Thus far, Beenox has proven their love of working on the Spider-Man franchise between Spider-Man: Edge of Time and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Between the alternate versions of Spider-Man and the original takes on some of his villains, Beenox has shown a deep understanding and respect for the character. Now, they face a new challenge with the tie-in to the Amazing Spider-Man movie. While some major points of their story are often dictated by the events of the movie, Beenox has chosen to open the world up to players much like the previous developer Treyarch had done but has taken steps to improve on their much beloved formula.

In previous titles when a player shot their web, players were forced to let the game instinctually choose an appropriate target for them to sling off of. This was also the case in combat where the foe most often closely centered in the screen became the default target for Spidey to aim at. Now, Beenox has decided to give this control to the player instead with the feature they call the Web Rush for the Amazing Spider-Man game.

Using the Web Rush, time slows down for players, presumably to represent Spider-Man’s hyper-fast reflexes like it was seen in Sam Rami’s Spider-Man film where Peter Parker dodged the bullying of Flash Thompson. During this slow down, players are given all possible targets on screen where they can aim themselves. This can be a great resource for strategically setting themselves into different combat situations.

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Idris Elba will be returning as Heimdall in the Thor sequel. While that might seem like a bit of ‘well duh’ kind of news, it is nice to hear none the less. Considering the man is a very talented and very busy actor, whose role in Thor was pretty small, it would not have been terribly surprising if he didn’t have the time for another minor role right now.

However, Mr. Elba recently chatted with Collider who got the confirmation direct from the man himself:

Yes, I am.  I’m definitely going to do my man in a suit film… I’d just like to get to know him a bit more.  Who is Heimdall?  He guards the gate.  Okay.  Is there anything else?  I don’t know what is in the script because I haven’t read it yet.  But, the audience has responded to Asgard and wants to know more about who lives there and what it’s about.  I’m sure, if they do that, Heimdall will be featured more.

Not only is he coming back, but clearly Elba is eager to explore his character more. It would be really great if they allowed him that opportunity, especially the way the story is set up. Heimdall guards the Bifrost, the Bifrost has been destroyed.

That could make for some juicy stuff for Elba to sink his teeth into, and maybe a far more interesting way to incorporate another famous Asgardian who has a few obscure ties to Heimdall, Amora the Enchantress.

Skimming close to a billion dollars worldwide after a mere 14 days, Marvel, Disney and Paramount are proving that you can indeed make a movie mashup with other characters and pull it off. With that in mind, and that massive payroll coming into the Marvel Studios bank account, you had better believe there are already plans for a sequel to The Avengers.

Deadline has the official quote:

Disney CEO Bob Iger just announced that the company is developing a sequel. The film’s success “is a great illustration of why we like Marvel so much.” Demand for Avengers merchandise has been strong, he added.

While there is no official word, you can expect that Disney is courting Joss Whedon to return to the pen and/or direct for the second film, but we all know it’s going to be a bit far out. The next batch of sequels you can expect to take off will be Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger.

Normally this is a report about the top 10 in the weekends Box Office, a celebration of the entire spectrum of the week’s best performing movies. That will not be the case this week as The Avengers just demolished even the most generous expectations and became the first film ever to rake in over $200 Million dollars in a debut weekend.

You read that correct, The Avengers made an estimated $200.3 Million this weekend at the Box Office. For reference the next closest film was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 which brought in over $169 Million in its opening frame. Kudos to me for the prediction last week.

There is a fitting symmetry for Marvel this week, as it was the original Spider-Man movie in 2001 that was the first to breach the $100 Million Dollar plateau. In the twelve years since that first triple digit weekend five of the films to achieve the mark were based on Marvel properties, the most of any single franchise.

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The films put out by Marvel Studios have been excellent in most ways possible. Really nailing the tones of a wide variety of Marvel superheroes. One thing these movies have been lacking, however, is a strong musical presence.

Going back to the original Iron Man, these films have not really had the same level of film score heights that we have come to expect from comic book movies in the last decade plus. The tide began to turn with the last released film, Captain America, which brought in the fantastic Alan Silvestri, but even that didn’t really live up to its potential.

Well Mr. Silvestri is back with the biggest and most epic Marvel film yet, so can he deliver on the promise his name and this property offers? In one word, yes. In seven words and three exclamation points, hell freaking yeah! he totally nailed it!!

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And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth’s mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born—to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand! 

Yesterday in select cities nationwide, thousands of people were treated to a back-to-back marathon screening of all six Marvel Studios films. From Iron Man all the way to the midnight premiere of The Avengers, this epic, butt-busting extravaganza was sold as THE best way to celebrate the arrival of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

The roster of films was impressive, but the time commitment was daunting. For true Marvel movie fans was this celebration a good thing? Is the act of subjecting yourself to hours upon hours watching these films worthwhile? Does it diminish the quality or enhance the context when you watch them all back-to-back?

These were all questions I had to ask myself before settling in on my seventeen hour quest through the Marvel Movie-verse, and they were all questions that were answered quite emphatically by about the fifth hour.

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With the advent of the internet buying tickets to movies becomes more and more like buying tickets to concerts, and I don’t mean the inflated prices. When an event film comes out and you know you want to experience it with the midnight or opening day crowds you can by your tickets way ahead of time.

