The Invincible Iron Man Blu-ray offers solid video and great audio, but overall it's a mediocre Blu-ray release
Past and present collide in this epic adventure that reveals the origin of Iron Man. While
raising the ruins of a long buried Chinese kingdom, billionaire inventor Tony Stark digs up
far more than he bargained for. He unleashes an age-old prophecy that foretells the
resurrection of the Mandarin, the emperor of China's darkest and most violent dynasty. In
order to confront the destructive force, Tony creates an armored suit infused with high-tech
weaponry. To stop the evil that he himself has raised form the earth, Tony must become his
greatest invention ever - Iron Man! The newly born champion must travel to the four corners
of the earth to battle the Mandarin's henchmen, the Elementals - four magical warriors who
harness the power of the elements - earth, water, wind, and fire - with deadly chemistry.
But is the Iron Knight, as he his known in the prophecy, strong enough to defy fate and turn
back the malevolent forces hell-bent on earth's destruction?
It might have come before 2008's mega-blockbuster Iron Man, but the
animated The Invincible Iron Man nevertheless finds itself dwarfed by Director Jon
Favreau's fan favorite and genre-defining comic book adaptation in stature, style, and strength. It's
not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, seeing as the difference in visual style, story, talent,
and budget is so great between the two films, but The Invincible Iron Man isn't merely or
unjustly shrouded by its live-action counterpart. No, this animated adventure falls apart on its own
merits, coming up short in nearly every crucial facet: voice acting, script, and most importantly,
story. Tedious, tiresome, and trite, The Invincible Iron Man plods along with stale fight
scenes, choppy animation, bad dialogue, poorly-developed characters, and sluggish pacing, all of
which
equal a dud of a movie that's of poor quality from top to bottom, but looks even worse when
compared to the genius of the live-action adaptation.
I believe I can fly!
James 'Rhodey' Rhodes (Rodney Saulsberry) is heading up an expedition in China at the behest of
Stark Industries in hopes of unearthing an ancient city. Little does he know that some believe
that with the city will come the rise of the Mandarin, an ancient evil that need be kept at bay at
all costs. When a group determined to prevent the Mandarin's return -- the Jade Dragons --
kidnap Rhodes, Tony Stark (Marc Worden) heads to China to investigate. His convoy ambushed,
Stark barely survives and he finds himself imprisoned with his colleague where he is tasked with
developing a weapon that will prevent the Mandarin's rise to power. Instead, Stark constructs an
advanced suit of armor that aids his escape and sets in motion a series of events that lead him to
fulfill ancient prophecy and do battle with elemental creatures bent on assuring the Mandarin's
return to power.
Other than its good sound design, it's a stretch to find any positives about this disappointing
animated adventure. Of the film's laundry list of negatives, it's the disjointed and completely
uninteresting story that seals the deal early on and overshadows the plethora of additional
problems that take a backseat to the poorly-realized plot that's never in the least bit interesting.
With no sense of urgency, no likable characters, dry voice acting, terribly mediocre animation,
unassuming villains, and dull action scenes, the film would be doomed even with a halfway
palatable or even partially engaging story line, but The Invincible Iron Man collapses
before many of its secondary problems even take shape. From the get-go, there's no sense of
adventure and no feeling of impending danger or doom; the entire story lacks in purpose and
direction, and every segment feels rushed, both visually and thematically. The story lacks
substance and, more importantly, fails to provide to its audiences a reason to care about the
characters that populate it or even
the outcome itself.
