John Powell had created such a rich, unique sound in the first three Bourne films and it was sad for me to see James Newton Howard deliver a lackluster soundtrack (and even more sad that that was probably one of the least of the film’s problems).

Though on my recent watch through of the original Bourne trilogy, I was not as in love with the music as I remembered, it was still pretty good. Particularly grabbing as always is the opening scene of the first film. The music captures the essence of what’s going on so perfectly. The music of The Bourne Legacy was indeed one of the quite…

If you’ll indulge me a moment, I need to get the last vestiges of The Dark Knight Trilogy out of my system by way of posting this trailer. It’s epic, and really well done, even if it is a bit long. Very nicely intercut with all sorts of clips from all three films. It makes me want to watch the trilogy again. And given that I just watched it all recently, that’s quite a feat.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Joss Whedon has signed to write and direct “The Avengers 2,” Disney Chairman Bob Iger said Tuesday.

Not that I really had any doubt, but definitely awesome to get confirmation.

Whedon wrote and slid behind the camera on “The Avengers,” which Iger called a “phenomenal success” during the call. The adaptation of the Marvel Comics series has grossed nearly $1.5 billion worldwide.

Whedon’s script and direction were praised by critics and fans for their light and often humorous touch.

I loved The Avengers and can’t wait for the second installment.

No matter, even, that star Matt Damon walked away in 2009. The studio just figured out that they could shift focus to a different character in the same universe, and Jeremy Renner was brought in to play the Bourne-esque non-Bourne figure Aaron Cross. We’ll find out next weekend how he does as the new face of the franchise, but in the meantime Funny or Die has something to say about the studio’s decision.

We have yet to see if the movie is any good or not, but this was just too funny.

When the creator of Harry Potter decides to build an adventure playground for her children, you expect something magical.

But even by JK Rowling’s standards the 40ft high, two-storey tree houses planned for the back garden of her Edinburgh mansion are something spectacular.

The Hogwarts-style towers — estimated to cost around £150,000 — are so big that they need planning permission.

I debated posting this, because who really cares? I mean it’s her money, and it’s going to be a private playground for her kids. Still, it’s kind of fun and I really love the Harry Potter books and…

There are few “hooks” in the movie-music world that are as grabby as the Bourne Identity Soundtrack riff (starts at 0:29). Like the movie series, its intensity commands attention. We just had to figure out a way to use it. In our usual style, we thought we’d create an “action movie soundtrack” that combined this and a piece of classical music. In the early 1700’s Antonio Vivaldi wrote a concerto for an instrument that was then largely “undiscovered” by the music world—the cello. Among the first cello solo pieces ever written, Vivaldi was gutsy enough to write it for not only one, but TWO…

WARNING: Spoilers for The Dark Knight Rises ahead.

It was a surprisingly happy ending for such a dark series. But I don’t think you have to take it that way. As the Bat flies away from Gotham we clearly see Batman sitting in the driver’s seat, with 5 seconds left to go on the bomb’s clock before it sets off. If he in fact managed to get out of there so fast, how did he escape the bomb radius? And how the hell could he swim back? And while I know Nolan is allowed creative license and a serene spot for dear old Alfred to visit, doesn’t it seem bizarrely coincidental that he’d see Bruce and…

Marvel is starting to get the word out on the home release of The Avengers, and the associated Marvel Cinematic Universe box set. To promote the film the company has released the first post-credit scene from the film, which means you can now gaze at the first appearance of the next big Marvel bad guy as many times as you’d like.

This is pretty fun. I confess that, not being a comic book geek I had no idea what was going on exactly but I could certain tell that they were setting something up. Here’s the video.