I feel bad being so late to this movie—granted this is the opening day, but it seems that for the past two weeks, everyone in the world has seen it already. And so, for the past two weeks, everyone’s been raving about it and saying that it’s the greatest superhero movie ever made; it’s the best movie of the summer; it’s better than a big sex sandwich, and so on.

The premise, if it weren’t already evident from the stingers Marvel’s added to the very end of every one of their movies for the past five years, is that a group of superheroes—Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)–need to recover the Tesseract, a glowing blue cube that generates unlimited energy and also, somehow, opens the portal to the realm of Asgard.

No sooner does S.H.I.E.L.D., a shadowy government agency overseen by a committee whose purpose in the film is somewhat tenuous, discover this than the Tesseract’s stolen by Thor’s adoptive brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who also hypnotizes Hawkeye and one of the scientists from Thor, Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) into doing his nefarious shenanigans, namely, opening a bigger portal to Asgard and invading earth.

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Week 3 into this year’s epic summer blockbuster season and it looks like established franchises seem to still be more of a draw than original comedies or futuristic thrillers. In its second week of release, Thor has maintained the coveted #1 spot over new releases Bridesmaids and Priest.

Last weekend, Thor opened to 3,955 theaters in the US and had a solid pull of $65.7 million. This weekend, the film opened up in a few more theaters but lost a little bit of steam and about 50% of the original weekend’s domestic take, in making an estimated $34.5 million domestic, and over $300 million worldwide.

In the new releases, Bridesmaids, starring Kristen Wiig and marketed as the “female Hangover” came in at the #2 spot with $24.4 million. Not a terrible opening weekend, as the film only cost $32 million to make. It will be a nice companion film to Hangover 2, which hits in 2 weeks.

The only other big release this weekend was Priest, starring Paul Bettany and Karl Urban. In remaining consistent with less than positive reviews, the film opened at #4 with a measly $14.5 million. This is definitely one film that was hurt by the 3D conversion, as it pushed the release back from over a year ago, when it had a chance to stand strong in a dead weekend.

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This year’s summer blockbuster season is over, which means only one thing…it’s time to start getting excited for next year’s Summer Blockbuster season! We’ve already seen the first trailer for Thor and some cool set pics from Captain America: The First Avenger, and now we’re getting the very first full theatrical trailer for the sci-fi explosion Priest, starring Paul Bettany and Karl Urban.

The film may look a bit like other movies in the genre such as Constantine or I Am Legend, but with the amount of star power and visual effects that have been poured into this film, you can expect to see something completely different.

With that comes the newest trailer for the flick, which gives us plenty of new action shots of both protagonist Paul Bettany, antagonist Karl Urban, love interest Maggie Q and even True Blood’s Stephen Moyer in his first major film role since becoming the character of Bill Compton.

Check out the full trailer after the jump, and be sure to catch Priest in theaters on May 13, 2011.

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As with most every week, this week sees the release of more new movies and TV shows on Blu-ray and DVD. Of the titles dropping this week we’re most interested in Edge of Darkness, Legion, Daybreakers, the first time Blu-ray release of Karate Kid I and II, the release of the Kurosawa collection and the debut of Mel Brook’s History of the World Part One on Blu-ray (pictured above with Mel Brooks and Harvey Korman).

Check them out.

Movies

Daybreakers ~ Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe (Blu-ray and DVD)

Edge of Darkness ~ Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston (Blu-ray and DVD)

Essential Art House: Kurosawa Collection (Hidden Fortress/Ikiru/Throne of Blood) (Blu-ray and DVD)

Father of the Bride 1 & 2 ~ Steve Martin (Blu-ray and DVD)

Hang Em High (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) [Blu-ray] ~ Clint Eastwood, Ed Begley, Bruce Dern, and Dennis Hopper (Blu-ray – 2010)

History of the World Part 1 ~ Mel Brooks, Dom Deluise, Harvey Korman (Blu-ray)

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Hitting stores everywhere today, Screen Gems’ Legion will be taking the Earth by storm in the form of DVD and Blu-Ray. Originally in theaters back in January, the action-thriller brought about the apocalypse with a cool “God purging the world of it’s disease” storyline, some cool zombie/demonic baddies, and an epic showdown between angels Michael (Paul Bettany) and Gabriel (LOST’s Kevin Durand).

