Not-so-friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man...

 So, the new Spidey trailer is here and, surprise surprise, he's gone dark. Not eyeliner and sweepy hair dark, but troubled and enigmatic dark. I know this obvious move has been criticised quite extensively on various sites, but I can't honestly say I mind.

I know that Spider-Man's is the light hearted comic, whereas Batman's story arcs generally have the monopoly on murky motivations and more violent characters, but if the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire trilogy represents a faithful adaptation of the character, then I am afraid I am ready for someone with a little more bite to reinterpret Spidey.

Not that I don't love Raimi - I absolutely do - but the Spider-Man films were all disappointing, with one and two being only mildly disappointing and the third rating somewhere near disastrous. In this climate of constant re-makes and re-boots, it's easy to write this off as a money-spinner: using a well-known brand to get bums on seats. But the trailer promises to unveil some of Peter Parker's past, concerning his parents, that the previous films haven't touched, so we can safely say that there will be some new material. I could do without the Twi-like intro music, but that's only a tiny moan. Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy is all kinds of better than the dreary Kirsten Dunst (who wasn't Gwen, I know, but MJ was the leading lady for the origin story so is more applicable here - as a side note I do quite like Bryce DH but she was in the third one, so I am ignoring her). And don't have to even try to imagine that Andrew Garfield will be better than Maguire whose casting I always lamented, after Garfield's performance in The Social Network. The trailer finishes off with some pretty good POV climby-spidey stuff, which looks fun, although not quite as epic as the swinging through the streets that was pretty iconic in the Raimi films.

All in all, I am pretty excited about this re-boot ... not a set of words I imagine I will use very often.

Spaceships

This stunning set of photos from The Guardian in honour of the final flight of the space shuttle have left me feeling oddly sad. I can't say the missions have had a huge impact on me, but they have definitely always been more than a background noise (thanks to a rather geeky father). I do remember visiting Kennedy Space Centre as a child, very vividly. From the wheeled platform used in transporting the shuttles, to the building in which the shuttle was stored - adorned with the US flag, on which each star spans six feet - the sheer size of it all was just breathtaking. As for the shuttle itself, it amazed me that something so vast could be made up of so many parts, each as vitally important as the next. That something as relatively small as a circle of rubber could cause the disintegration of one of these huge metal beasts just seems ludicrous. 

So Atlantis landed for the last time this morning, accompanied by some lovely words from mission control in tribute to the iconic shuttles, which only added to my reminiscence. I am not sure, however, that any such speech will be of comfort to the reported 10,000 staff losing their jobs with this final flight marking the end of America's space programme.

...and is it wrong that the fact that the International Space Station will now be tended to by only Russian craft feels like a Bond film?

He has risen...

Dark Knight Rises trailer is officially here. Granted, a portion of the footage is from Batman Begins, but still, enough new shots and emotive refrains to start that shiny tingle of excitement. Those final shots of Bane stalking towards a weary-looking Bats are enough to make me wonder whether everyone's favourite anti-hero may be more breakable than he seems: is Nolan going to be including some of the more brutal of Bane's antics from the Knightfall story arc?

Beginnings

I guess it is pretty apt to begin a blog called Dark Corners on a grey, thundery evening. Watching a horror film, no less. It's OK, it's not a really terrifying horror film, like one I have been reading about. The one about the evil witch from the icy wastes at the top of the world who tries to hypnotise humanity with hideous machinations, constantly scurrying around for enough power to rule the world. That one is a little too horrifying for me, despite the fact that it appears to be merely inspired by real events, much like another of the of the horror greats.