Author Topic: The Fantastic Four Movie  (Read 7843 times)

Kaos Arcanna

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The Fantastic Four Movie
« on: August 12, 2015, 12:43:19 AM »
So... I saw it.

Yes.

Of my own free will.

I don't think it was all that bad.

There are some bits that I liked.

Spoiler for Hidden:
Johnny Storm had a Super Mario Fireflower pendant on his rearview mirror. 8-)

And regarding "It's Clobbering' Time"...


Spoiler for Hidden:
A review said that it was the catchphrase of Ben's abusive brother. When the brother showed up in the scene, I don't feel like it was really so much abusive as being your typical "big brother jerkiness."



Doctor Doom ...
Spoiler for Hidden:
was not a hacker activist. He was a genius who had worked along a similar path as Reed on teleportation. Like the prior Doom, he was given powers of his own rather than magic/super science powers.

It's certainly a darker movie than I like, but I don't feel like it's a BAD movie.


Power Gamer

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2015, 04:46:37 AM »
There will always be someone who whines about a movie being different from the comic.
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Tenzhi

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2015, 05:50:20 AM »
And there will always be someone making the foolish assertion that the act of calling bad changes bad is "whining" - a sort of complaint about complaints.  Which makes this a sort of complaint about complaints about complaints.  Together we have created a whineception, or, as they call it in the UK: a whingularity.
When you insult someone by calling them a "pig" or a "dog" you aren't maligning pigs and dogs everywhere.  The same is true of any term used as an insult.

FatherXmas

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Re: The Fant4stic Movie
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2015, 05:54:29 AM »
Awe you beat me to it Kaos, just got back from discount Tuesday.

It's a solid meh.  If you grok that Rotten Tomatoes is a percentage of above/below 60 on a 100 point scale and Metacritic is a mystical weighted average, the 9% (3.4/10) on RT and 27% seems low but the movie had bad feelings from fans going in so if you expect it to be bad, you only see the bad.

Part of the problem with the lead up to the movie is letting fans run open loop on issues that a one paragraph statement from the development team could have quieted down.  The actor who played Doom wound up fandom with what got edited into the angry blogger story for Doom.  The mixed race Storm siblings could have easily been explained in a single line statement.  But both of these issues were left to fester for nearly a year or more in the case of the casting of Johnny.  It took the trailer before it was obvious to fans they were doing the Ultimate origin story.

It suffers the same problem that the 2005 FF movie did but more so, the origin and set up for the one big fight took way, way, way to long.  Doom's powers are inconsistent or the good guys have really good plot armor.  There is no public heroics.  There was one team fight that took like 10 minutes, maybe.

The movie isn't terrible as movies go but it suffers serious pacing problems, wrong headed changes to the Ultimate origin story and at times felt like they lost an entire set piece, or 3.

The director did tweet and quickly remove a claim the film was sabotaged by Fox in the midst of production.  Truth or cover the first hour certainly plays differently from the remaining part of the movie.

It's a meh.
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Todogut

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2015, 06:12:57 AM »
I did not see this movie. Usually, I avoid reading any reviews or watching any spoiler-ish previews before viewing a movie; but, in the case of Fant-4-stic, I made an exception. (Early reports about the casting, production problems, and the trailers let me know, I wasn't going to like it.)

Only 9% of critics and 23% of moviegoers on rottentomatoes liked it. Hence, I refused to pay money to see this disastrous bomb.

I have experienced a sense of schadenfreude from bad reviews and reports of poor box office performance. For example, see FANTASTIC FOUR What Went Wrong? by Mr Sunday Movies.

From reports, it looks like:
- 20th Century Fox made another FF movie in order to retain the rights to the property (and prevent the rights from returning to Marvel).
- They hired Josh Trank, who directed Chronicle, and he produced a Chronicle-like treatment for Marvel's first family.
- Predictably, Fox executives meddled and interfered, effectively destroying Trank's artistic vision.
- Extensive reshoots were done by another director. Many reviewers suggest the film's conclusion (after Doctor Doom appears) was mostly the product of reshoots.
- After the film was released and reviewers almost unanimously panned it, Trank tweeted about how the released film was not the version that he created, and the studio ruined it.
- Official statements by Fox talk about supporting Trank's vision, which seems like corporate-speak for, "Let's make the 31-year-old director the scapegoat for this epic failure."

