Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United Blu-ray Review
Score: 58
from 3 reviewers
Review Date:
Marvel's 'Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United' delivers subpar animation and lackluster storytelling, but excels in its Blu-ray AV presentation.
Disc Release Date
DTS-HD MA
Video: 68
Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United's 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 Blu-ray excels in color fidelity and contrast, resulting in a clear image that highlights intricate animation details. However, it is marred by inconsistent clarity, aliasing, and banding. Despite these issues, the presentation is as good as the source material allows.
Audio: 67
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track offers crystal clear dialogue and robust sound effects with punchy bass, though voices can feel slightly weightless. Directionality and imaging enhance action sequences, creating an engaging yet not entirely immersive experience, perfect for a Saturday morning action frenzy.
Extra: 30
Marvel Team-Up with Ryan Penagos & Joe Quesada offers a spirited and insightful discussion on Marvel heroes, while Marvel Mash-Ups humorously retools vintage cartoons, providing brief but mildly amusing intermissions. Overall, the extras are engaging but could benefit from expanded content.
Movie: 47
Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United offers a disjointed 71-minute runtime with outdated animation and simplified character portrayals that may engage children, but disappoint seasoned fans seeking substance and coherence.
Video: 68
The video presentation of "Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United" is notably impressive within the constraints of its animation style. The 1080p AVC/MPEG-4 codec faithfully renders a crystal-clear, almost flawless image, exhibiting an exceptional level of detail and clarity. Tony Stark's armor, for instance, displays fine scratches and precise edges with remarkable definition. The overall resolution maintains refining clarity, with tack-like sharpness and crisp edges devoid of edge enhancement. Contrast is both high and stable, which provides a consistent visual punch, especially during scene transitions between light and dark elements. While the black levels might not be infinite, they exhibit a robust depth that stands out well against mixed content, offering discernible gradational stages even in darker scenes.
However, the animation does carry some inherent limitations that occasionally impact visual fidelity. Issues such as inconsistent clarity, aliasing, and banding are present but can be traced back to the source material rather than the technical encoding. Perpetual smoke and fog can make the contrast appear slightly dim despite its steadiness and strength. That said, the color palette remains vibrant and dynamic, with primary hues crackling with energy. Iron Man's bright, vivid armor and Hulk's consistent verdant hue maintain visual integrity, and Zzzax's glowing body is rendered terrifically bright without washouts. Thankfully, prominent issues like compression artifacts and errant noise are not evident, ensuring a smooth viewing experience.
In summary, while "Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United" may exhibit some flaws due to its micro-budget animation, the Blu-Ray video presentation is remarkably strong and faithful. The animation allows for a significant amount of detail, especially in character design and backgrounds, enhancing the overall depth and immersive quality of the viewing experience. Despite some uneven animation decisions leading to minor inconsistencies, the picture remains vibrant, detailed, and engaging throughout.
Audio: 67
The Blu-ray edition of "Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United" showcases an exceptional DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that impressively balances the vibrant action sequences with clear dialogue and immersive sound effects. The high-resolution soundtrack offers excellent headroom and crystal-clear rendering, featuring a perfectly balanced mix of dialogue, sound effects, bass, and music. As voices come through clean and distinct, the soundtrack dynamically envelops the listener in a world filled with punchy bass and action-based sounds. The explosive LFE output delivers heavy thooms and devastating power slams, adding the necessary weight to the towering battles against villains like Zzzax, Wendigo, and Abomination.
The surround sound mix is relatively aggressive, with directional sounds and commendable pans from the rear speakers, offering a satisfying auditory experience. From repulsors firing to high-flying maneuvers, the sound design enhances the visual spectacle, even if it doesn't reach the heights of true immersion. Various special effects are given ample space to shine, with imaging that convincingly places objects whizzing past or fearsome creatures snarling out of sight. While the atmospheric effects might not be as pronounced, the mix’s constant barrage of action ensures it remains engaging throughout.
Overall, despite some shortcomings in generating a fully immersive environment, the audio presentation excels in delivering clear, distinct voices and remarkably effective sound effects. This sound mix proves to be more than adequate for enhancing the animated action, grounding the superpowered fights with enough oomph and directionality to keep listeners firmly rooted in their seats.
