This is the world we live in, one where Kevin Spacey dons a superhero costume and kicks ass in China. It’s a great day to be alive. Although this trailer for Inseparable doesn’t show it, the two-time Oscar winner rocks a lot of tight spandex and a helmet mask for the movie from Dayyan Eng. It also stars the great Daniel Wu (Shinjuku Incident, The Man With the Iron Fists). In a way, it would be far better if this trailer were insane, but it’s maybe even more bizarre that it’s, you know, not bizarre. It looks incredibly straight forward. Except the part where John Doe dressed up like a blue version of the guy in Super.

Every Girl’s Guide to The Avengers By Internet Princess Quartney Vagington Hey, gurrrrls! It’s your BFF Quartney Vagington! I’m gonna save your cute butts again, so get ready to thank me. Your boyfriend has probably looked up from his Xbox a couple times in the last week to say, “Dude, we gotta see The Avengers on Friday! It looks totally sick!” I know Trevor has! I just rolled my eyes and was like, “LOL, whatever you want, honey-bun,” and then I went back to texting. But guess what, bitches? He’s totes serious about it! Your boyfriend is too, unless he’s like a dork or whatever, in which case, ew, why are you dating a dork? Anyways, me and Trevor are gonna see The Avengers on Friday cuz it’s his turn to choose the movie, cuz he let me choose which Olive Garden we went to last week (the nice one, or the one close to Pinkberry), and so I was like, “Aah! I don’t know what these dumb comic book movies are about!” So then I was like, “Help me, Facebook, LOL!” And so then Facebook was like, “Here are some Tumblrs and Wikis about it!” So you guys, I totally did some research to help you know what the eff is going on when you see “The Avengers” with your boyfriend! You can thank me later, I accept Hot Topic gift cards, LOL. (P.S. if you do not have a boyfriend then I don’t know what to tell you

It’s been open overseas for a week, already raking in more than $200m, and now The Avengers is landing on U.S. soil with one of the biggest summer openings in history. But does that mean you should see it now? Or do you wait for home video? Sure, there’s plenty of arguments as to why you can wait, including obnoxious crowds, high ticket prices, and the general hassle of getting your butt off the couch and driving to your local multiplex. However, here are seven ultimate reasons should convince you to, paraphrasing Shakespeare, “Get thee to a theater!” and witness Marvel’s greatest achievement in superhero movies.

Did you hear? Did you hear? Go tell Paul Revere! Joss Whedon and Marvel’s The Avengers is out this weekend which marks the beginning of the summer and an end to the anticipation. To discuss the film, we turn to comic book/Avengers expert John Gholson from Movies.com. Plus, ScreenCrush critic Jordan Hoffman plays Movie News Roulette and talks Dark Knight Rises, Star Trek and texting in theaters. Download Episode #132

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new superhero movie kicking off the summer movie season. Joss Whedon’s The Avengers assembles Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain American (along with Hawkeye and Black Widow, neither of whom got their own movie). Many superhero fans are preparing for this release by watching the first five films from Marvel Studios, which lead up to this blockbuster: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America. Or, they’re planning on seeing them in a long-form marathon leading up to the midnight release of The Avengers. Both are good ideas. Whether you watch these films on video at home or are doing so at a theater that serves alcohol, assemble some adult beverages for yourself and play along.

Along with Cole Abaius, I was quite taken with pure popcorn joy of The Avengers. Walking out of the theater one cannot imagine any blockbuster delivering a level of fun at that caliber. Plenty of moviegoers will come away this weekend thinking that exact sentiment, but then they’ll recall this fantastic final trailer for The Dark Knight Rises that will play before Joss Whedon‘s Marvel pic, and they’ll realize we still have one more superhero epic coming our way. If this eerie and evocative trailer is any indication, it’ll be the epic finale this series and the summer deserves. Take a look at Bruce Wayne “rising” with a far less laughable voice this time around:

Joss Whedon‘s excellent action geek-out The Avengers hits US theaters this weekend after a storm of anticipation that’s lasted for four years and five movies. Marvel’s ultimate team is finally together, and the results are incredibly impressive. You can read my review here, but while you sit in your Captain America uniform, unwilling to remove it or bathe for the next week, gear up to new giddy levels of excitement with these behind-the-scenes videos. From a disoriented Robert Downey Jr. to Jeremy Renner in fight choreography practice to a running Scarlett Johansson to Mark Ruffalo blissfully posing with a nude mini-Hulk, there are some really fascinating bits here:

In a New York living room, sometime in the early 1970s, a young boy is sitting in front of his television (possibly watching an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus) and playing with plastic toy figures of Earth’s mightiest heroes. He smashes The Hulk into Thor, zooms Iron Man around at incredible speed and makes Captain America leap over an H.R. Pufnstuf doll. Because, you know, he’s got one of those too. Forty some odd years later, that same little boy named Joss Whedon got a chance to slam those toys together again, and he achieved something that’s made up equally of the magic of childhood and the craftsmanship of a seasoned filmmaker. It was an impossible dream, a crazy call-out to the far left field bleachers, but The Avengers is the best movie that Marvel has made.

Sony doesn’t need time to take a breath. They’re already planning on shooting the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man sometime in early 2013. That’s not set in stone of course (because, you know, the movie has to earn a sequel first), but the studio has already hired the superstar pairing of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to re-write the script from James Vanderbilt. According to Deadline Five Burroughs, the pair are “excited to be part of [the] legendary franchise,” which is better than being ho-hum about writing for Peter Parker. It’s a fairly obvious choice considering their work on giant budget fare like Tranformers and Star Trek, and they’re talented. No doubt about that. But they’re specifically talented at use broad brushstrokes and pouring on the melted butter. That’s a rare talent to be sure, but while it’s easy to see that brand of largeness brought to the action of Spider-Man, it’s the more intimate moments that might suffer. Of course, the pair have also had their work pushed through the vision of Michael Bay, J.J. Abrams and Jon Favreau so it’s not exactly easy to pick out where they shine individually. At any rate, they’re veterans of the tentpole game, and Sony could do worse than to rely on them to bring a second story to life.