Seems similar to the Green Lantern movie (yeah, that bad), where studio suits inappropriately exerted influence over a superhero movie and did not trust the director's artistic vision, resulting in a lousy movie-going experience for comic book fans and the general public alike, and effectively killing a potentially lucrative movie franchise.

Vee

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #5 on: August 12, 2015, 06:50:01 AM »
I doubt I'm the only one who was hoping for another box office disaster so Fox would do a deal with Marvel to put them in the MCU movies like they did with Spidey. That doesn't preclude me hoping it was a good watch though.

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2015, 09:10:24 AM »
The report of a different director for the reshoots is another case of viscous rumor that got circulated by some unknown party on comic book forums.
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Todogut

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #7 on: August 12, 2015, 08:52:53 PM »
The report of a different director for the reshoots is another case of viscous rumor that got circulated by some unknown party on comic book forums.

The viscosity fairly oozes from this news story: 'Fantastic Four' Blame Game: Fox, Director Josh Trank Square Off Over On-Set "Chaos".

Quote
As filming wound toward an unhappy close, the studio and producers Simon Kinberg and Hutch Parker engaged in a last-minute scramble to come up with an ending. With some of the cast not fully available at that point and Kinberg juggling X-Men: Apocalypse and Star Wars, a lot of material was shot with doubles and the production moved to Los Angeles to film scenes with Teller against a green screen. "It was chaos," says a crewmember, adding that Trank was still in attendance "but was neutralized by a committee." Another source says the studio pulled together "a dream team," including writer and World War Z veteran Drew Goddard, to rescue the movie. Whether the final version of the film is better or worse than what Trank put together is a matter of opinion, of course, but the consensus, clearly, is that neither was good.

doc7924

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2015, 02:56:08 PM »
As much as I don't think the movies have to really stick to the comics versions of the characters, the only FF film to really get Doom right was the Roger Corman one.

At first a non-white, not blonde Johnny was a bit off putting but I figure there are so many versions of these characters in the comics from other dimensions and whatnot - why not.

Doesn't make the movie any better but not a big a deal as I thought it would be.

The fact that they aren't blood related makes a big difference though.


FatherXmas

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #9 on: August 14, 2015, 06:48:23 PM »
As much as I don't think the movies have to really stick to the comics versions of the characters, the only FF film to really get Doom right was the Roger Corman one.

At first a non-white, not blonde Johnny was a bit off putting but I figure there are so many versions of these characters in the comics from other dimensions and whatnot - why not.

Doesn't make the movie any better but not a big a deal as I thought it would be.

The fact that they aren't blood related makes a big difference though.

I would prefer that Sue's mom remarried to Franklin and had Johnny and later died (childbirth, accident, whatever).  Even if they Brady Bunch with respective parents bringing respective kids would be less weird than she's an orphan from Croatia.

That was an issue that could have easily been defused almost immediately but wasn't.  They let it fester in the fanbase.  Instead it was "look it's Karate Kid, it's Annie, it's race bending for the sake of race bending". 

Also a lot of so call fans don't realize how young everyone is suppose to be in either origin.  In the 616 FF Johnny was 16 when he went into space.  Sue fell for a young Reed when he rented a room at her house when he was in college when she was 13!  The 2005 introduced an older cast so when they went back to a more age appropriate cast "oh you are trying to get the YA crowd".

Fandom has much as they claim to be the priests with keys to the continuity, they are awfully selective when it interferes with their rants.
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Ohioknight

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #10 on: August 15, 2015, 04:22:02 PM »
Also a lot of so call fans don't realize how young everyone is suppose to be in either origin.  In the 616 FF Johnny was 16 when he went into space.  Sue fell for a young Reed when he rented a room at her house when he was in college when she was 13!  The 2005 introduced an older cast so when they went back to a more age appropriate cast "oh you are trying to get the YA crowd".

