Happy Valentine's Day from The Glass Walking-Stick

 

FF Fridays slight return: First Steps trailer

As any long term reader of this 'ere blog would know ( pauses for hysterical laughter at the thought of such impossible creatures ) my all-time favourite comic book is the Lee & Kirby Fantastic Four. I used to do a semi-regular feature here called FF Fridays, and the release of Marvel Studios' latest movie trailer prompted me to dust this off.

The previous cinematic adaptations of Marvel's First Family have been a very mixed bag. The Tim Story-directed films from the early 2000s were fun but deeply flawed, while the 2015 reboot was irredeemably bad. ( We won't mention the unreleased Roger Corman production from the '90s. )

Regardless of the merits or otherwise of the previous FF films, none of them captured the unique feeling of the original source material: the superhero soap combined with cosmic melodrama, and an often goofy humour. The FF were always tied to their era - the heady days of JFK and the Space Race - and I always thought any movie adaptation should be set in the 1960s. This trailer gives us a glimpse into a retro-futurist world which seems to be exactly that and is very promising, from the brief glimpses of the characters, to the Silver Age aesthetic, to the shadow of the Big G looming over Manhattan.

For the first time in a very long while I'm quietly excited for a superhero movie. ( And, to be fair, James Gunn's upcoming Superman film looks promising too. ) Maybe we're heading for a renaissance of the superhero film? Stranger things have happened.

Headful of halos

I took these photos of a fantastic halo around the sun when I was at work this morning. We'd had thick fog since the early hours but the sun briefly shone through and created this beautiful effect. An amazing light shining through the gloom? Please say it's a sign. I think we could all do with some sunnier times ahead.

Not to be outdone, Jasper also had a photo opportunity with his own halo. He doesn't often get called angelic, but he looks very handsome here...

RIP David Lynch

I was sad today to hear that legendary film-maker David Lynch has passed away at the age of 78.

Lynch was a true original, a visionary, a goof, an artist, a dreamer of dark celluloid dreams, and the owner of a bloody fantastic haircut. I'll have to drink a mug of damn fine coffee in his honour. And I don't drink coffee.

Happy New Year from The Glass Walking-Stick

 Wishing all you lovely people in the Blogosphere a happy and healthy 2025! In the words of a certain Mr. J. Ono Lennon, "Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear."

( Okay, he was talking about Christmas, but it still applies. ) Cheers!