As I discussed over at Real Men Read Comics, Marvel has been building towards this one for a long time. After a long wait and perhaps too many attempts to connect the dots, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the gang are coming together on the big screen.

I’ve actually got something nice to say about a new release, maybe even a few nice things. This is groundbreaking territory.

“The Avengers” was written and directed by Joss Whedon. This is the dude who brought us “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” and “Firefly.” If you don’t know what “Firefly” is, you need to find out. It’s on Netflix instant, so go on, get. I’ll even give you the link. Like his projects, Whedon has built up quite the cult following over the years. And, as if all that wasn’t enough, he co-wrote “Toy Story,” for which he was nominated for an Oscar. That’s right folks, motherfucking “Toy Story.”

“The Avengers” has all most of the stars of the individual films back in their roles. We’ve got Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, and most importantly, Robert Downey Jr. in his perfectly sardonic portrayal of Tony Stark/Iron Man. Now, Mark Ruffalo may have replaced Eric Bana, er, Edward Norton as Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk, but that’s probably a good thing. If you’re sick of all these different Bruce Banners flying your way, don’t worry, Ruffalo recently signed a six-picture deal to play The Hulk.

Let’s not forget about the supporting cast, rounding out the team are Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. But wait, there’s more, Tom Hiddleston will reprise his role from “Thor” as Loki, the film’s main villain. Hiddleston also played a brilliant F. Scott Fitzgerald in “Midnight in Paris.”

One of the ways you know a superhero movie, is great is when the dialogue is better than the action sequences. This is what we got in “Iron Man,” when oftentimes Tony Stark was more gripping with his super suit off than on. You should expect no less from Whedon, and according to Bullz-eye’s David Medsker, the Joss has delievered:

Once Whedon gets the cast in the same room and gives them the chance to interact as people rather than superheroes, the movie blossoms in a strangely wonderful way, one where it’s easy to wish that they would keep talking, rather than ramping up for the butt-kicking that is just around the corner. Indeed, until the climactic battle sequence, the action plays second fiddle to the talking, and as odd as that sounds for a superhero movie, it’s the right call.

If all this wasn’t enough, “The Avengers” has been certified fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, sitting at a 93 on the Tomatometer. For once, I’m actually excited.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The only other film getting a wide release this weekend is “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” Believe it or not, John Madden was actually able to direct a film that doesn’t star Brett Favre. Hold on. I’m getting word that it’s a different John Madden, the “Shakespeare in Love” John Madden. Oh, well things make more sense now.

Kidding aside, this is a film about a group of British seniors, including Academy Award-winners Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, who decide to “outsource” their retirement to cheaper and seemingly exotic India. When they get there, the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel doesn’t look quite as it did in the brochures so both hilarity and drama ensue. The film also stars Penelope Winton, whose interactions with Maggie Smith in “Downton Abbey” are fantastic, so hopefully we get some of that here.

There’s a reason no other movies are being released this weekend, studios were scared of “The Avengers,” and rightly so. But it’s pretty clear that “Hotel” is “The Avengers'” antithesis, and so too is its target audience. That said, with its award-winning cast and 78 rating on the Tomatometer, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” seems to be well worth seeing in its own right.

* You might consider going from Tolkien to a ride at Disneyland a major artistic comedown, but Guillermo del Toro obviously thinks otherwise and is a huge fan of what I admit is also my favorite ride at the park. The Wrap has more, oddly enough with no mention of the mansion. Was this another event? Still nice to see that the monster-loving del Toro’s uncensored speaking style hasn’t been cleaned up by PR standards and practices.

Also from “The Wrap”: Dominic Patten writes that Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch” lived up to its name.

* I can’t watch the video here, but you can apparently see a now-bearded Joss Whedon personally confirm that Jeremy Renner will, indeed, play Hawkeye in “The Avengers.” Oh, and I guess that means that Whedon really is directing it, after all, official like.

* “The Green Hornet” is sounding a bit more fun to me.

* The perceptive and usually geek friendly Ms. Thompson was not personally wowed by “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” but she reports the audience at the screening she attended was. She does however have a video interview with writer-director Edgar Wright, which I haven’t had time to watch yet.

* I just had a bit of snafu/disappointment in terms of getting some good stuff for later on “Green Lantern” but the folks in Hall H had their geek buttons well pushed, it appears. (Not among them, a friend of mine here, who waited 2.5 hours in line and didn’t make it in, six people from the front of the line. He should have made it three hours.)

* An item having nothing to do with Comic-Con. According to a sexual harrassment suit, Casey Affleck appears to have a problem. I hope it’s only a legal one.

* Meanwhile, back in the real world where people pay to see movies, “Inception” is ruling the roost but sharing some of the wealth with the Angelina Jolie action vehicle, “Salt.”

* Jeremy Renner of “The Hurt Locker” is “near a deal” to play Hawkeye in the Avengers film to be (theoretically) directed by Joss Whedon, who hasn’t said a word officially to anyone in months, as far as I can tell. Renner is a smart choice. Playing a character who hasn’t previously been introduced is going to be a special challenge in this movie and actors without real ability and charisma probably need not apply.

