As far as cinema is concerned, 2008 has been lackluster at best.

That was until “Iron Man,” starring Robert Downey Jr. as the metal-clad superhero, came along last week grossing more than $100 million in its opening weekend, kicking the summer movie season off with a bang.

“More importantly, this has been the first really good quality mass film that’s been out there,” says Bob Shultz, KQ2 movie critic.

Since “Iron Man” has gotten the blockbuster momentum started, what other films should people be on the lookout for?

Well, opening today is the “The Matrix” trilogy creators, the Wachowski Brothers,’ re-imagining of the Japanese racing cartoon “Speed Racer.” Also, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” (opening May 16) will be sure to bring families out, even though the previews would indicate that the family franchise is going into a bit darker territory.

But without question, what audiences are most excited to see is the return of Harrison Ford reprising his role as the whip-wielding archaeologist in Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (opening May 22).

Women (and a few men) will ultimately be going see television’s favorite Manhattan socialites jump to the big screen when Sarah Jessica Parker stars in the “Sex and the City” movie (opening May 30).

“It really had across-the-board male/female appeal to it,” Shultz says.

While May is stacked with movies aiming for big bucks, the rest of the summer has a similar look to it, albeit a lot more variety.

The other big comic book movie to come out this summer will be the return of the caped crusader in “The Dark Knight” (opening July 18). While the Christopher Nolan film starring Christian Bale would have been successful anyway, it will garner extra attention due to Heath Ledger’s performance as the psychotic villain The Joker, his last on-screen performance before his untimely death earlier this year.

Several comic heavyweights will be trying to make their mark this summer. Adam Sandler plays a Israeli special agent going undercover as a hairdresser in “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” (opening June 6) while Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly reunite as “Step Brothers” (opening July 25).

Also, “Get Smart” (opening June 20), based on the 1960s television comedy, will star Steve Carell as the bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart. Ben Stiller will be directing and starring in the Hollywood spoof “Tropic Thunder” (opening Aug. 15) alongside Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr.

Then, there’s Mike Myers in “The Love Guru,” about an American Hindu coming back to the U.S. to be a self-help celebrity. While Myers has had success in the past, Shultz is not sure his humor will fly in an era of racy comedies like “Superbad” and “Wedding Crashers.”

“He does seem dated at this point,” Shultz says. “I’d like to see him more relevant in this time.”

Speaking of “Superbad,” the film’s producer Judd Apatow, who recently produced a hit this spring with “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” will getting audiences high on hilarity in the new weed comedy “Pineapple Express” starring “Knocked Up” star Seth Rogen and James Franco.

A couple of animation films are coming out swinging. Actually, they’ll come out kicking with Jack Black in the Dreamworks pic “Kung Fu Panda” (opening June 6) and rolling in the new Disney/Pixar robot film “Wall E” (opening June 27), which will surely be good. It is Pixar, after all.

“Every time we talk about Pixar, we always talk about the same thing. They’ve never had a bad film,” Shultz says.

A couple of Hollywood heavyweights are making appearances this summer as well. Angelina Jolie has taken a break from her adoptapalooza to play an assassin in “Wanted” (opening June 27) and writer/director M. Night Shyamalan will be directing Mark Wahlberg in “The Happening” (opening June 13). Will Smith will be starring in a movie for Independence Day weekend (shocking!), but as a rag-tag superhero trying to clean up his public image in “Hancock” (opening July 2).

There also are a few more sequels coming out this summer, whether you like it or not. “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” opens July 11, but considering it is directed by visionary “Pan’s Labryinth” director Guillermo del Toro, it may turn out OK. And just in case the first three “Mummy” films weren’t enough, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” starring Brendan Frasier and Jet Li, opens Aug. 1. You also can add “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” to the sequel/chick flick department when it opens Aug. 8.

While some of this season’s movies seem typical, there are a few films coming out this summer that are just downright peculiar. They are taking a second crack at bringing “The Incredible Hulk” to the screen on June 13 starring Edward Norton, and according to Deny Staggs, assistant professor of acting/directing for theater and video at Missouri Western State University, the reason is obvious.

“It’s kind of a redo because the first one (“Hulk” in 2003) sucked so bad,” he says.

Plus, there is a new “Star Wars” film coming out. OK, a “Star Wars” film coming out in the summer isn’t surprising, but the fact that “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” is completely computer-animated and is being released Aug. 15 (a month where Hollywood tends to dump its cinematic compost) is definitely a little strange.

Talk about strange. This summer, audiences will see the return of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as agents Mulder and Scully in the sci-fi phenomenon “X-Files: I Want to Believe” (opening July 25), a decade after the first “X-Files” movie and six years after the TV show’s cancellation in 2002.

Who cares? This summer, there’s enough variety out there that audiences can pick their poison.

“I think there’s something for everybody this summer,” Staggs says. “and I don’t know if we had that last year.”

Lifestyles reporter Blake Hannon can be reached at blakehannon@npgco.com