Michael*

I don't suppose a solo sequel is as foregone a conclusion as movies built around the likes of Captain America and Iron Man were, the biggest obstacle presumably being the shortage of interesting villains for him to fight. I fully expect to see Rudd and Lilly become strong supplementary characters in the future though, and hopefully pop up in tons of other MCU titles. As fun a diversion as 'Ant-Man' was, even Marvel knows not to push its luck too far.

Fox has released a second teaser for next year's series. Apparently, the Lone Gunmen are confirmed to be returning too, while Joel McHale (Community), Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords), Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under), Robbie Amell (The Flash) and Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley) are all going to be appearing in guest roles.

Cue the music! Yes, for anyone down for a spot of Fantasy this year, I've renewed our league for the sixth annual BZ showdown. Classic League: 634173-157990 (players from last season are automatically entered upon registering a team) Head-to-head League: 634173-220233 Transfers for the first gameweek must be confirmed by 8th August, 11:45 GMT and as per usual, free transfers are unlimited until then. All welcome!

That one is so good, I almost feel like swearing.

I love that movie. Can't go wrong with Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath.

Yeah, the casting of McAdams isn't confirmed yet, but it was reported last month that she was in talks about an undisclosed role. It could be that a decision has been made to move away from Stan Lee's original backstory, too. It was written with no real regard for cultural sensitivity and carried a lot of ropey, fake 'Oriental' mysticism. Obviously, there are ways around every stereotype, but I think Tilda Swinton's instincts can be trusted in this case to give us the most interesting portrayal possible. The popular theory is that they're going to spin it so that the Ancient One is basically a mantle of spiritual power that inhabits different humans, which would be quite an intriguing take.

Valid points. I tend to agree that they pushed their luck a little with some of the gags, but I think it's especially necessary for a property like this not to take itself too seriously. The whole shrinking thing is such an inherently goofy concept, it's important for the audience to laugh with the movie, as opposed to laughing at it. Cross was undeniably underwritten, although in fairness it's a struggle to think of any memorable villains (other than Ultron, of course) from the source material. I thought his character, look and motivation were very reminiscent of Obadiah Stane from 'Iron Man' and he was dispatched pretty quickly, which is becoming a recurring MCU theme (other than Loki, who had three movies to develop, and Fisk, who had something approaching twelve hours). He was agreeably sinister though, and they did some brilliantly creative things with him, especially during the briefcase fight. Overall, I'd sit it in that 'good but not great' pile, alongside the first Thor and Captain America films.

Really excited about this one. You'd probably have to say Strange was a relatively minor character in the Marvel stable, but the stories were up there with the most visually stylish and imaginative stuff they ever did. Supposedly, it's also Kevin Feige’s dream project, so it makes sense for him to want to go all out with it. It's a stellar cast, too, albeit directed by a guy who isn't exactly fresh from Cannes, but it'll be hard to go far wrong with Cumberbatch and Ejiofor on board. My feelings on the casting of Tilda Swinton are ever so slightly mixed, I love the idea of her joining the MCU and I'm certain she'll be great in the role, it's just that she would have been my ultimate pick for Mistress Death in 'Infinity War'.

Just got back. I wouldn't put it up there with the very best of the MCU, but I thought it succeeded in its goal of being an entertaining superhero flick with warmth and lightness, and expanded on the theme of slotting each story into its own sub-genre. The last half hour was excellent fun, quite unlike anything Marvel has done before. Rudd and Douglas were great, and Lilly was given much more prominence than I would have imagined. As a launching point for a new character, it was different and the action was different too. After ten or so outings, that's a huge plus. As for the bonus scenes, the mid-credits scene was pretty good. The end-credits scene was exactly what you want for a final surprise.

Terribly sorry, but we only grant name changes to members who have been here for at least three months.

Colin Farrell's moustache, we hardly knew ye.

New trailer appeared this morning. I like the fact that, unlike many trailers these days, it actually teases rather than giving the game away with spoiler-heavy clips.

I was a bit late to the party on this one, but it was very good, even if you're not into F1 (which I must confess, I'm not). The race sequences are breathtakingly done with some incredible camera shots. Some over-dramatisation of events and things that probably didn’t occur, although that's nearly always required in order to make a biopic work. Hemsworth's portrayal of Hunt was more sympathetic and complex than the simplistic (and often quite negative) image he seemed to acquire over the years, and some of his backstory must have been quite hurtful. Most Brits probably have much less idea of what Lauda was really like, but I thought Bruhl stole the show with his portrayal. A reminder of just how tough and brave he must have been, to be back racing inside 40 days after what he went through is just astounding.

Blimey O'Reilly.

Looking at the trailer, I get the feeling Inarritu could make a decent fist of Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian'. If DiCaprio doesn't get the Oscar for this one, he'll probably have to settle for one of those lifetime achievement awards when he's about eighty. I find the notion of going out of your way to choose roles that you think will win you awards really off-putting, if I'm honest. I've no idea how much he wants it though, so hopefully that's not what's going on here.

