Michael*

Captain Marvel Release Date: March 8, 2019 (US) Director: Ryan Fleck Synopsis Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. Cast Brie Larson - Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel Jude Law - Walter Lawson / Mar-Vell Gemma Chan - Minn-Erva Samuel L. Jackson - Nick Fury Lee Pace - Ronan the Accuser Djimon Hounsou - Korath Ben Mendelsohn - Talos Clark Gregg - Phil Coulson Annette Bening Robert Kazinsky

My guess is that it would have been considered a fairly mediocre entry into the comic book genre if not for Tom Hardy, whose dual performance has a great, improvised quality. He really throws himself into it, it just feels somewhat wasted in an otherwise incoherent story. There's a chance, if the movie makes money (which apparently, it's been doing in China), that we may see a stronger sequel in the future. As long as they make their minds up whether they want it to be sci-fi body horror, a 'grimdark' superhero flick or a goofy romantic comedy, that is.

Thanos - 'I just killed half the Marvel universe' Netflix - 'Hold my beer'

It's funny with this one, because the reaction I saw before going in was very mixed, not even really collectively but individual fans seemed mostly unsure on what they thought of it. I felt the same way, I certainly had a blast with parts of it but overall it's probably not coherent enough to call a great film or perhaps even a good one. Seems like the sort of thing that could gather a pretty loyal cult following going forward.

S3 was probably my favorite season yet. Very good story, good villains, superb fight choreography. Bullseye done right, Sister Maggie done right. Karen and Foggy at last given plenty of time to shine. It'll be a considerable bummer when Netflix presumably announce the show's cancellation.

Here's the final trailer, too. It could be fun but what works on the page doesn't automatically translate into film, they may have tried something that simply isn't possible to do in this way. I guess I’ll wait for the reviews to appear before deciding on whether it'll be worth a watch or not.

The classic costume making an appearance there. How did I miss that Willem Dafoe was in this?

If I could have my ultimate pick for some Agents of Shield continuity to be featured in Captain Marvel, it'd be to learn more about the Kree specimen that was the source of the revival process used on Coulson. It'd be a nice way to bring everything full circle. Not that it'll happen, but I'd love to see May in the mix too. What with the character being portrayed by the apparently immortal Ming Na Wen, they could save tons of money in CGI costs.

Oh, most definitely. With Phoenix to help solidify the Joker's origins, divorced from the other DC universe movies, and using a particular cinematic style, there's a chance this could turn out to be really refreshing. For what it's worth, I'm pulling for them to get it right.

As pleasantly surprised as I was by the movie, I must confess that none of the promotional materials had gotten me excited beforehand. I think if the trailers had been decent, hardcore fans would still have showed up to see it, despite the mixed reception for Last Jedi. For me, the hype for this was hampered because we kind of already knew where Han, Chewie and Lando would end up and had already heard the references to all the beats. Compare that to something like Rogue One, where we knew the story arc but had no idea about any of the characters, this seemed about as obvious and straightforward as a launching point for a character can be.

I would definitely expect it to borrow some of the emotional tones and plot points of Killing Joke, although I guess we'll have to see how they choose to weave the 'young Bruce Wayne' angle into the narrative. It’s a piece of casting that the fans will have fun debating, I'm sure, but I hope it doesn't pull the focus too much.

Yeah, since the show has slowly inched away from having to tie in with the big screen MCU stuff, it seems very deliberate that S6 is going to be airing post Captain Marvel and Avengers 4. I must confess though, even though it's probably a logistical nightmare to oversee, I really miss the interconnected plot points.

I wasn't familiar with Florence at all beforehand but despite the limited role allowed for her, she made Sinara into a memorable character. Hardly speaking but communicating so much through body language.

One of the things I always appreciated about AoS is that the plot threads never really linger on for more than a few weeks at a time, although parts of S5 became a bit laborious with all the hand wringing by Yo-Yo, Mack and Dove Cameron. That being said, I must confess, I was so sucked in by the thing with Fitz towards the end that I found myself completely forgetting about the subsequent reveal. It was a nice little “caught you not paying attention” moment.

So, a lot of the fans were put out when it was announced over the weekend that Cage won't be returning for a third season, and mildly accepting after the same thing happened with Iron Fist a few days beforehand. It's going to leave a lot of the characters and supporting casts in limbo, that's for sure. Would a Heroes for Hire and Daughters of the Dragon crossover be too much to ask? Cage and Rand had pretty decent chemistry in S2 of Iron Fist.

Phoenix is probably the only actor out there that I'd trust to do the character justice at this point, albeit being directed by a guy who isn't exactly fresh from Cannes. If it opts to be more of a psychological thriller, showing the Joker’s descent into madness in more of a bracing way, perhaps ending with the emergence of Batman giving him a twisted new sense of purpose, this could be a really interesting project.

I did wonder if they began writing a script with the goal of fulfilling certain plot requirements, or whether they started with those fragments and then made something of a hash of building a story around it. Either way, it was a good idea to get Ron Howard on board and bring some cohesion to the randomness. Overall, I thought the end product was quite entertaining. The sets, costumes and environment all felt very Star Wars. The story was fun and fast-moving. At the risk of being burned alive by fire breathing dragons though, I really don't rate Emilia Clarke. She's either being routinely miscast or she's just not a very good actress.

Dean Smith and John Terry should make for an intriguing mash-up, as from an outsider's perspective, it sounded like a few candidates were put off by the job seemingly coming on the proviso that Terry be appointed assistant manager. Smith certainly had Brentford scoring goals for fun though, they looked to be on the verge of doing a Bournemouth (albeit without the ridiculously minted Russian owners to oversee things) and will probably still be there or thereabouts come May.

For what it's worth, I was surprised when he showed willingness to gamble his new-found credibility as a director by making another foray into a genre that almost destroyed his acting career.

The Nations League underway, where I absolutely, positively know exactly what's going on and precisely what's at stake. Hardly the relentless, balls-to-the-wall action of League One, but perhaps slightly better than another round of meaningless international friendlies.

France were cautious above all else, a testament to the Deschamps approach of containing, restricting, then letting his flair players off the leash for a few minutes in order to grab a goal or two. They were never wedded to a particular or a pure style of play, they did different things in response to their opponents' qualities to nullify and overcome them, and to be fair they never really looked in danger of losing. There were times when I really wanted to see them take off the gloves and blitz the opposition, because I believe this side could do just that to almost any international opponent at present, but I suppose, looking at the list of recent World Cup winners, all the coaches were pragmatists or demonstrated considerable pragmatism during the competition. Overall though, an entertaining tournament. Only a few genuine dud games and some goals of majestic quality. A plucky underdog in the final, old favourites going home early. And most importantly of all, despite all the fears beforehand, no trouble.

For something that's ostensibly aimed at a family audience, the show continues to impress in its handling of weighty subject matter. We saw it last year with Alex coming out and they're on form again with the J'onn and M'yrnn stuff, a storyline that could have been a terrible mess had they gotten it wrong. Some of the Mon-El stuff felt like the writers acknowledging complaints, but not necessarily admitting mistakes. It was satisfying though to hear Kara tell him to shut up and call him out on what a berk he was in S2.

Man alive, doesn't it just.