Directed by visual effects artist Scott Stewart, the film fills out its cast with some great talent like Dennis Quaid, Private Practice’s Kate Walsh, Tyrese Gibson, Adrianne Palicki, and American Gothic’s Lucas Black. As part of the Blu-Ray release, we’ve got some great clips from the disc’s features to show you.

Dennis Quaid delves into the troubles of his character, Bob, Paul Bettany talks about doing (just about) all of his own stunts, and we see exactly how the production crew got the 60+ year old Jeannette Miller to hang from a ceiling.

Check out the clips after the jump, and pick up Legion on Blu-Ray or DVD today.

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Stan Lee has undoubtedly had a pretty amazing career, going as far back as the days of the Marvel Bullpen. He has the mantle of creating some of the world’s most beloved and well-known characters, as well as the impressive feat of still being alive to see them come to visual fruition in the form of big-budget films.

Though he may have had a bit of a lover’s quarrel with Marvel a few years back, they seemed to have made up, and Stan has been making the rounds in just about every Marvel film dating back to Spider-Man. In just the world of Iron Man alone, “The Man” has played Hugh Hefner, Larry King, and in a brand new spot for Dr. Pepper, a janitor at Tony Stark’s house.

The spot is pretty funny, but for those who aren’t laughing, you still get a look at Stark’s array of Iron Man costumes (including what looks to be the classic “Secret Wars” armor), as well as the voice of Paul Bettany as Jarvis.

Check out the spot after the jump, and be sure to catch Iron Man 2 in theaters and IMAX on May 7th.

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Most people that go to see District 9 this weekend will get to see Legion’s far less violent green band trailer. But recently released online was the far more interesting “Red Band” preview of the post-apocalyptic action-thriller — courtesy of the folks at Trailer Addict.

The film’s premise, which is quite interesting, goes something like this: “When God loses faith in Mankind, he sends his legion of angels to bring on the Apocalypse. Humanity’s only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a desert diner and the Archangel Michael (played by Paul Bettany).

The film looks to be something like Constantine meets Demon Knight, which is a pretty cool idea. Legion hits theaters on January 22, 2010.

Check out the probably NSFW trailer after the jump.

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Sony’s Screen Gems has launched an official website for the Scott Stewart-directed Priest adaptation, giving fans a first look at Paul Bettany in the lead role. Based on the popular manga TokyoPop comic book, Priest is set in a world ravaged by the on-going war between humans and vampires.

Bettany’s warrior priest turns against the Church to track down a murderous band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece. Cam Gigandet co-stars.

Initial comparisons may be visually drawn to the character of Silas, the devoted albino monk Bettany played in The Da Vinci Code, but the creepy, unflinching intensity in the poster clearly makes him perfect for the part. You don’t exactly ask vampires for hostages nicely.

Priest is scheduled to open on August 13, 2010.

Coming off of the huge Twilight Saga success during last week’s MTV Movie Awards, Cam Gigandet, who plays James, the vampire baddie in the first film, has just been cast as yet another vampire.

This time, it will be in a Screen Gems film adaptation of the comic book Priest. From The Hollywood Reporter:

Gigandet will star opposite Paul Bettany in “Priest,” a horror Western that Scott Stewart is directing for Screen Gems.  Adapted by Cory Goodman from a TokyoPop comic book, “Priest” is set in a world ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires and follows a warrior priest (Bettany) who turns against the church to track down a murderous band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece.  Gigandet plays a young wasteland sheriff who is part vampire. He partners with Bettany to save the girl he loves, the niece. That latter part has yet to be cast.

Gigandet won an MTV Movie Award for his fight sequence with Robert Pattinson’s Edward in Twilight, and also won the previous year for his fight in the film Never Back Down, making him the first actor to win the award two years in a row.

The young actor can next be seen starring opposite Jenna Malone in the drama Five Star Day and opposite Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid in the Sci-Fi Horror Pandorum.

UPDATE - Apparently, according to a new interview at MTV Splashpage, Cam won’t exactly be playing a vampire in the new film. However, he is in the movie and it does contain “vampire-like” creatures. Draw your own conclusions from the interview posted after the jump.

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