What, other than the obvious qualifiers such as filmmaking talent and skill, differentiates a loving, well executed homage like Shaun of the Dead from insipid nonsense like Vampires Suck or Epic Movie?  Last week, the first real trailer for The Avengers debuted online and was promptly watched a bajillion times by excited fans the world over, and a two minute video released this week can help answer that question.  The video is a fanmade, no-budget shot-for-shot recreation of the Avengers trailer; it's compulsively watchable and a whole mess off fun because Bryan Harley and his cohorts made it with love, even if there is no small amount of tongue in cheek humor involved.  For their faithful backyard rendition of that trailer, the makers of the sweded The Avengers trailer are our Rogues of the Week.

Synopsis: Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures "Marvel's The Avengers"--the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by Joss Whedon, "Marvel's The Avengers" is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series "The Avengers," first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since. Prepare yourself for an exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, when "Marvel's The Avengers" assemble in summer 2012. In "Marvel's The Avengers," superheroes team up to pull the world back from the brink of disaster when an unexpected enemy threatens global security.

Since Marvel Studios announced that the first official teaser trailer for the biggest cinematic superhero team-up ever attempted would debut on Tuesday, odds are that plenty of folks have been counting down the days on one hand.  Well, it's Tuesday, and Marvel has obliged with the teaser for The Avengers in all its superheroic glory.  The trailer gives a good sense of Tom Hiddleston as Loki being thoroughly villainous, but predictably doesn't reveal the nature of the movie's larger threat.  While we get looks at every member of the SHIELD-assembled team, it's definitely Robert Downey Jr.'s trailer; next to Nick Fury, he gets almost all the lines.  This makes perfect sense, as Iron Man's the most established in Marvel Studios' stable, and it appears he's also the team member who causes the most friction.

Over the last week, we've seen plenty of official content from The Avengers getting rolled out, such as Marvel-approved stills of the superteam in action.  As for actual sanctioned footage of the film, though, that's limited to the post-credits teaser that followed Captain America: The First Avenger, which was a rapid-fire montage of images oh-so briefly showing off the likes of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Bruce Banner.  While that was basically an exceedingly-teasery teaser trailer, it looks like the first bona-fide trailer for The Avengers is set grace maonitors everywhere on Tuesday, just five days from now.

Though one would naturally have expected The Avengers to be a ubiquitous presence at San Diego Comic-Con, the biggest gathering of nerdlingers and genre enthusiasts on the planet, back in July, Marvel opted out of a panel presentation for its superhero mega-crossover.  While the film still had a setup on the Con floor, the big panel was saved for August at Disney's D23 Expo, being established as something of a rival for Comic-Con.  East Coast comic-lovers who can't wait for The Avengers will officially have the opportunity to see a panel presentation from the film at New York Comic-Con on October 15th.

The panel will include Marvel Studios honcho Kevin Feige and castmembers Chris Evans, Tom Hiddleston, Cobie Smulders, and Clark Gregg.  Director Joss Whedon will presumably be busy putting the movie together in post-production, unless Marvel's keeping his presence as a surprise.  The panel will play host to exclusive footage from the movie, rather than foisting the D23 clips on a New York crowd hungry for new content.

At this point, every actual image released showing the characters of The Avengers is sort of surreal, as the big Marvel Studios plan to introduce all these characters in their own films then bring them together for the mother of all superhero ensembles seemed so impossible.  Yet here we are, looking at actual photographic evidence that The Avengers will be onscreen in less than a year.  Just last week, we saw some primo-quality behind-the-scenes images and some less-than-stellar scans from the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly.  Today, there are not only a couple of new images, but we've also got those previously-meh scans in crystal clear form, allowing you to see the details on Cap's costume and the way Scarlett Johansson in black leather easily upstages an explosion.

This morning, we saw the cover of an upcoming magazine featuring the assembled cast of The Avengers all in one place, ready to stare at shoppers from the magazine racks at grocery stores all over America.  Now, mere hours later, we have a little batch of official images from the crossover ensemble movie towards which Marvel Studios has been building since just after the credits of Iron Man in 2008.  Unlike the awkward Photoshop job that stacked the familiar superheroes on the latest Entertainment Weekly cover, these new images are entirely more natural.  They include a shot of Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. striking poses as Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner firing their respective weapons before a green screen as well as behind the scenes photo of Joss Whedon and Chris Hemsworth hanging out with Evans and Downey Jr.

The new issue of Entertainment Weekly, which hits newsstands and hamster cages on Friday, September 30th, features a big set visit report on The Avengers, the unprecedented superhero crossover teaming up cinematic heroes previously introduced in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger.  Since this, generally speaking, is the sort of thing that can move some magazines, EW has teased the issue by putting the cover image online, accompanied by the very briefest of articles giving just a taste of what you'll find in the pages.  So go ahead and whet your whistle with an every shade of official image putting Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, and Jeremy Renner.

Synopsis: Anna Faris is Ally Darling, who after reading a magazine article that leads her to believe she's going to be forever alone, begins a wild search for the best "ex" of her life. Based on the book by Karyn Bosnak.

This summer, Chris Evans got to prove his superheroic bona-fides yet again, this time as the title character in Captain America: The First Avenger, and while he very capably brought the skinny Steve Rogers and the unstoppable super-soldier to life, he was bound by the inhibitions of a morally unambiguous character.  In the independent film Puncture, by contrast, Evans sinks his teeth into the contradictory role of Mike Weiss, a real-life functioning drug addict whose small law firm went up against pharmaceutical giants in an effort to implement needles that would effectively save many health care professionals from the risk of contamination.

Based on a true story, Puncture is the work of sibling directorial duo Adam Kassen and Mark Kassen, both making their feature debut as both directors and producers.  Producing the film along with them is Paul Danziger, Weiss's legal partner and the cautious, responsible yin to Weiss's irrepressible, dangerous yang.  Mark Kassen actually plays Danziger in the film. IAR recently had a chance to screen the film and was very impressed with both the Kassen's filmmaking and Evans' brave performance. With Puncture opening in limited release on September 23rd, both Kassen brothers took the time for an exclusive interview with IAR's own Jami Philbrick, in which they discuss their shared process, the hazards of adapting a true story, working with Evans, and their casting methods.