Extras: 30
The Blu-ray extras for "Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United" are a mixed bag, offering both engaging and light-hearted content. The highlight is the Marvel Team-up with Ryan Penagos & Joe Quesada, where Marvel's Chief Creative Officer and Agent M share an entertaining conversation about their favorite Marvel heroes, team-ups, and the impact of these characters on their lives. It's a spirited and enjoyable discussion for any comic fan. The Marvel Mash-Ups provide short clips from vintage Iron Man and Hulk cartoons redubbed with humorous dialogue, best watched during breaks for a bit of a quirky laugh. Additional inclusions like a bonus DVD and a digital copy round out the package, providing multiple viewing options.
Extras included in this disc:
- Marvel Team-up with Ryan Penagos & Joe Q: An intimate discussion about Marvel heroes, team-ups, and rivalries.
- Marvel Intermissions: Humorous breaks featuring classic animated series with added comedy.
- Marvel Mash-ups: Short, witty re-dubs of vintage cartoons featuring Iron Man, S.H.E.I.L.D., Betty Ross, and Lil' Hulk.
- Bonus DVD
- Digital Copy
Movie: 47
"Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United," Marvel's first CG-animated feature brings together two iconic Avengers, Iron Man (Adrian Pasdar) and Hulk (Fred Tatasciore), in a 71-minute action-packed movie that is a mixed bag for different audiences. The story revolves around the two heroes stopping a new threat, Zzzax, an energy-consuming monster born from a HYDRA experiment gone wrong. Despite initial friction between Iron Man and Hulk, they must team up to thwart Zzzax's plan to plunge the world into darkness.
From a technical perspective, the Blu-ray showcases vibrant animation; however, it feels wooden and outdated compared to modern standards. Fans have mixed reactions; younger viewers might find the bright colors and dynamic battles, including clashes with Wendigos and Abomination, endlessly entertaining. In contrast, seasoned Marvel aficionados could be disappointed by the simplistic storyline and lack of nuanced character development. Hulk's verbose and intelligent portrayal contrasts sharply with his typically more brute-force representation, which can be jarring. Meanwhile, Iron Man comes off less like the charismatic Tony Stark from films and more like an overly confident, somewhat unlikable figure.
Despite some engaging fight sequences, the movie struggles with its narrative flow, evidenced by odd detours such as a random Wendigo battle. Zzzax’s character lacks depth, serving more as a plot device than a formidable villain. The movie's execution might leave adult fans wanting more complexity, while children will likely be absorbed by its visual spectacle and action. Overall, Heroes United hits the right notes for its intended younger audience but leaves many of the die-hard fans anticipating a richer experience in future entries of Marvel’s animated ventures.
Total: 58
"Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United" attempts to blend Marvel's high-flying action with direct-to-video animation, but the result is less than heroic. The animation style is a peculiar blend that highlights intricate details in Iron Man's armor while failing to capture any semblance of realism in human faces. Tony Stark's dead-eyed expressions are lifeless, and even the Hulk's consistent yet painfully strained expressions add to the animated feature's overall mechanical feel. The film’s disjointed narrative and lack of character depth detract significantly, making it a tough sell for anyone beyond the youngest fans, who may appreciate the presence of recognizable characters more than the film’s actual execution.
Despite its many shortcomings, "Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United" does offer some redeeming qualities when it comes to audiovisual presentation. The Blu-ray release is highly faithful to the source, providing excellent picture and sound quality that could possibly be a draw for dedicated comic book enthusiasts. The disc, unfortunately, skimps on special features, but given the movie’s lukewarm reception, this might not be a significant letdown for potential buyers.
In conclusion, "Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United" falls short of its cinematic counterparts in nearly every aspect. Marvel's attempt at direct-to-video animation pales in comparison to DC's more successful efforts, suffering from stilted scripting, subpar animation, and humor that misses the mark. However, the Blu-ray's AV fidelity provides a glimmer of salvageable experience for hardcore fans, but even they might find themselves longing for a better union of storytelling and animation prowess. Unless you are deeply committed to the Marvel universe, this release might be one to pass.