The Dark Knight Rises finally breaks into theaters on July 20th (shortly followed by it getting away in a school bus with everyone’s money). The advertising so far hasn’t been nearly the effort put in for the second film, which makes sense considering that everyone on the planet will see it even without a dime put into television ads. However, the final trailer for the film is about to be seen by millions. According to NolanFans.com, Christopher Nolan‘s forthcoming Batman flick is utilizing Marvel again by playing the trailer before The Avengers. Just as they did with Inception before Iron Man 2 and as they did with The Dark Knight before Iron Man. Superheroes love hanging with other superheroes. It’s true. Of course, the trailer will no doubt be online right around the same time (just in case…you weren’t…planning on going to see The Avengers…for some reason).

Why Watch? What happens when a superhero gets old? What happens if the world needs him again? I know, I know. Superhero movies are so boring that even explorations and deconstructions of superheroes movies are yesterday’s news, but this Austin-shot short film has a charm that outweighs all of staleness that’s come with capes. First of all, it’s silly and owns it. Secondly, its cinematography is sleek, interesting, and aids the actors at every turn. Thirdly, it’s fun. Sometimes that’s all it takes to overcome a genre that’s been beaten like a dead horse. And, yes, it gets bonus points for being made in 48 hours. What does it cost? Just 8 minutes of your time. Check out The Walker for yourself:

Ron Howard has been a busy man lately as far as juggling potential film projects goes. He’s had a ridiculously lengthy will he/won’t he relationship with adapting Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series of novels, he’s turned down directing the next Da Vinci Code sequel, he’s got possible projects in the works like Rush and Spy vs. Spy, and now, according to those enterprising young reporters over at the trade mag Deadline Waukesha, he’s been attached to a new superhero project called 364. You’re probably wondering which comic book this came from. You may be asking whether this one is DC or Marvel. Well, it turns out neither. This script is an original from Safe House writer David Guggenheim, and it has its own original twist on the traditional superhero tale. The hero of this film only has super powers for one day a year, and he spends the other 364 thinking about what he’s going to do on that day; heroic stuff and whatnot. I’m certainly sick of the usual retread of the super hero origin story we’ve been getting, and a story about a hero that barely ever has any powers sounds like it could be an interesting idea, but it also sounds like it could be really boring if handled wrong. The whole point of watching superhero movies is all the big special effects sequences where stuff blows up. So, if you’re going to make a movie that is mostly just a guy sitting around thinking, why make

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, we take on the cinematic emotional roller coaster by speaking with comedian Bill Bailey about getting him hired for the next Star Trek movie and by dissecting Taxi Driver‘s Travis Bickle with psychologist, Dr. Jeff Greenberg. Plus, Landon Palmer joins me for a long-form discussion about the terrorist attacks of 9/11, their effects on movie culture, and on audiences. Download This Episode

The Green Lantern movie has an uphill battle from the start. Why? Because it’s not starring Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, the X-Men, or anyone remotely near that level of recognition to the average viewer. The first question many may ask when hearing there is a Green Lantern movie is “Why?” The second is probably “What?” or possibly “Who?” I’m willing to give The Green Lantern the benefit of the doubt and not just because I have a huge man-crush on Ryan Reynolds. Well okay, yeah, mostly because of that. And so far, much of what we’ve seen looks pretty good. The trailer was fun. And the costume is… Well… Uh…

In all fairness, Daredevil is not a bad movie to take a mulligan on. Plus, if the rumor is true, they’ve got a solid talent at the wheel. According to Variety, David Slade will be directing a new entry into the Daredevil world for Fox. Call it a reboot, a sequel, a redo, a second shot or whatever you want, but the film won’t feature Ben Affleck or make mention of the previous film. So, it’s a reboot. Just for fun, if we consider the Spider-Man retooling going on and this new announcement, the timeline for when we’ll see other reboots becomes clear. The 2002 Spider-Man is now a 2012 version. The 2003 Daredevil will now probably be 2012 as well, meaning that we might see reboots of 2004′s Hellboy at some point, followed next by 2005′s Sin City, and 2006′s V For Vendetta. The new Superman puts a dent in that imaginary timeline, but the point is clear: the cycle must start over. We’ve run out of comic books to make. That’s just a best guess as to what order they’ll come around again in. Hopefully we’ll hear word of the Batman rebooting no more than ten minutes after The Dark Knight Rises premieres.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr welcomes the summer movie season by handing out a grade to Iron Man 2.

The ass-kicking superhero sequel Iron Man 2 opens and gives the Fat Guys a chance to talk about the kick-off of the summer movie season. They also lay down a Fat Guy Five about awesome superhero sequels… which was a lot harder than they thought it would be.

With the hiring of Bill Birch, should we be celebrating taking chances on new talent or still lamenting the loss of John August? Either way, Captain Marvel still has a long way to go.

Watchmen took another 62% drop in its third weekend. IESB reports that Warner Bros. is no longer interested in making superhero/tentpole movies with an R-rating anymore. Have we seen the end of the days when an R-rated movie could dominate the box office?

We know the director, the story, and how realistic they want to make it. Now to whom should Martin Cambell and company give their ring of power?