Actually, the news isn’t nearly so dire. While 2010 only offers one major Marvel movie release – Iron Man 2, the one film on the list that wasn’t shifted in the schedule – 2011 will see not one, not two, but three major releases from May to July.  Talk about packing a punch. The only downside is that The Avengers is now coming out in 2012.

Here’s the Marvel movie release schedule for its comic book adaptations:

• Iron Man 2 – May 7, 2010
• Spider-Man 4 – May 6, 2011
• Thor - June 17, 2011
• The First Avenger: Captain America – July 22, 2011
• The Avengers – May 4, 2012
• Venom – TBA
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2 – TBA
• Deadpool – TBA

I’m pumped for Iron Man 2. Despite the bitter twist that still lingers at the back of my throat from the third movie, Spider-Man 4 is unquestionably a good idea. Thor, however… really? I just don’t see how this movie will end up working – in a day and age where the darker and grittier superhero flicks are all the rage, it’s hard to picture a movie about a shirtless, Fabio-esque God being any good. Captain America has much more potential, but please, please, please get rid of that “The First Avenger” part of the title. The Avengers also has potential… though we have yet to see a superhero team consisting of a bunch of characters with their own movies. How this one will play out is anyone’s guess at this point.

You can view upcoming DC Comics movie release dates here.

The huge box office winner is coming to DVD this Tuesday, September 30, 2008, and Marvel and Paramount managed to forward me an early copy of the two-disc special edition. The DVD is a great addition to anyone’s collection, though I doubt this review is going to have any bearing on your decision one way or another. You either liked the movie or you didn’t, though I haven’t met a person who wasn’t blown away by the flick.

As far as special features go, there is a good deal of deleted scenes, some of which are halfway decent. I suspect that a couple of them were removed to keep a PG-13 rating, as one makes a rather direct allusion to a three-way, and eventually a four-way. Others add unnecessary exposition and explanation to the story; you can see where they fit in, but were most likely removed for pacing reasons. Nevertheless, they make for good deleted scenes.

Moving onto the second disc, we are greeted with a series of seven featurettes that look at various stages of the production, from location shooting to suit design to special effects. Some of the best behind-the-scenes featurettes come from the biggest of films, and this single feature runs for a good hour and a half. The featurette is pretty insightful and not promotional in the least, meaning you get a lot of sincerity from Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., the stuntmen and everyone else involved.

Other special features include a deeper look at the visual effects, a screen test with Robert Downey Jr., a featurette called The Actor’s Process that I was too lazy to watch (actually, after watching most of the special features I got so eager to watch the movie that I returned to the first disc to fire it up… though I then got interrupted by the Presidential debates for a couple of hours) and your typical stills gallery, previews, et cetera. Why do they even bother including stills galleries on DVDs? Does anyone actually look at them? Ooh, cool! I can look at non-moving images of a movie I just watched. This is most awesomest.

The DVD is pretty good, though I’d expect there to be an even bigger version to be on the horizon. Regardless, Iron Man itself is well worth the $20 to add this to your collection. You can read my full Iron Man movie review here.

Iron Man

Read my Iron Man movie review here.

Made of Honor, the only other major release this weekend, came in second, earning $5.4 million on Friday. I guess counter-programming paid off in this case.

Once again, the teaser trailer rocked; the movie trailer just underwhelms a little bit. The teaser trailer was very serious and action-oriented, whereas the Iron Man movie trailer has a lot more humor and silly stuff. Not exactly the kind of things I like to see.

That being said, the comedy in Iron Man is pretty funny. Tony Stark’s suit fails on him mid-flight, and he goes crashing through a roof and into an expensive car. Gwenyth Paltrow walks in on him getting the suit assembled, but she’s seen him in “more awkward situations.” Funny, but funny doesn’t bring me to these kinds of movies.

With a full movie trailer, I want to see a little bit of plot and a lot of action, and the Iron Man movie trailer lacks that to some extent. Only a smidgen more of the plot is revealed than was in the teaser trailer, and the teaser trailer actually sets up the attack sequence in the beginning much better. The trailer focuses heavily on Stark making and putting together his suit, which, in my opinion, is a bad move. It’s this kind of thing that stretches the bounds of reality, and fans on the fence might be turned off by that kind of thing. For me, personally, I don’t care how the suit is made or how Stark puts it on – I want to see him use it.

I’m sure another Iron Man movie trailer will come along soon enough, especially since this one’s a bit underwhelming. I still have high hopes, but the trailer is just a bit poorly constructed in a few places.