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Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in 1939, so one could say that his early beginnings sit him aside other classic pulp detectives like Philip Marlowe. Director Christopher Nolan understands this and brings it to the forefront in his latest Batman feature film, which is at least as good as BATMAN BEGINS and in many respects better. Worthy to stand along other great crime dramas, this superhero film is like HEAT; only Al Pacino’s character wears a cowl instead of perfectly coifed hair. It’s like SILENCE OF THE LAMBS; only Hannibal Lecter fancies purple handmade suits to a classy linen ensemble. As much as you might have liked them or even hated them, it quickly rids the memory of images of Jack Nicholson hamming it up in circus make-up, or Joel Schumacher adding nipples to the Batsuit. This is the film Dark Knight fans have grown up to see.

Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale, AMERICAN PSYCHO) has been keeping up his image as a trust fund playboy in public, while in private he has cleaned up the streets of Gotham City as Batman. A new DA has come to town, his name is Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart, THE COMPANY OF MEN), and he’s dating Bruce’s longtime love Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, WORLD TRADE CENTER). Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman, THE PROFESSIONAL) doesn’t trust Dent, who used to work in internal affairs, but Batman sees Dent, who is determined to take down the mob, as the white knight of Gotham, the public face of hope for the city. Plaguing the city in addition to the gangsters is a ruthless bank robber dubbed the Joker (Heath Ledger, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN), who proposes to the various factions of the mob that they pay him to kill the Batman.

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Guillermo del Toro, director of PAN’S LABYRINTH, brings his boundless visual imagination to another screen edition of the HELLBOY saga. Filled with fanciful creatures and whimsical silliness, del Toro nicely balances between humor and action in this fun superhero adventure. While not as fresh as the original, HELLBOY II holds its own in a summer filled with wonderful superheroic antics.

Ages ago the magical creatures of the world made a truce with humans, setting aside their indestructible golden army. They would stay in the woods while humans ruled the cities. However, as the cities spread and humans became consumed with greed, the magical creatures were pushed into the shadows. Now Prince Nuada (Luke Goss, BLADE II) wants the magical world to rule again, so he seeks the three pieces of the crown that controls the mechanical golden army made up of 70 times 70 warriors. With his robbery of the second piece of the crown and the murder of dozens of humans, the U.S. government calls in their paranormal task force of Hellboy (Ron Perlman, THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN), Liz Sherman (Selma Blair, CRUEL INTENTIONS) and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones, PAN’S LABYRINTH).

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Warner Bros. Animation successfully moved into making more mature animated direct-to-videos with SUPERMAN: DOOMSDAY. Their latest effort — an anime infused BATMAN production made up of six distinct, but interlocking, chapters — is another step in the right direction. Six different writers and six different directors handled each section, which was brought together as a whole by the guiding hands of exec producer Bruce Timm and story man Jordan Goldberg, a producer on THE DARK KNIGHT. The distinct visual styles keep the material interesting as we watch the unfolding episodes chronicling the early adventures for the Dark Knight.

The first segment, “Have I Got a Story For You,” is a wonderful tale to start with, following the wild and wildly different impressions of Batman from four kids. In one tall tale he is a shadowy apparition then in the next he becomes a flying, savage creature. The next tale paints him as a weapon-filled machine. In reality, he turns out to be a mere man. With a screenplay from Josh Olson (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) and directed by Shouijirou Nishimi (animation director on TEKKON KINKREET), the raw style of the animation makes for a gritty start and a fitting look for what amounts to various legends about Batman.

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More times than not a trailer informs the general audience about whether a film is something they want to see. The trailers for HANCOCK (which I’ve always felt was a terrible title) seemed like a mildly amusing superhero spoof. In the trailer, one feels it’s a one-note story. Will Smith’s superhero lead is a jerk and learns to not be a jerk – the end. But I must give it to Columbia Pictures that they left many of the secrets for the audience to discover during the movie watching experience instead of give it to us in the press ahead of time. There’s an interesting twist that takes the story a nice new direction (even if it’s not handled perfectly) and, gasp, real characters that we care about.

