I’ve got to hand it to Jon Favreau. Not only did his comic-book movie Iron Man set the box office on fire ($100 million+ opening weekend counting Thursday preview sales) but it’s got great reviews, too (78/100 on Metacritic; 92% on Rotten Tomatoes).

I was surprised at first, thinking “Where did Jon Favreau learn to make an effects-heavy action flick?” because, you know, this is the dude what wrote Swingers and directed Will Ferrel in Elf. I did not realize prior to looking him up on IMDB that he also directed the Jumanji sequel Zathura and was not in fact a stranger to effects films.

I think Mike Seymour and David Stripinis have it right, when on the VFX Show they mention that anymore, when you see the expected director attached to the expected film you’re looking for trouble. The dude that directed Swingers (Liman) went on to give us the Bourne trilogy and Jumper. That Memento guy (Nolan) went on to reboot the Batman franchise with great success in Batman Begins and, soon, The Dark Knight. But put an action movie in the hands of Michael Bay or a video game movie in the hands of Uwe Boll and what you get sits lifeless on the screen. Even the Wachowskis started with an intense character piece, Bound, before entering the Matrix.

For my part, I thought Iron Man was a great movie. I liked all the actors in it, and I liked the performances they gave. I liked the effects and thought they were spot-on (the VFX show guys, mentioned already, also thought the effects were top-notch, and they should know). I liked the score, especially how it featured prominent heavy guitar riffs that fit the picture perfectly. I liked the characters, I believed their motivations, and when the veil of comic-book-world descended upon the film, it wasn’t done in a hyper-reality mode where verisimilitude takes a hike. Favreau got me to buy into the comic book world and kept me there, and that’s a rare treat in this kind of movie, where too often the give-and-take between reality and comic reality is a zero-sum game.

I can’t think of anything negative to say about this film. As the first installment of a franchise (Iron Man 2 already has a release date in April 2010), it strikes a perfect balance between character introduction and development and action and adventure. I send an enthusiastic high-five out to Favreau, Downey, Jr., and everyone else who made this show. Great work.