* So, if the Wrap is correct, Brad Pitt likely won’t end up staring in the U.S. remake of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” It looks like that will be Daniel Craig, instead. Having seen the Swedish film, it seems to me he’s a much better fit for the part of the male lead. The character has a bit of a hang-dog, defeated quality to him that just doesn’t fit Pitt. I think Craig can pull that off easily. He should probably gain or lose a bit of weight for the part. This guy might do okay with woman, but he’s a coffee-and-cigarette addicted journalist, not a perfectly exercised super-spy.

* Speaking of matters Bondian, as per the Playlist, Christopher Nolan is describing his very highly anticipated “Inception” as his Bond film, in a way.  I’m personally not a fan of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” but it’s an interesting model, nonetheless.

* And, speaking of Christopher Nolan, to news burning up the geek film blogosphere today that he won’t be recasting the role of the Joker for the next Batman movie. This is news? Doing otherwise would not only arouse anger from lots of people, it would put a new actor in a completely impossible position. That being said, Nolan’s habit of killing bad guys puts him in a tough spot because, of the three best Batman villains, Ra’s al Ghul,and Two-Face have been killed in his first two films, and the tragic real-life death of Heath Ledger ironically makes it three for three, at least as far as onscreen appearances are concerned. The Penguin, the Riddler, and Catwoman are all fun characters, but lacking in menace and the serious tone that Nolan likes. At least he hasn’t killed Scarecrow yet. Nolan’s realistic approach makes Man-Bat a tough call, too. Am I forgetting someone?

* More superhero stuff. /Film has the new Green Lantern logo. Ooh

* Rush Limbaugh, the movie. If they can make me in any way feel anything but contempt about that guy, that’ll be some real cinema genius. Say what you like about Nixon, W, or William Randolph Hearst/Charles Foster Kane, they cared about something. I never really got the impression that Limbaugh cares about anything other than Limbaugh. As for casting, Kelsey Grammer would be the guy for it, I think. Grammer is a very conservative Republican who has talked about going into politics, which could be a big plus in selling the movie as something other than a partisan hatchet job, though “creative differences” could easily arise.

* So fairy tales are hot, hot, hot and Brett Ratner wants to do an “edgy” Snow White that is “not your grandfather’s.” I think it is now time to officially ban the word “edgy” and the phrase “not your grandfather’s” from all thoughtful discourse.

* A former director of the Chicago International Film Festival is now head of production at Paramount.

* More inside movie-ball. Anne Thompson is filled with dismay. Russ Fischer at /Film issues a “WTF” and wonders if someone is “shitting” him. Christopher Bell at the Playlist comes up with both a “Whaa?” and an italicized “Say what?” I personally cried “Great Caesar’s ghost!” or the equivalent thereof when I heard the news.

The source of this consternation is word that Disney is entering negotiations for the ongoing sale of mini-major Miramax with a construction executive and investor named Ron Tutor and his partner, David Bergstein, which is where this gets weird. Thompson describes Bergstein as a “beleaguered financier,” Bell calls him a “bullshit artist extraordinaire.” Both terms are mild compared to what people really call him around town.

The fact of the matter is to that to say that Bergstein’s name is mud is to vastly over-value mud. His legal troubles are endless, he is universally regarded as having run a number of once-strong companies into the ground, and when the excellent but troubled director David O. Russell acted, by all accounts, like a total professional for once on the film, “Nailed,” it was nevertheless closed multiple times because of Bergstein’s apparently ultra-reckless or worse handling of the finances. (Kim Masters‘ piece from April, titled “Hollywood’s Biggest Hustler” makes fairly riveting reading.) The film remains unfinished two years later with two days of shooting left on the schedule and his name comes up in casual conversations between random folks in L.A.  All in all, venereal crabs are more popular than this guy.  Alex Ben Block of THR the details on the negotiation and Bergstein’s latest legal maneuver.

* Back in the eighties, when I assure you I was knee-high to a zygote, I was convinced that John Milius’s “Red Dawn,” with an absurd scenario about a Soviet land-invasion of the U.S., might hasten a real nuclear war by encouraging hysteria that was, in my view, already making a deadly mockery of our foreign policy at the time. Could the remake spark a real, new Cold War with China? Not by itself, surely, though economic issues and enough of the right/wrong kind of thoughtless propaganda or disinformation often can. In any case, the Chinese government is apparently unhappy about this remake, and it’s not because it thinks it’s a sign that Hollywood is running out of ideas.

* Mike Fleming chronicles how the fairly well-received science-fiction thriller “Splice” barely avoided becoming a TV movie. There’s an interesting bit of the post that shows the nastiness of the litigious tendencies of today’s studios. In this case it was because of a supposed resemblance between the movie’s resident creature and certain blue alien folk you all know.

* Speaking of Mr. Na’vi eco-defender guy, he’s not my favorite spokesmen for my positions, however, I absolutely, positively cannot disagree with James Cameron on BP. Can you?