How underrated is this guy? He was Gutter in PCU. He WROTE Swingers, the best guy movie ever. He was in Seinfeld in the episode where George pushes down children and old people to get away from a fire. He trained to be an MMA fighter on “Friends.” He transitioned to become one of the hottest directors in Hollywood by directing Elf with Will Ferrell. Now, he has made the film adaptation of Iron Man one of the greatest superhero movies of all time. I could heap adulation upon Favreau for Swingers alone. I have watched that movie dozens of times and I find something new to laugh at each time. Most of his projects end up benefiting from his involvement, but Iron Man is even more special.
As a nerd, I was infinitely familiar with Iron Man. Even before the Marvel Civil War, Stark and his armor have always had a soft spot for me, in the same way Batman does. These are not super powered aliens. These are not mutants with metal claws. These are normal humans that have the tools, and they have the talent. Iron Man the movie was cast perfectly. It was shot perfectly. It had an amazing mesh of character development and action. I hated Spiderman the movie. It was insulting to exsisting fans of the character. We knew where Spidey came from. Why do we need 50 minutes of Parker turning into Spiderman with little to nothing going on? It was so that the knuckle dragging movie goers can get up to speed. In Iron Man, Favreau does the miraculous. He makes the transition from egocentric, billionaire playboy Tony Stark to swinging dick, selfless superhero Iron Man a fun transition. It’s interesting. It’s funny. It’s full of action. It’s full of personal gains and losses by the main character.
One of the reasons I loved the original Batman directed by Tim Burton is because Burton realized that people went to see Batman. Not Bruce Wayne. As soon as the movie started, Batman was there breaking heads and dumping Jack Napier into a vat of acid. Until Favreau took on Iron Man, I thought that was a huge problem with superhero flicks. It was too much development, not enough flying around. In Iron Man, the character progression is not slow and plodding, it’s a real blast.
I’m glad they ponyed up and signed Favreau for Iron Man 2 already. He has a knack for this kind of thing, and he’s doing it with a hero not nearly as popular as a Superman or a Batman or a Spiderman. He’s doing it with solid acting, not relying on special effects, and God given talent. Have a great birthday Jon; you’ve made us nerds very happy.
