Michael*

Anyone ever have one of those dreams where, for reasons not altogether clear at the time, you can't quite seem to complete a simple task? That's more or less what supporting Sunderland feels like most of the time. I've pinched myself a few times now, but haven't managed to wake up yet.

If I'm honest, I found Wonder Woman's introduction in Batman v Superman to be a bit of a non-event at the time, although Diana not being bogged down by the same ridiculous levels of 'grimdark' seriousness as everyone else did come as a pleasant surprise. Lord knows, if ever a film were in need of some levity, it's Justice League. Word of mouth is going to be even better after Wonder Woman though, so I could perhaps imagine more of the non-superhero moviegoing crowd being open to giving Justice League a chance.

Not much of it worked for me while it was rolling, but certain things grew on me the more I thought about them afterwards. There's a full-on Frankenstein story starring David, there's a decent exploration scenario involving random crew members getting themselves killed, there's a mostly pointless prologue about the terrors of a storm and there's a final act where they whip through virtually every trope from the Alien franchise, but at about three times the speed. All of which made for a very flawed but not uninteresting watch. I think what struck me most about it was just how much the xenomorph plays second fiddle to David. It feels like Scott has become less interested in the aliens themselves and the horror they bring, and more in artificial intelligence and the impact it has on humans. So much so that he seems to have started trying to weave the synthetic android themes of Blade Runner into the Alien mythology.

While it's no secret that Ronaldo is a highly competitive guy, trying to beat Messi's tax fraud record is perhaps taking it a bit far.

It does seem possible that the success of Wonder Woman and the renewed momentum of the character could help change DC's trajectory somewhat, and perhaps set the tone for a bigger box office performance by Justice League. Critics haven't been buying what Zack Snyder sells for a long time and I wouldn't expect that to change anytime soon, but Diana's presence could now bring in people that Batman v Superman didn't. Which would probably have been unthinkable even just a couple of months ago.

The only other thing I've heard about is Gotham City Sirens, which is seemingly being treated by David Ayer as something of a Suicide Squad do-over. Although, between that and the Harley-Ivy dynamic presumably being one of the most important plot points, I don't know if I trust them not to simply make 'Trash Level Fan Service: The Movie'. Still, I could probably think of at least ten other comic book properties with female leads out there that would be perfect for the cinematic treatment. If Hollywood now grasps that they can tear up the box office, I would expect more studios to become more open to the idea of making them.

From an outsider's perspective, although an eighth place finish and a cup final certainly isn't too shabby, it doesn't seem like many Southampton fans are that disappointed to see the back of Claude Puel. I do find it strange though that no-one 'in the know' has questioned the club with regard to appointing him in the first place, because there's very little chance that the board weren't aware of how Puel liked to set up his teams beforehand. Surely, if you want attacking football, you hire a manager known for playing it.

I wouldn't mind if JT decided to find himself a new club this summer, if only to keep him away from the old punditry game for a bit longer, although I'd certainly stop short of wishing him upon Aston Villa. I'd like to be able to say that we wouldn't be daft enough to take him either, but, well, you know.

All the shrieks in the press of "you'll be raped, robbed and pillaged if you go there and they don't even have roads" with regard to South Africa and Brazil proved to be wide of the mark, and I would expect this to be much the same. Russia has hosted multiple large-scale sporting events and to the best of my knowledge, there haven't been any major issues. Whether they, or Qatar, are fit to be hosts from a moral standpoint is another discussion altogether, but if the system were honest enough to strip them now, they would never have been awarded it in the first place. It's taking hopes for ethical behaviour by FIFA far beyond the realms of real possibility.

I tend to think properties like this one are relatively bulletproof, in the sense that most of the folks queueing for it at the local cineplex won't have even read the reviews. Whether they yield truly monstrous numbers usually depends, as you say, on word of mouth and also repeated viewings by the built-in fanbase. When the diehards are prepared to come back more than once, it's almost always cause for optimism.

I've always done it that way with YouTube videos, didn't know it was possible with Instagram too. You're a genius, MD!

