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If critical review and Internet buzz are any indication, Iron Man will be enjoying another weekend on top of the box office.

First off the starting line is Speed Racer, a high-concept animation-to-real life translation by the people who asked you “What is the Matrix?” The previews look like the film is faithful to its cartoon inspiration about a family of race car enthusiasts standing against big business, but that faithfulness may have spawned something so unbelievably fantastic that general audiences aren’t buying.

Then there’s the rom-com alternative programming (which didn’t work out too well for McWhatsHisName last weekend) called What Happens in Vegas…. Sadly, we prefer Ashton Kutcher in The Butterfly Effect rather than the dismal Just Married, and a film about him and Cameron Diaz presumably forced to live together before splitting a jackpot after a spur-of-the-moment Vegas wedding sounds as trite as it does contrived. Or you could rent Love Stinks and pocket the money you’ll save.

To say that this production is animated is an understatement, and here’s seven minutes to back it up. We’re not betting that Speed Racer will take first place from Iron Man, but this should look incredible on a digital screen. Take a look and hang on.

See? Someone in Hollywood is paying attention.

According to Variety, Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski has been tapped to direct a film adaptation of the hit video game “Bioshock.” And before anyone cringes, this is the same guy who made The Ring, the good Japanese horror remake. Pedigree aside (and for those who don’t know what the game is about), here’s what to expect:

“Bioshock” takes place in an underwater city based on the free market principles of Ayn Rand, but things have gone disastrously wrong. Players control a pilot who crash-lands at a secret entrance to the city, called Rapture, and is drawn into a power struggle during which he discovers that his will is not as free as he’d thought.

“I think the whole utopia-gone-wrong story that’s cleverly unveiled to players is just brimming with cinematic potential,” said Verbinski. “Of all the games I’ve played, this is one that I felt has a really strong narrative.”

Plans are underway for a preproduction start as soon as the script is done and approved, but we can’t wait to see Verbinski work out his Big Daddy issues.

Will the last actor or actress leaving “Smallville” please turn out the rest of the lights?

After milking the “Flightless Superboy without a costume” angle for seven seasons, the villain (Michael Rosenbaum) and the girlfriend (Kristin Kreuk) are leaving, the parents (John Schneider & Annette O’Toole) and best friend (Sam Jones III) have been written out, and Lex’s dad (John Glover) has been killed off. Oh, and the original producers who’ve created and guided the show just checked out, too.

Now comes word (via MovieWeb) that Clark Kent’s platonic girlfriend Allison Mack is also considering greener, newer pastures. This leaves only super guy Tom Welling as the show’s only original actor and newcomers “Lois Lane” and “Supergirl” to play with… plots that have already been irredeemably botched.

Seriously, an eighth season? With what? Let it die, folks… even the best Joss Whedon shows didn’t go on this long. Not to say Welling is a dead horse, but how much longer can he play the alien farmboy who can’t (or won’t) fly? Is his deal that lucrative or did the remake of John Carpenter’s The Fog really destroy any chance he had at a film career? Give Tom Welling a recurring role on “Reaper” next year and be done with it.

Infamous cult horror movie studio Hammer Films has apparently jumped on the “webisode” bandwagon with an original online series through MySpaceTV called “Beyond the Rave.” According to Wired.com, it’s about “a group of British soldiers who stumble upon a vampyric enclave of ravers on the eve of their deployment to Iraq.” Hey, it looks like An American Werewolf Vampire in Paris, and that good enough for us.