May 5, 2010 - Recent months have seen a glut of AAA-level videogames hit stores. But no matter how many new levels and extra modes the developers include in their games, eventually all good things must end. What is a hungry gamer to do when the final level ends and the credits start to roll? How do they fill that void?

That's where our If You Like feature comes in. Each week, we select one popular videogame and select a handful of Blu-ray movies that are similar in one way or another. Sometimes, the best way to find more of the thrills you love is to pop in a good movie.

Whether you're a gamer, movie lover, comic reader, or all of the above, the biggest name in the entertainment world right now is Iron Man 2. To celebrate the release of the movie and its accompanying videogame, this week's If You Like is devoted to the armored avenger himself. These Blu-ray discs should help quench your thirst for superhero action, robot-on-robot brawls, and Robert Downey Jr.'s unique brand of scene-chewing.




Transformers & Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Publisher: Paramount
Price/Retailer: $18.99 & $19.99/Amazon

Hollywood went a surprisingly long time without any significant examples of robot-on-robot warfare. Don't the suits know every man, woman, and child in the land wants nothing more than to see metallic warriors beating the cogs out of one another? Iron Man helped shed light on this neglected area of action storytelling, but Transformers was there first.

Who else but Michael Bay to bring this beloved toy line turned comic book turned animated series to life? Bay's love of loud explosions, big set-pieces, and wooden characters fits in perfectly with the franchise. Shia LaBeouf's geeky brand of heroism and Megan Fox's, er, assets ensure the human element doesn't completely fade into the background. But rarely do the Transformers movies forget why audiences have plopped their butts in the theater.



Transformers introduced modern viewers to the war between Autobots and Decepticons. Revenge of the Fallen added several new mechanical players to the board. With Transformers 3 due next summer, we can only assume the cast of militant robot warriors will grow bigger still. At some point, the only thing left to do will be to have a team-up between Iron Man and the Transformers. If the comics can do it, why not the movies?



X-Men & X2: X-Men United

Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Price/Retailer: $13.99 each/Amazon

No. No, we won't recommend X3. Why? Because it's eye cancer. It derailed a franchise that now has to go back to the First Class to be worthwhile. And if you like it, well, then you're some kind of wrong person. But we will stand by our X1 and X2 endorsements.

Director Bryan Singer introduced us to a near future full of mutants grounded in plausibility. They were outcasts with Holocaust beginnings and brooding origins that lead to Alkali Lake. They went Snikt! during their finest hours and asked "What happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning?" in their not-so-finest hours. But these X-Men, as diverse in power and screen presence as they were, never failed to get us to care about their plight, especially when challenged by Stryker's plan to Cerebro them all to death. The first X-Men movie proved that comic book films can be big business, and solid dramatic endeavors, if done properly. The second X-Men movie furthered the rule that most sequels are kick-ass better than the originals. And if you can say X3 did any of the above, well, see that whole comment about you being a wrong person.

The X-Men movies look all sorts of shiny on Blu-ray, and the CQC featured between Wolverine and Mystique or Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike are solid fights to revisit in between game plays. Tony Stark's live-action counterpart (and his polygon and pixels one) owes a lot to the house that Xavier built.



Spider-Man: The High Definition Trilogy

Publisher: Sony Pictures
Price/Retailer: $62.99/Amazon

Yes, we know that the Raimi-Maguire era of the webhead is over, but we would be remiss if we didn't include its mention here as a good companion piece for Shellhead's PS3 adventures. The first two Spider-Man movies arguably helped start the comic book movie bandwagon Hollywood has been changing axles on ever since we saw Spidey fight Osborn in his VR Troopers villain suit. The first movie, while a bit dated and more shiny in the wake of more recent brooding comic book movie fare (cough, The Dark Knight, end cough), is still one of the best blockbusters ever made. Its web-slinging action and rain-soaked Mary Jane is the stuff of geek iconography, and we tear up every time Uncle Ben fades away at Peter's side.

Spider-Man 2 finds new and inventive ways to compound the whole "great power, great responsibility" thing for our hero, with the first ten minutes of the movie providing Exhibit A for how to complicate your movie protagonist's life. This Peter Parker can't win as either Spider-Man or as pizza-delivery boy/Daily Bugle employee. And once Doc Ock gets added to the mix, this sequel becomes a benchmark for quality comic book movies, setting the bar that Nolan's Batman films would raise.

Without Spider-Man's big screen movies, there would be no Iron Man series. And then there would be no Iron Man videogames. (Well, maybe that last one isn't such a bad thing… we kid, we kid.)



Iron Man

Publisher: Paramount
Price/Retailer: $19.99/Amazon

This has to be the most obvious inclusion in the history of "If You Like." If you like Iron Man 2 and haven't seen the original, we'd hope you have plans to rectify that problem immediately. For many, Iron Man is the pinnacle of Marvel superhero movies so far. It has a lead hero who is both totally charismatic and completely sympathetic. It translates the Iron Man armor from page to screen almost exactly. The action, limited as it was at times, is still a sight to behold. Hollywood has only recently started to learn that moviegoers love epic battles between robot warriors. Iron Man was a pioneer in this regard.

Iron Man also stands as one of the finest Blu-ray discs to date. The picture and sound quality are amazing. The extras are copious in number and very informative. We might have expected Paramount to double-dip Iron Man to coincide with the sequel, but honestly, what else is there to add? Even if you don't particularly care for superhero movies, this is one Blu-ray to add to your library.



Sherlock Holmes

Publisher: Warner Home Video
Price/Retailer: $24.99/Amazon

Iron Man was the movie that elevated Robert Downey Jr. to true franchise player. And while fans have been eagerly awaiting the next chapter in the Iron Man franchise ever since then, Sherlock Holmes has helped to fill the gap. Once again viewers saw Downey operating in full-on, crowd-pleasing franchise mode. His portrayal of the world's most famous detective packed all of the wit and charm of Tony Stark.

Downey might have seemed like a strange choice to portray the stuffy British sleuth, but Chaplin proved long ago that Downey has no problem faking an English accent. Paired with Jude Law's Watson, viewers had a new Holmes for a new century. In many ways, though, these versions of Holmes and Watson were closer to the original stories than the many popular movies and TV specials over the years.

With Guy Ritchie in the director's chair, it's no surprise Sherlock Holmes is an energetic and often bombastic take on the hero and his adventures. The movie didn't prove to be as universally beloved by viewers as Iron Man, but it was certainly another showcase for Downey's acting abilities. Comic book fans have another reason to give this movie a look, too. Mark Strong, fresh off playing Holmes' nemesis, is now donning the pink makeup and fake mustache as Sinestro in Green Lantern.