I found Thor very unsatisfactory, the 2 recent Hulk movies very lacking, and Captain America fairly bad. That's why I was concerned when I heard that my favorite comic book hero, Iron Man, would be paired with them into one movie. I was also concerned by the fact that Jon Favreau was not directing. Luckily the movie turned out a lot better than I expected.
So, what makes it so good:
- The movie is directed in a similar style to those 2 Iron Man movies, including the clever humor and laid-back acting style.
- The movie has some of the best visual effects I've seen yet, and about as large-scale as any of the 3 Transformers movies, without the overly-frantic action where you can't figure WTF is going on.
- I found the reaction of the city public refreshingly-realistic: instead of watch and cheer the heroes, they run away from danger.