Lots of people are doing just that for the first ever major ‘Cross-over Event’ Film. According to MovieTickets.com the presale ticket numbers for The Avengers are larger than all the other Marvel Studio films… COMBINED:

MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS is pre-selling more tickets for the upcoming release than the online ticketing company sold for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, THOR, IRON MAN 2, and IRON MAN combined at the same point in the sales cycle for each film.  In fact, pre-sales of MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS is over one and a half times that of these past Marvel films combined sales at the same point in the sales cycle.

You can check out the bigger break down of how far ahead The Avengers is after the jump.

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While there are some haters out there who think a superhero mega movie isn’t worth the time spent on popcorn, the majority of the country, and now, the world, seem to disagree. Disney and Marvel’s The Avengers opened up in specific worldwide screens this weekend, a week ahead of the domestic release on May 4th, and have already superseded expectations in their market, breaking records in Australia by having the second biggest opening weekend of all time behind the final Harry Potter film.

THR breaks down the rest.

The Marvel Studios and Disney tentpole grossed $6 million, compared to $7 million for Deathly Hallows Part 2. And Avengers opened 214 percent ahead of Iron Man 2 ($1.8 million).

Avengers, which is beginning its foreign rollout a week ahead of its domestic launch on May 4, also did record business in Taiwan, scoring the best Wednesday opening gross of all time in earning $1.2 million.

The tentpole is setting down in a total of 42 foreign markets this weekend. Avengers is expected to be a box office monster, both domestically and overseas. In North America, it could debut north of $150 million, based on the sizable strength of pre-release tracking.

Not too shabby for a film about a group of dysfunctional teammates who take down an alien race, right? Catch Avengers in theaters next Friday.

The ‘first phase’ of the Marvel Studios shared universe comes to a climactic end on May 4th, but the ‘second phase’ continues to chug along and is set to begin one year later. On May 3rd, 2013 Iron Man 3 should be hitting theaters nation wide.

According to Variety, Marvel Studios might have finally found their foe in the Shane Black directed sequel:

Ben Kingsley is in final talks to play the villain in Marvel Studios and Disney’s “Iron Man 3,” but fans of the comicbook character will be disappointed to learn he won’t take on original Tony Stark archenemy the Mandarin.

Instead, Kingsley’s character is involved in the spread of a virus through nanobots, given that “Iron Man 3″ is loosely based on Warren Ellis’ six-issue “Extremis” comicbook series first published in 2005. That arc — which also heavily influenced the first “Iron Man” pic — introduced a new origin story and focused heavily on nanotechnology.

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The Avengers is less than a month away, but the folks at Marvel Studios are thinking beyond to the second ‘phase’ of the Marvel shared Universe. There are already release dates scheduled for Thor 2 and Iron Man 3, and now Marvel has settled on it’s date for Captain America 2.

The second solo film staring Cap is set to release April 4th, 2014. This is an odd time to release a big budget blockbuster sequel to a well received film. Usually films like this come out in the Summer blockbuster season, or around Christmas when most people have lots of free time.

Our theory here at The Flickcast is that Marvel is hedging it’s bets with Captain America 2. The Hunger Games proved that you can still be a huge blockbuster in the spring, but expectations are limited in non-peak months. The truth of the matter is that Captain America has a limited worldwide audience, and that translated to the second lowest Marvel Studios box office performer.

Obviously the movie was a smash here in America, and Cap is an integral part of the Marvel Universe. So moving his film to the spring might help keep expectations in check, while still allowing the movie a chance for it to blow up internationally.

Whatever the reasons are, the next phase of Marvel’s shared universe is starting to come into focus. Baring a failure of The Avengers next month, all these new films should culminate in Avengers 2 some time in the future.

Agent Coulson has been a important part of the shared Marvel movie universe. Popping up often in the adventures of many of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, he is essentially the glue that holds these films together.

So it is beyond appropriate that he gets his due in a character poster. Standing tall like the hero he is, the Agent Coulson character poster might be the most awesome piece of marketing yet released.

One of the most exciting things about the Avengers movie isn’t just that we get to see our favorite heroes battle side-by-side. We are also going to see a whole world come together for the first time. In each of the previous Marvel Studio films we had a taste of the shared universe concept, but this film is the main course.

Agent Coulson very much represents that shared universe, and to see him getting the kind of marketing love previously reserved for the big boys is a great nod to that fact.

We here at The Flickcast believe we are in for something special May 4th, and we can’t wait.

Check out the full one sheet after the jump.

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One of the greatest perks of Disney buying Marvel Comics a few years back was that we would start to see some Marvel flourishes in the Disney parks. It is going to be a long process before we see Iron Man and Cap walking around the parks, due to deals Marvel previously had in place with Universal Studios for theme park based attractions.

Those deals don’t, however, hinder Disney from promoting their new features starring the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Soon to be zooming overhead at the Walt Disney World Resort is the Avengers themed monorail!

Wrapping the monorails is not a new tactic for Disney, who previously converted Disneyland monorails into light cycles prior to Tron: Legacy’s release. However, these are much cooler, and will serve as a great looking speeding billboard for Disney World park goers this summer.

Hopefully this small entry into the parks is just the first step that will lead to a full fledged Marvel Comics land in one of the Disney Parks. Heck why not an entire separate Marvel Park, complete with Hulk Smash Bumper cars, Iron Man flight simulators, Thor Thunder Chrurros and Black Widow ladies rooms!

The Avengers hits theaters everywhere May 4th.