John Hancock (Will Smith, MEN IN BLACK) is the foulest superhero ever. In his efforts to stop crime, he often causes mass chaos and carnage. He’s a drunk and mean. His demeanor is rooted in being the only god among men. He has dozens of warrants out for his arrest, but they are never executed because no one can contain him. After a disastrous business pitch, PR man Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman, JUNO) gets his car stuck on the train tracks. When Hancock comes to his rescue, the superhero causes a train wreck. As thanks, Ray invites Hancock to have dinner with his wife Mary (Charlize Theron, MONSTER) and his young son Aaron (Jae Head, TV’s FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS). Mary becomes very worried when Ray makes it his mission to fix Hancock’s public image.

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And you thought the Hulk had anger management issues — wait till you get a load of Timur Bekmambetov’s new film WANTED. The director of the cult sci-fi flick NIGHT WATCH brings to the screen an angry and violent adaptation of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ comic book series. The film pulses with youthful resentment for crappy jobs and an unfair life. At 21, I would have loved this film probably more than I do now that I’m older.

Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy, ATONEMENT) is a big loser. He has a crappy cubicle job with an overbearing boss and his best friend is sleeping with his girlfriend. He has little money in the bank and he suffers from anxiety attacks. While filling a prescription, the striking assassin Fox (Angelina Jolie, TOMB RAIDER) drops a bomb on him — his absent father was really one of the world’s best assassins and that his father’s killer named Cross (Thomas Kretschmann, THE PIANIST) is around the corner waiting to kill him. After a crazed chase through the streets of Chicago, Wesley meets Sloan (Morgan Freeman, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION), the head of the Fraternity of Assassins. He informs Wesley that his anxiety attacks are really his increased levels of adrenaline that give him superhuman reflexes. So begins, Wesley’s initiation into the Fraternity, one where hazing laws are savagely disregarded.

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“What the successful Marvel superhero movies did right was that they weren’t written for 13 year olds. FANTASTIC FOUR is so juvenile it’s pathetic.” That’s what I said about the first film. The second film is even more lazy and depressing. No obvious pun is left untouched. No forced plot point is left un-crammed. In its ridiculous attempt to be hip, the film is groan inducing. More problematic is that all the silliness drains every ounce of tension from this dud, making the experience feel like a flimsy four-hour ordeal.

As we begin, Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd, KING ARTHUR) and Susan Storm (Jessica Alba, THE EYE) are planning their wedding, which has hit bumps in previous attempts due to paparazzi interference. A strange cosmic disturbance is being recorded in space and General Hager (Andre Braugher, THE MIST) wants Reed to build a machine to track it. But it’s right before his wedding, so it’s an internal struggle between his impending nuptials and saving the world. Well, Reed secretly builds the device and during the service his PDA goes wild — the disturbance has arrived in the form of the Silver Surfer (Doug Jones, HELLBOY - voiced by Laurence Fishburne). The alien, who rides on a cosmic board that is the source of his power, is the herald of Galactus, an entity that devours worlds. As Reed, Susan, Johnny (Chris Evans, CELLULAR) and Ben (Michael Chiklis, TV’s THE SHIELD) prepare for the fight, General Hager seeks help from the reborn Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon, TV’s CHARMED).

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Having liked the Ang Lee version of the HULK, I had trepidations going into this reboot of the franchise for one major reason. Would Marvel sink to the level of pandering to a juvenile section of the audience who just want to see Hulk smash stuff real good? Nothing in the trailer made me think otherwise. What I got in the end, however, was another character-based superhero saga that honors the original source without indulging in the desires of the lowest common denominator. And Hulk smashed stuff real good too.

Over the opening credits we get a quick recap of the origin of the Hulk, which skillfully walks the line for those who liked Lee’s HULK and those who hated it. The other HULK’s existence is up to the viewer now. As we catch up with Bruce Banner (Edward Norton, FIGHT CLUB) he’s on the run in Brazil. Working with a secret partner in the States, he is looking for a cure for his rage problem, which transforms him into the big green guy. Gen. “Thunderbolt” Ross is determined to find him, believing that Banner’s body is the property of the U.S. military. He enlists ruthless soldier Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth, PULP FICTION) in the effort. His pursuit of Banner has estranged him from his scientist daughter Dr. Betty Ross (Liv Tyler, LORD OF THE RINGS), who is in love with Banner. When he is found in Brazil, the Hulk emerges and Blonsky becomes drunk with the idea of gaining that same power.