I used to think it would be quite good to either watch everything in order or just watch the standalone episodes again, because dipping in randomly always felt like a bit of a lottery. You might get something brilliant with Mulder and Scully chasing invisible people through a forest, or you might be subjected to Mulder breaking into empty warehouses and having cryptic conversations in car parks for 40 minutes. Which could be a bit of a yawn at times, really. If I'm honest, I always found myself craving more of the ‘monster of the week’ type stuff.

It seems there’s been a bit of a panic at the thought of all the new comic book adaptations due to be released in the not-too-distant future, although I'm not sure why. Hollywood currently produces somewhere in the vicinity of 600 films per year, around six or seven of which are superhero stories, so roughly 1% of Hollywood films are comic book adaptations. That's really not that many, and no more of an issue than all the romcoms and horrors the industry is continually making - if the stories they’re telling are good, there's no problem. If they're not, well, there's plenty of other stuff out there to watch instead. In terms of the ongoing nature of how Marvel and DC choose to tell their stories, there'll obviously come a tipping point for their respective business models eventually, and it'll probably be at the end of the decade when they've played their trump cards in ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Justice League’. They'll have to find a way to keep things fresh afterwards and not let standards slip (something I believe Kevin Feige has admitted to worrying about), which could prove to be an uphill battle. Spider-Man and Batman have already shown themselves to be fallible in terms of box office performance, and the likes of the Avengers and the X-Men could suffer just as much if casual audiences have to struggle through multiple lesser adaptations. If that happens, I would fully expect mainstream filmmakers to start looking down the road towards the next big thing, whether it be video game movies or something else. Overall though, the genre has basically replaced big budget action franchises in the minds of most studios. There'll always be a market for pure entertainment and popcorn flicks, and comic book movies have so many advantages over traditional action. Tons of existing source material to work with, and built-in fanbases comprised of very passionate people who, if they like what they see, will spread the word. The only other thing I could imagine killing the genre completely would be a lack of interest from said die-hards, but quite honestly, I don't know if I could see that happening any time soon.

The shoot-out was certainly no 'Rust escapes the projects', which of course was S1's trump card. As much as I wanted to give Vaughn a fair shake, he hasn't convinced at all so far. Part of the problem is the dialogue he's being given, although I also wonder whether, if his delivery was more assured, I’d be able to buy into his character a bit more. Some of the lines, many of which you suspect McConaughey, Harrelson or even Farrell would have had a ball with, sound almost apologetic coming out of his mouth.

Members are welcome to talk about more than just Alessandra's career and the projects she's involved in. However, please do me a big favour and refrain from having extensive conversations about rumours and gossip. It causes unnecessary tension and leads to increasingly off-topic posts. If you must have such discussions please do it via PM, off the board, or in this thread. Thanks for your cooperation.

So, following on from the brief glimpse above, Fox has released the first real teaser for the event series.

The first song from the next album dropped earlier today. It's not a big departure from her signature sound, but her voice sounds richer than ever before.

Hmmm. Part of me wants to like it, the other part is seeing Harley and not hearing the over-the-top Brooklyn accent or feeling the volatility of the character. She only had a couple of lines so we'll have to wait and see, but I didn't feel like Margot was playing the part so much as just wearing the clothes. While I've no doubt that Leto will do a decent job as the Joker, I still think covering him in tattoos misses the point of the character entirely. I hope he's able to make the most of the rumoured source material (John Ostrander’s 1980s reboot of the team, which is so wildly different to the inspiration for Ledger’s Joker) and mark his own territory.

More from the same event.

Doctor Strange Release Date: November 4, 2016 Director: Scott Dericksson Synopsis Marvel’s Doctor Strange follows the story of the talented neurosurgeon Doctor Stephen Strange who, after a tragic car accident, must put ego aside and learn the secrets of a hidden world of mysticism and alternate dimensions. Based in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Doctor Strange must act as an intermediary between the real world and what lies beyond, utilizing a vast array of metaphysical abilities and artifacts to protect the Marvel cinematic universe. Cast Benedict Cumberbatch - Dr. Stephen Strange Chiwetel Ejiofor - Baron Mordo Tilda Swinton - The Ancient One Rachel McAdams - Christine Palmer Mads Mikkelsen - Kaecilius Benjamin Bratt - Jonathan Pangborn Benedict Wong - Wong Michael Stuhlbarg - Dr. Nicodemus West Amy Landecker - Dr. Bruner

Brightness, scope and magnitude. That's more like it! It’s an impressive trailer, both visually and in terms of length. The plot could still turn out to be a mess (it already feels crammed and we haven't even met Aquaman or Flash yet), but my fears about the film's aesthetics have certainly been eased. I'm almost certain that the brief shot of Robin's costume covered in bright green scrawl was a reference to Jason Todd, so I'm guessing they're going to adapt some of the content from 'A Death in the Family' too, if not now then probably later when Batfleck gets his own standalone movie. The casting of Jeremy Irons was overshadowed by that of Jesse Eisenberg at the time, although I must say, it left me just as bemused. Irons is a good enough actor to make pretty much anything work, but he wouldn't have been foremost in my thoughts to play a father figure helping an emotionally scarred boy stay on an even keel. Incidentally, I dare say even Kenny from 'South Park' has had fewer onscreen deaths than the Wayne family at this point.