Blu-ray.com review by Kenneth BrownRead review here
Video: 80
It doesn't help the film's animation, though, which is littered with dusty black levels, inconsistent clarity, aliasing, banding and other micro-budget woes....
Audio: 80
LFE output is suitably explosive, with heavy thooms, devastating power slams and enough weight and oomph to help ground the heroes' floaty fights with Zzzax, Wendigo and Abomination a bit more....
Extras: 30
Marvel Mash-Ups (HD/SD, 8 minutes): Available from the main menu or viewed by pausing the film (a la Disney Intermission), Marvel's Mash-Ups are clips from vintage Iron Man and Hulk cartoons dubbed with...
Movie: 50
Before going any further, let me take a moment and share the only review of Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United that, frankly, matters one bit: that of a young third grader who's still angry at his dear old...
Total: 60
Everything from the stilted script to the shoddy animation to the dead-on-arrival slapstick comedy is a mess, and no one shows up to save Heroes United from its greatest enemy: itself....
High-Def DigestRead review here
Video: 80
All in all, this is a great looking picture that is consistent throughout and only really suffers in some parts due to some uneven animation decisions....
Audio: 80
Sound effects are particularly impressive, as the directionality and imaging work wonderfully to give a sense that objects are whizzing past the listener, or, in the case of the Wendigos, something fearsome...
Extras: 40
Marvel Team-Up With Ryan Penagos and Joe Q (HD, 12 min.) - Ryan and Joe discuss their memories collecting comics and the impact those characters had on them....
Movie: 40
It's all very tepid stuff that spends a lot of time telling people things they already know about the characters, in an apparent attempt to lessen the audience's awareness that the depiction of Iron Man...
Total: 60
Hulk's face is consistent throughout, but his expression seems to be that of someone struggling with painful constipation, or some other gastrointestinal problem....
AVSForumRead review here
Video: 88
This video presentation looks quite good and features colors that are reserved in saturation and consists of tones that are not especially bright but mate well with source material....
Audio: 86
The results offer a dynamically satisfying, relatively enveloping surround sound mix that delivers punchy bass, and plenty of action based sounds/effects to make the experience fun....
Extras: 30
Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer, Joe Quesada, joins Ryan Penagos (Agent M) in an intimate and lively one-on-one conversation about these Marvel Team-Ups Marvel “Intermissions” - Puts a humorous twist on...
Movie: 60
When “Zzzax,” a seemingly invincible, energy devouring monster threatens to destroy the planet, these two Avengers are mankind’s only hope....
Total: 66
Sony Playstation 3 Blu-ray disc Player (HDMI Audio/Video) System Controller: Apple iPad/iRule Pro HD Universal Remote Control Canton "Ergo" Series speakers Axiom Audio QS8 Quadpolar speakers SV Sound PB-13...
Director: Eric Radomski, Leo Riley
Actors: Adrian Pasdar, Fred Tatasciore, Dee Bradley Baker, Robin Atkin Downes
PlotThe plot centers around Iron Man and Hulk, who are initially at odds but must join forces to tackle a powerful new threat. After a series of environmental disasters signal something amiss, Iron Man investigates and discovers that an artificial creature named Zzzax has been created from excessive amounts of energy. Zzzax, now unleashed and growing more powerful by the minute, threatens global destruction. Concurrently, Hulk’s immense strength and fury are drawn into the fray, leading to an initial clash between the two heroes due to misunderstandings and unstable alliances.
Realizing the gravity of Zzzax's capabilities and the worldwide peril it poses, Iron Man and Hulk set aside their differences and pool their resources and intellect to devise a strategy to neutralize this energy-based menace. They travel to multiple locations, facing numerous smaller threats and challenges orchestrated by those who seek to exploit Zzzax’s power for their gain. Along the way, they battle through high-stakes scenarios that test their abilities and partnership. Their combined skills demonstrate the importance of teamwork, resilience, and the mingling of brain and brawn. Ultimately, they move towards a climactic confrontation with Zzzax where the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
Writers: Henry Gilroy, Brandon Auman, Stan Lee (characters), Jack Kirby (characters), Larry Lieber (characters), Don Heck (characters)
Release Date: 03 Dec 2013
Runtime: 71 min
Rating: PG
Country: USA
Language: English