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I was expecting eye candy going into this film and that’s what I was served, but by the time the final course was uncovered I had gobbled up Andy and Larry Wachowski’s neon-glowing confection. No one who has ever seen the original series would confuse it with good animation. Nonetheless it had a charm that was undeniable. The Wachowskis capture that charm, frosting their entire production with it. They are not interested in “improving” the original material with an overdose of extra hip wink winks — the same ingredient that has destroyed so many other animation-to-live-action adaptations. They’re interested in bringing the good flavors to the forefront and minimizing the cheesy aftertaste.

Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch, INTO THE WILD) is from a family of racers, who thinks about nothing but racing. He looks up to his older brother Rex (Scott Porter, TV’s FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS), a champion driver. But something happens to pull apart Rex and his dad Pops (John Goodman, BARTON FINK), spurring Rex to leave home and later parish in a racing accident. When Speed grows up, he is courted by all the major sponsors, especially Royalton (Roger Allam, V FOR VENDETTA), a shady corporate tycoon. Soon enough, Speed learns painful lessons about the way the racing world is really run and is approached by the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox, TV’s LOST) to join him and blow the lid off the evil corporate conspiracy to fix races.

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While Marvel Comics considers Iron Man one of their premiere characters, no one would put him in the same league with Spider-Man, or DC Comics icons Batman or Superman. Well, that might change. Though the character is 45 years old, today seems a perfect moment to reintroduce him to a new generation. Director Jon Favreau has done for Iron Man what Sam Raimi did for Spider-Man and Christopher Nolan did for Batman. Given great actors and a well-written script, IRON MAN is a big piece of popcorn entertainment with a real movie underneath.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., CHAPLIN) is the head of Stark Industries, the world’s largest and most profitable weapons manufacturer. He’s a playboy drunk, who happens to be an engineering genius. If it were not for his dedicated assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE), his life would be in shambles. His best friend Colonel Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard, HUSTLE & FLOW) tries to look out for Tony, but Tony has a way of messing things up. Then, while on a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan, Tony is taken prisoner by the terrorist Raza (Faran Tahir, CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR), who demands that Stark build him a version of his latest missile. Aided by the doctor Yinsen (Shaun Toub, CRASH), Stark builds a powerful robotic suit, a walking fortress that allows them to escape. Upon his return to the States, Stark rethinks his purpose in life, rededicating his life to protecting the innocent from the weapons that he has been building. This new founded humanitarian motivation worries his longtime partner Obadiah Stone (Jeff Bridges, THE BIG LEBOWSKI), who fears that peace is less profitable than war.

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Mark Steven Johnson’s last attempt at adapting a Marvel comic was DAREDEVIL, the first big failure of the modern Marvel string. Now, with a lesser hero in the Marvel roster, he doesn’t do much better. Lacking the quality of character he had in his first outing, Johnson makes the less than original origin tale worth watching, but finds nothing else to fill out the rest of this feature film with.

When Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage, FACE/OFF) was a kid, he performed in a motorcycle stunt act with his dad Barton (Brett Cullen, TV’s LOST), who is dying of lung cancer. Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda, EASY RIDER) comes to visit the boy, promising to save his dad if the young stunt rider will sell his soul to him. As deals with the devil go, they never quite work out as planned. Tortured by what he has done, Johnny leaves behind his true love Roxanne Simpson (Eva Mendes, HITCH). Years later, feeling safe from the curse, Johnny tries to win back Roxanne, who is now a reporter. Unlucky for him, Mephistopheles calls in his debt, transforming Blaze into Ghost Rider, a skeleton-like avenger with a flaming skull. With a gravity-defying motorcycle with real flaming not the painted on variety, Ghost Rider is enlisted send the devil’s power hungry son Blackheart (Wes Bentley, AMERICAN BEAUTY) back to hell.

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