As to the additional problems, they don't get a free pass just because they seem lessened by or
lost under the
insipid story and substandard plot developments. For starters, characters are terribly
one-dimensional, with
Tony Stark's listless procedural mannerisms and blank facial expressions barely showing a hint of
the character's famed playboy, carefree mentality and physical verve and vigor. When the lead
character in the film -- particularly considering his rich history in the comics -- is this dry and
tiresome, it's no wonder the movie's poor story and dull structure are accentuated to an even
greater degree than they may have otherwise been had the lead character been the least bit
agreeable. It's no surprise, then, that additional characters -- Rhodes, Pepper, Li Mei -- are also
hurriedly scripted and not the least bit engaging. Even the film's villains seem like nothing more
than window dressing, a cause behind the effect, a necessary item from which explosions and
action scenes can originate. These are some of the least frightening and most anonymous
villains of all time. It doesn't help either that each is voiced with the enthusiasm of the verbatim
reading of a weather report on some small-time radio station. Alongside a plot that's too tangled
for its own good, visually unappealing animation, and terrible pacing even considering the
microscopic runtime, it's better just to skip The Invincible Iron Man altogether.
The Invincible Iron Man treks onto Blu-ray with a clunky but serviceable 1080p,
1.78:1-framed transfer. One of the primary hindrances is the animation style itself; it's choppy,
lacking an organic flow, and action or other fast-moving shots appear blurred and often without a
trace of fine detail. However, more stagnant images appear as good to exceptional; lines are crisp
and well-defined, fine details in the animation can appear rather striking, and colors -- albeit
somewhat subdued -- seem true to the source. Indeed, the 1080p transfer does bring to life many
backgrounds and nicely-rendered foreground details, particularly of the more complexly-drawn
characters and suits of armor. Still, the image can look a bit flat at times, and banding can range
from minute in some scenes to excessive in others. Overall, the image isn't poor, but a few visual
distractions may bother some viewers.
The Invincible Iron Man suits up on Blu-ray with a strongly-realized DTS-HD MA 7.1 lossless
soundtrack. While engaging, active, and robust, the track doesn't quite reach the zenith of high
definition audio; it does everything right but nothing extraordinarily. One major hindrance is
dialogue that is sometimes forced to compete with surrounding effects, the result occasionally
garbled words or sound effects that could have done with some fine-tuning. However, the track
does toss plenty of surround activity into the equation; there's an abundance of loud and aggressive
sound effects that spill from and maneuver about every speaker in the 7.1 configuration. Both
action-oriented effects, such as gunfire and explosions, and less vigorous and occasionally nuanced
atmospherics, such as thunder, all work to create a pleasing and fairly seamless environment in
both
action and dialogue-heavy scenes. Of particular note is a low end that's more than
willing to spew out some chest-rattling bass that puts the finishing touches on some very enjoyable
action sequences, at least from a purely aural perspective. All in all, Lionsgate's lossless soundtrack
is the best thing about The Invincible Iron Man's Blu-ray release.
The Invincible Iron Man contains but a few extras. First Look: Hulk vs.
Wolverine
(1080i, 3:52) and First Look: Hulk vs. Thor
(1080i, 3:15) offer short glimpses into the Marvel animated double feature. The Origin of
Iron Man (480p, 11:58)
features various crew members examining the development of the film and the history of the
character. The Hall of Iron Man Armor (1080p) offers text histories of the various suits
of
armor that populate the Iron Man universe. Iron Man Concept Art (480p, 2:58)
is
a series of early conceptual drawings for the film, set to music. Also included is an alternate
opening
sequence (480p, 3:11) and trailers for The Forbidden
Kingdom,
Hulk vs., Next Avengers, Ultimate Avengers 2,
Doctor Strange, and
the
Iron Man and Hulk video games.
Dull and lazily voiced characters, a boring plot, repetitive action, and uninspiring animation all make
The Invincible Iron Man one of the lesser Marvel animated films, and it certainly doesn't
come close to high quality of its live-action cousin. It's a shame, because Marvel Animation has
shown a knack for better than this in the pair of Hulk vs. films and even in
Doctor Strange. Additionally, there's
a wealth of high quality material out there on which to build a better animated adventure, but
The Invincible Iron Man flops everywhere it should fly. Lionsgate's Blu-ray release is a
serviceable one. Featuring a passable 1080p transfer, a rather good lossless soundtrack, and a few
throwaway supplements, fans of the film will find value in a rental, but others are encouraged to
take the Robert Downey, Jr. live-action adaptation for a spin instead.
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