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And so it begins. The summer movie season, or Geek Christmas, gets underway this weekend, and boy is it not messing around this time. Our first big movie of the season is a really good contender to be the top film of the year, and has a shot at some records.

This weekend's release of The Avengers is the culmination of what might be one of the most ambitious projects in film history. What started a little over four years ago with the release of Iron Man comes to fruition, as the film collects four franchises worth of superheroes together for one gigantic battle for the world. It's sort of the Ocean's Eleven of comic book movies, but with more of the Earth exploding.

In addition to the aforementioned Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), we also have the stars of last year's comic book one-two punch, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (recast for a third time, with Mark Ruffalo) and the Professor and Mary Ann of The Avengers, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Also linking the films together are Nick Fury (Sam Jackson) and the film's main villain Loki, plus many other assorted minor characters who, quite frankly, matter to about 12 nerds out there. The remarkable thing here is that they were able to get everyone together at the same time (some of these people have actual careers outside this) for a price that didn't make this The Most Expensive Movie Ever™.

Writing and directing duties have been handed over to Joss Whedon, a move that almost makes up for having Firefly canceled. The creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer et al. is perhaps the ideal choice for this film, given how connected he is with the comic world, and how he's shown himself to see capable of blending the fantastic and the ordinary. He's also known for the wit he brings to projects, which should help keep this story about magic aliens and monsters from becoming over-serious. Early reports say he's achieved that balance, creating spectacular action and making sure that character moments come through amidst all the 'splodin'.

Last year's Summer of Comic Book Movies was a bit underwhelming and pointed to the possibility that audiences are growing tired of the genre. I think this is a bit of a naïve view, considering that most of last year's comic movies, particularly the Marvel ones that led into The Avengers, were not of top flight heroes. Of course, Iron Man wasn't necessarily top flight either, but also had an amazing trailer. Thor and Cap... not so much. The Avengers previews have also been spectacular, with at least two amazing money shots and a number of smaller moments that really do a great job of selling the team concept and the epicness of the story.

It's that last quality that is what makes The Avengers likely to be such a world beater. This is the film where four movies worth of character building build to a climax, and with the fate and existence of the world as the stakes. How can that not be enticing? Available in basically every expensively ticketed format as required these days, The Avengers will have all the advantages of the myriad of films that have taken on the opening weekend record before.

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