Blu-ray Review #68: Iron Man 3

4.7 Stars (out of 5) - Rated PG-13 Synopsis

Tony Stark/Iron Man faces an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him.

Starring:

Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau

Director:

Shane Black

Blu-ray Release Date:

September 24, 2013

Subtitles:

English SDH, French, Spanish

Rating

Overall rating weighted as follows:

Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt

Audio 5.0 Stars (out of 5)

Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison

● Subwoofer – 5.0 Stars

● Dialog – 5.0 Stars

● Surround Effects – 5.0 Stars

● Dynamic Range – 5.0 Stars

English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, French: DTS-HD HR 7.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1

The subwoofer never lets up and delivers hefty punches, concussive gunshots, and deep wide explosions that rumble the couch. The witty dialog never gets lost in the action, and can always be clearly heard. Rear speakers always have something interesting to hear whether it be breaking glass, whipping helicopter blades, a waves of water, or the jets from the Iron Man suits.

Video 5.0 Stars (out of 5)

Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison

● Color Accuracy - 5.0 Stars

● Shadow detail – 5.0 Stars

● Clarity – 5.0 Stars

● Skin tones – 5.0 Stars

● Compression – 5.0 Stars

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Colors are natural and helped feature orange glowing skin, various colored Iron Man suits, fireworks, lights on Christmas trees, and tons of balls of fire. Some scenes are very dark, but this Blu-ray does a marvelous of keeping shadows inky dark without compromising on too much detail. Clarity was clean and made easy to see beard hairs, wrinkles on skin, blood on faces, and tiny scratches on metal.

Bonus Features 3.5 Stars (out of 5)

● Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter (HD, 15 minutes): Girl power, circa WWII, comes courtesy of Marvel's latest entertaining "One-Shot" short film: Agent Carter, starring Hayley Atwell as Steve Rogers' wartime flame Peggy Carter.

● Audio Commentary: Director/co-writer Shane Black and co-writer Drew Pearce

● Iron Man 3 Unmasked (HD, 11 minutes): A behind-the-scenes featurette that offers a lot of great information before wrapping much too quickly.

● Deconstructing the Scene: Attack on Air Force One (HD, 9 minutes): A breakdown of the action sequence that took place on a mock up Air Force One.

● Deleted and Extended Scenes (HD, 16 minutes)

● Exclusive Look at Thor: The Dark World (HD, 2 minutes)

● Gag Reel (HD, 5 minutes)

● Restore the Database Second Screen Experience (HD)

Movie – 4.5 Stars (out of 5) Review

Iron Man 3 is one of Marvel’s best movies, it’s full of excitement, good acting, and has a decent plot. A large portion of the action happens when Tony Stark is out of the armor, and it’s just as entertaining as if he was. This movie fits tightly into the Marvel universe and it’s required that least you watch The Avengers before this movie. There were a few political messages in the film, but it doesn’t hit you over the head with them. It ended in a way I didn’t expect but I found it satisfying. I was afraid that since Jon Favreau (who directed the first 2 Iron Man films) didn’t direct this one, it would lose some of the Marvel magic. However, Shane Black did great job of balancing the Stark’s emotional issues, funny moments, and lots of action to make an awesome superhero movie.