Reed and Ben were originally World War 2 combat vets -- Reed had fought behind the lines with Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos
(by the 1960's, Col. Nick Fury with the CIA -- soon to be recruited by Tony Stark to run S.H.I.E.L.D. so Stark didn't have to). 
In 1962, 20 years after their combat service,  Reed and Ben were at LEAST in their late 30's.
(Yeah, Johnny was a teen punk hotrodder)
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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #11 on: August 15, 2015, 06:17:01 PM »
Reed and Ben were originally World War 2 combat vets -- Reed had fought behind the lines with Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos
(by the 1960's, Col. Nick Fury with the CIA -- soon to be recruited by Tony Stark to run S.H.I.E.L.D. so Stark didn't have to). 
In 1962, 20 years after their combat service,  Reed and Ben were at LEAST in their late 30's.
(Yeah, Johnny was a teen punk hotrodder)

Point taken.  I swear I remember Johnny being only 16 when they blasted into space and Sue not that much older.
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Tenzhi

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #12 on: August 15, 2015, 07:05:31 PM »
Maybe they have been different ages in some retelling or recollection.  Comic book continuity is more wibbly-wobbly than time to the Doctor.
When you insult someone by calling them a "pig" or a "dog" you aren't maligning pigs and dogs everywhere.  The same is true of any term used as an insult.

Vee

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2015, 09:09:02 PM »
Johnny was definitely in high school, as his solo stories were there. He went to college for a while at some point before they started worrying about them not aging. I want to say something happened to de-age them at some point but my memory is spotty at best. Ultimate versions were all young though.

Kaos Arcanna

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #14 on: August 16, 2015, 01:38:12 AM »
Johnny was definitely in high school, as his solo stories were there. He went to college for a while at some point before they started worrying about them not aging. I want to say something happened to de-age them at some point but my memory is spotty at best. Ultimate versions were all young though.

In the late 70s, early 80s the FF (all but Johnny) were hit by some sort of aging ray. (I didn't see the issue where that hapepned; only what happened next). Reed managed to rewire the ray gun and Johnny hit them with it supposedly resulting in the other members of the FF being made physically younger. (Though they looked exactly as they always had.)


doc7924

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #15 on: August 16, 2015, 05:44:18 AM »
Reed and Ben were originally World War 2 combat vets -- Reed had fought behind the lines with Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos
(by the 1960's, Col. Nick Fury with the CIA -- soon to be recruited by Tony Stark to run S.H.I.E.L.D. so Stark didn't have to). 
In 1962, 20 years after their combat service,  Reed and Ben were at LEAST in their late 30's.
(Yeah, Johnny was a teen punk hotrodder)

But just as Superboy's time kept moving forward as Superman did (Superboy, Superman and Superbaby all had a story with JFK in 1963), in the 90's or something Reed and Ben were now Vietnam vets or some other war that was more recent. Actually most heroes had that happen, since they really never age in comic books. The only Marvel heroes who are forever tied to WW2 are Cap, Namor and the original Torch.

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #16 on: August 16, 2015, 11:53:07 PM »
I've yet to see this movie.

Prob'bly wait until the blu-ray comes out.

Given retconning and alt-universe versions of favorites, I've learned to eat the meat and spit out the bones.

There were elements that I enjoyed in the other offerings FF and FF RoSS. Each had its good points and bad points.

But if you go back and read the old material, this was true in the comics as well, soooo....I am a bit more pragmatic
concerning how 'good' a superhero movie turns out.

It's not that I don't care about quality, but it took two reboots of Hulk to get to where we are today with that character. And he should be a slam-dunk when it comes to action and drama.

Maybe Fox'll figure it out the properties they have from Marvel, maybe they won't.

And that could be a factor in Marvel buying back the franchise and doing it right. Only time will tell. :)
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Ohioknight

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #17 on: August 17, 2015, 03:33:06 AM »
But just as Superboy's time kept moving forward as Superman did (Superboy, Superman and Superbaby all had a story with JFK in 1963), in the 90's or something Reed and Ben were now Vietnam vets or some other war that was more recent. Actually most heroes had that happen, since they really never age in comic books. The only Marvel heroes who are forever tied to WW2 are Cap, Namor and the original Torch.

Yes, my point was that at inception Reed and Ben were in their late 30's or older.  That was how the characters started their adventures, after which they stayed the same ages until Kirby left and they eventually got silly writers.
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Todogut

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #18 on: August 24, 2015, 11:15:29 PM »

Kaos Arcanna

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Re: The Fantastic Four Movie
« Reply #19 on: August 24, 2015, 11:40:57 PM »
Yes, my point was that at inception Reed and Ben were in their late 30's or older.  That was how the characters started their adventures, after which they stayed the same ages until Kirby left and they eventually got silly writers.

Hm.

I've not read comics for a while. Do you even get adults (or at least anyone out of their 20s) as new heroes these days?