I'm surprised they weren't tempted to reference Snoke in that First Order picture. I guess they're going to wait for the movie to actually come out before making the reveal.

It's something to do with the slang term for rugby, isn't it? I believe rugby was 'rugger' and association football was 'assoc', which gradually evolved into 'soccer' because it was easier to say. It probably wouldn't have been until about the 1970s that people started perceiving it as an Americanism.

Thread cleaned. Members are welcome to converse about more than just Elsa's career and the projects she's involved in, but personal issues don't belong in the model topics. Please be aware of the thin line between expressing opinions/constructive criticism (which we're okay with) and baiting/bashing (which we’re not okay with). This is not limited to the models featured here, it also includes your fellow members. As always, if anyone has any questions, feel free to drop me a PM. For now, let's get back to the topic at hand. Thanks to all for your cooperation.

Thread cleaned. Members are welcome to converse about more than just Kate's career and the projects she's involved in. However, please refrain from having extensive conversations about her policy on posing nude. It's causing unnecessary tension and leading to increasingly off-topic discussions. Any further posts touching on the same subject will be deleted. Thanks for your cooperation.

The source button should be alongside your small avatar image. When your Instagram source code is copied, left click on that source button to switch out of the normal mode editor. Paste your code as you would normally. Click the source button again to switch back into normal mode and your code should automatically embed, like so...

Kind of weird to think that next month will mark the tenth anniversary of this movie's release. As a major Transformers fan growing up, I waited years for a live-action film and found it enjoyable at the time, although I never got around to a second viewing. I did appreciate Peter Cullen reprising the voice of Optimus Prime, and I remember Hugo Weaving (albeit on autopilot) making a decent Megatron.

Yeah, the CGI on that leap above the car towards the end of the trailer looked like something from a Resident Evil movie. Saying that, I would fully expect the subsequent clips to become more and more polished as we edge closer to the release date.

The first teaser trailer just landed.

Of course very few, if any, of the deaths I mentioned would have been deliberate, and even fewer the result of a maniac targeting random citizens in support of a sick ideology, but the fact remains that there are greater dangers out there, even if their atrocities are more shocking. Personally, I always find facts and context useful. Different strokes and all that.

Give it a few more years and all the snowflakes will have been melted by global warming. Problem solved.

It's about looking at an issue in context, though. Less deaths due to terrorism in Western Europe than during the 70s, 80s or 90s. That’s important context. Furthermore, it’s roughly about a hundred deaths per year in an area populated by around 800 million people. By way of comparison, 450 people die in the USA each year by falling out of bed. We should also take note of the great lesson of the 20th century, that we have far less to fear from over-hyped external threats than we do from our own governments, if their power is allowed to run unchecked.

I saw something recently where pollsters asked the 'Great British Public' how many people in Britain they thought weren't ethnically white British. The guesses were in the range of about 40%, when the actual number is 18%. The guesses for Muslims in Britain were somewhere in the 25-30% range when the answer is actually 4%. In other words, people in this country are being sold a big lie about 'marauding hordes' of immigrants and particularly Muslims. The reality is that in most areas of the UK, everyone is white British. The vast majority of ethnic diversity can be found in the inner cities (which interestingly, were mostly areas that voted to remain). Places that actually experience high levels of immigration don’t mind it as much, while places that haven't experienced it seem to fear it more. I myself come from a city that is 96% white British and immigration was the hot referendum topic there. But, side note. The principal cause of Brexit was the delayed effect of the 2008 financial crash, and a series of decisions by our own government immediately afterwards. Years of attrition reinforcing the financial position of those who caused the problem in the first place, while offering no solutions to those stranded with low skills, as globalisation exported more and more jobs to cheaper wage economies elsewhere. Investment in infrastructure and education is a better approach in a time of cheap money than trying (and failing miserably) to reduce national debt and deficit by cutting taxes and public services.

Harper's Bazaar May 2017 Ph: Petrovsky & Ramone