately, “Iron Man”did offer quite a bit of kick as battles but I loved the scene where Iron Man just rescues a village being terrorized by the enemies.

Again, Robert Downey Jr. did a great job as Tony Star, Jeff Bridges as Obidiah Stane was pretty good.  As for Terrence Howard’s James Rhodes… it was OK but I was expecting more of a no-nonsense Rhodes.  But with Don Cheadle replacing Howard for the next film, I hope that Cheadle can bring the attitude especially if he’s going to be War Machine.

But definitely enjoyed this film.  With “IRON MAN”, unlike any other top tier Marvel superheroes, Robert Downey Jr. has a lot of inner demons to contend with and is such a complex character.  For the comic series, the alcoholism consumed him and I’m curious to see if it happens in the films.   It will definitely be interesting to see how his character is explored and what new Iron Man outfit we will see him sporting next Silver Centurion Iron Man?  Maybe even see some Hulkbuster or Thorbuster?  Who knows.  And of course, there is James Rhodes as War Machine and I look forward in seeing that character come to play in the films.

But all in all, “IRON MAN” was an enjoyable film for the first version.  A lot of action, special effects but definitely would like to see where they go with the characters in the next upcoming film.

All in all, a very cool movie and enjoyed it so much, now I’m going to have to pick up the Blu-ray ultimate edition next!

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“With GIT Corp. no longer releasing the Marvel comic collections on DVD and Marvel now creating their own digital comics portal online, all the GIT Corp. Marvel DVD collections are becoming highly sought after and prices are going through the roof.  But this certain collection, you can find online under $10 and it’s totally worth it!”

BOOK: MARVEL COLLECTOR’S EDITION VOL. 1 - COMIC BOOK LIBRARY

COMPANY: MARVEL COMICS/GIT CORP

Stan Lee Presents X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Hulk.

Before they were movies, they were Marvel.  And now with the Marvel Comic Book Library, you can relive the first 10 adventures of 10 classic Marvel characters on one super-powered CD-Rom.  100 complete comic books with character bios and 3 bonus comics highlight the debut and subsequent storylines of the most famous band of heroes.  Also including The Fantastic Four, Captain America, Avengers, The Sub-Mariner, Iron Man and Silver Surfer.

Their first 10 stories including their debut issue!

Spider-Man (1962), The Incredible Hulk (1962), Daredevil (1964), X-Men (1975), Fantastic Four (1961), Captain America (1964), Avengers (1963), Namor the Sub-Mariner (1962), Iron Man  (1963) and Silver Surfer (1966).

When it was announced that Marvel would create their own digital comics online site (pay a monthly fee), that was the nail in the coffin for GIT Corp’s popular Marvel Complete Collection.

These collections featured the complete collection from issue 1 up to their issues in 2006, including annuals digitally via Lizardtech Software’s DJVU software and Acrobat Reader (in later versions).

And now, these collector’s DVD-Rom’s have skyrocketed in price because GIT Corp. are unable to sell them anymore and with a lot of these films being released in theaters, people have interest in the classics.

Fortunately, “MARVEL COLLECTOR’S EDITION VOL. 1 - COMIC BOOK LIBRARY” is the cheaper of the Marvel releases which people can find online for under $10.

But as a fan of the classic comic book series (and having quite a large collection of comic books that I’ve had since I was a kid up to my college years), to obtain the classics, you would either read them via tradepaperback, re-release issues or what you read from your library when you were much younger.

And if you want to read a lot of these, you would have to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars if you were hardcore.  Sure, now you can read them online from Marvel’s website which cost a monthly fee and you read them online.

But with GIT Corp. CD’s, you can read them without having to go online.  Everything was on one DVD and it was so convenient.  I literally just lay back on my bed, grab by laptop and just read these issues.

Around 2003, GIT Corp. released this collection featuring the first 10 issues of major comic book titles from Marvel.

• Avengers Issues - #1-10
• Captain America/Tales of Suspense - Issues #59-68
• Daredevil - Issues #1-10
• Fantastic Four - Issues #1-10
• The Incredible Hulk - Issues #1-6 and Tales to Astonish - Issues 60-63
• The Invincible Iron Man - Tales of Suspense - Issues #39-48
• Silver Surfer - Issues #1-10
• The Amazing Spider-Man - Issues #1-9 and Amazing Fantasy - Issue #15
• Sub Mariner/Tales to Astonish - Issues #70-79
• X-Men Issues #94-102 and Giant-Size X-Men Issue 1

You get a lot of issues, 100 comics and again, you can find this collection for under $10.  That’s awesome!

To access the DVD on your PC or Mac, you need to install the viewing software included on the DVD.  Then you will  need to have Internet Explorer (sorry, this DVD is older and doesn’t not utilize Safari or Firefox and other browsers).  You will see an HTML of all characters (as shown above) and when you click on the character, you will see the comic book covers.

By clicking on the comic covers, you will then access the software which displays the comic page.  On the left hand side, you can click on the page you want to read or use the arrows above.  Interesting thing is you can read the comics in black or white, see how it looks without the color and then of course, normally.

There are no ads or letter to the editor, Stan’s Soap Box or anything like that in this collection (many people requested for those to be included and they were in later comic collection versions).

The pages do have a Marvel Comics watermark in the bottom corner and if you want to print the pages out, you have that ability.

Now, I had no problems installing and viewing everything on an XP machine.  It worked on  my PC Laptop just fine.  But as for my newer Mac, this is where things got a little problematic.

There is no Internet Explorer for newer Mac’s.  Microsoft stopped making a browser for it years ago and you can’t use Firefox, Safari, Opera, Camino, etc.   And the software included is dated.  So, I had to go to Lizard Tech’s Website and download the latest viewing software (note: version 4.0 is included on the DVD but the latest version for the Mac is 6.3).

Then I would have to open up the disc via the finder and go to each comic book file folder and right click to open the comic via the software.  So, in other words, I had to open things up manually.

Granted, it’s not difficult but if you are not computer savvy, I can see this being problematic.

But outside of that, everything worked very well.

You really can’t beat this collection.  10 comic books of each major character.  And the fact that “Daredevil” and “Sub-Mariner” will no longer be released as a collection, I highly recommend this collection.

Now granted, fans of the Mighty Thor or Ghost Rider will be wondering what about their characters and why they are not featured.  I felt the same way but still for the price and for what is featured, it’s still worth the money.

My gosh, you can find this collection for $6-$10 online.  The price is just so low these days for it while the other collections are going up in price (Iron Man which was $39.99 is sold for $139.99 these days).

Mac owners (especially with newer systems) may have some problems but again, if you are computer savvy, you shouldn’t have problems but if you’re not, then yeah, it will get frustrating.  PC owners, should have no problems.

As for the free 3 free bonus comics, this is via subscription and I think this deal is way over.  So, no need to even worry about that.

The bios for each character were quite cool to read and glad they included it on this collection.

To conclude the review, if you are a fan of the classic stories or interested in the original stories of these super heroes, this collection is worth it!  Also, for the price, it’s good to check it out and see if it’s for you and if you are willing to shell out and get the other collections available.

100 classic digital comics of the top Marvel heroes for under $10.  Can’t beat that!  Definitely… highly recommended!

BUY THIS DIGITAL COMIC BOOK COLLECTION ON DVD TODAY!

Marvel Entertainment and Madhouse have teamed up and have given the anime studio known for “Ninja Scroll”, “Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust”, “Trigun” and “Deathnote” (to name a few) a chance to make a Japanese anime series adaption based on the popular american comic hero.

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Image courtesy of Supponichi