Unless you've been living under a rock recently, you know that comic-book characters are red-hot at the box-office. Instantly recognizable characters like Spider-man, Batman, The Hulk, and Superman have graced the silver-screen as of late, and the film's have been very successful. It stands to reason though, that Hollywood will run out of the truly well-known characters and have to move on to entities which may not be as familiar to the general public. So, we've seen Blade, Daredevil, and The Punisher get their own movies. (Before the fanboys begin firing off e-mails, note that I said that the general public has never heard of them.) Somewhere in the middle of all of this is Iron Man. The character has been around since the 60s and he's had some TV series, but he's not the most popular character of all time. But, as we saw this summer, lack of public recognition means nothing when the movie is well-made.

Robert Downey Jr. stars in Iron Man as Tony Stark, a wealthy industrialist. A genius at building machines, Tony inherited weapons company Stark Industries from his late father. While Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) runs the company on a day-to-day basis, lives the good life as the face of Stark Industries, and he'd rather party and gamble than focus on the company. Tony travels to Afghanistan with his buddy Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Terrence Howard) to demonstrate Stark Industries' latest creation, "Jericho". Following the demo, Tony's convoy is ambushed. He's injured and then taken prisoner. Tony awakens to find himself in a cave, and learns that fellow prisoner, Yinsen (Shaun Toub), has placed an electromagnet in Tony's chest to keep shrapnel away from his heart. Tony's captors, lead by Raza (Faran Tahir), order him to build a Jericho weapon for them. Instead, Tony constructs a suit of battle armor and uses it to escape. Returning home, having seen the ravages of war, Tony decides that Stark Industries should get out of the weapons business, much to the chagrin of Stane. Tony begins to build a smaller, sleeker version of the armor so that he can help those in war-torn countries. But, as Tony will soon learn, it's easier to start a war than to stop one.

One of my pet peeves about movies based on pre-existing material is that the original story is usually contorted into something which is overly convoluted. Thankfully, that isn't the case with Iron Man. The writers have taken the original origin story from the comics, which was set in the Vietnam War, and updated it to the present day. From there, we get a fairly simple tale of how wealthy playboy Tony Stark becomes Iron Man. It will please fans of the comics to see characters like Rhodey, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and "Happy" Hogan (Jon Favreau) present, but it's also a gift to those unfamiliar with Iron Man that the number of peripheral characters is kept to a minimum. While the word "simple" may seem like a negative, keeping things simple and focusing on Tony and the few people that he trusts help to streamline the story and keep the action going.

At one point in the film, Tony Stark says "I am Iron Man". This can be re-worded to say that Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man, as he is the heart and soul of this film. Would the movie have worked with another actor? That’s hard to say, as Downey truly nails this role. Stark calls for an actor who can be arrogant and aloof, but also show a soulful side, and Downey is perfect in this. He also brings a much-needed amount of levity to the role, and as someone who has battled ups and downs in his own life, we feel the sincerity behind Stark’s self-depreciating jokes. The role also called for someone who didn’t strike us as a hero at the outset, and he succeeds here as well. (And, if you’re familiar with the comics, Downey sort of looks like Stark to begin with.)

Movies based on comic books usually suffer from all kinds of pitfalls, but Iron Man manages to avoid most of them. The script is relatively straight-forward, and the cast, especially Downey, is great. Jon Favreau may not have seemed like the most obvious choice for director, but he does a great job with the action scenes, and his background in comedy allows the film to be fun at the same time. Iron Man may not have been the most high-profile character at Marvel, but this great movie has certainly helped to change that.

Iron Man flies onto DVD courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is very sharp and clear, showing only the slightest amount of grain during the desert sequences and no defects from the source material. These desert shots really help to show off the clarity of the image. Both these scenes and the nighttime scenes where Tony tests the armor show that the picture is never too dark or too bright. The colors look very good, most notably the Iron Man armor. I noted some minor video noise at times, but nothing else of concern. The DVD carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which provides clear dialogue and sound effects. This is an impressive track which really accents this movie. Simply listen to the gunshots and ricochets during the cave fight scene and you’ll experience the power of this track as the sounds fly around you. The stereo effects are good, as the surround effects during the battle sequences. We get a good deal of subwoofer actions from the explosions and crashes. Overall, a nice package.