Fantastic Four (reboot)

[Cainhurst Crow]

The decisions of this film are odd to me. Such as the director instructing Kate Mara to not research any of the source material comics for her role. Or how according to the actor who plays doctor doom, Toby Kebbell, Doom is a programer and hacker who uses "doom" as a blogger user name, instead of a scientist.

Not really hopeful for this film, but we'll see.

 

[Johnnysaurus Rex]

Meh.

I concur

 

[Phil]

It just felt they showed it in a very obscure way, and a lot of it was just dark. I'd never think it was a Fantastic Four film without the title showing.

 

[Johnnysaurus Rex]

It just felt they showed it in a very obscure way, and a lot of it was just dark. I'd never think it was a Fantastic Four film without the title showing.

I think that is the "reinvention" they are going for which is really disappointing. Like the Doom blogger post above there are just a lot of strange choices

 

[TwoSidedHeart]

I liked the trailer a lot more than I thought I would. They made Ben Grimm... like really hot. XD Then again, Im a Jamie Bell fan. ^_^

ANYWAY, I dunno I think it looks pretty good. What I'd heard about the movie itself was NOTHING like what we got in the trailer. Although, Im a massive fan of the older two movies, so this ones gunna have to be really amazing. But this Teaser trailer did everything it needed to for me. Showed the main four, teased a LOT of stuff and made it all look obscure as hell.

 

[Phil]

I think that is the "reinvention" they are going for which is really disappointing. Like the Doom blogger post above there are just a lot of strange choices

Yeah... the 2005 F4 film nailed Dooms appearance IMO, but I am beginning to wonder of we will ever see a proper love action Doom. Left sigh.

 

[Murdock]

I'm honestly excited for this to come out. I enjoyed the last two films both, but this puts the F4 in a different perspective. I've always felt that F4 comics were a bit dark. To me they never really wanted to be heroes, besides Johnny Storm, they were reluctantly thrust into an awkward position and then immediately became heroic by default. This trailer puts the F4 into a different outlook, an outlook to which I agree upon... it's dark, dreary, clouded, mysterious, and the director really put his own awesome Sci-fi spin on the movie.
I like the actors choices for this, and the call of make Johnny Storm black, just sort of a way to involve present day America. I'm excited for this movie and hopefully now that everyone has seen the trailer they can stop talking about how much of a terrible movie it's going to be.

 

[Kaeb]

I can't exactly argue against the notion of Hollywood/a director with a vision/a committee of suits entertaining the notion of taking an almost comical, aloof and child friendly concept such as the Fantatic Four and then gearing it in a completely new direction for a fresh take on the source material. I wish I could argue against it, but it's exactly the direction I think might be fun for a franchise like Power Rangers for example, so I cant.

Modernising seemingly dated concepts (as perceived by some) so that they can be consumed by modern audiences with more tenacity is a great idea in theory, but the problem with a lot of modern filmmaking is unfortunately laziness given pressure from the business/producing side of the industry and the embarrassment of riches that is modern filmmaking technology. Limitation always breeds better art.

Unfortunately, here it appears to have reared its ugly head and introduced a bunch of generic/boring looking CG shit that we've seen dozens of times in the last decade alone. The suits look generic as shit, the art direction/colour palette looks all over the map, and the green screen looks worse than some prequel scenes.

Not that I care much about the Fantastic Four (I don't, they're terrible), but their initial concept - a team of loosely familial related individuals being torn apart and put back together again with life altering abilities - is interesting and could almost be approached from a more Sci Fi Horror/Cronenbergesque angle. Turn the Thing into a werewolf archetype, instead of merely being a sad/comic relief bit of dressing, turn him into a tragic monster in constant physical pain. Characters need an inherent since of internal conflict/duality in order for them to be interesting to an audience. Have Reed Richards power cause him physical pain. Limit him, so the audience empathises with him. Have Sue's powers be a contrast to her personality, give her a persona of leadership and forthright attitude, despite her powers being so solitary and emotional. And Johnny...present his farcical presence with serious elements in order to test his strengths and weaknesses as well.

I'd had these thoughts before when I was rolling my eyes over the notion of this reboot, but then the director came out and describes my exact thoughts, even referencing Cronenberg as well.

I'm rambling because I'm bored, but yeah, the trailer sucks which is a shame because like always with any initial story concept, there's always potential if it's put in the right hands.

 

[Johnnysaurus Rex]

And Johnny...present his farcical presence with serious elements in order to test his strengths and weaknesses as well.

I was skimming and I got to here out of context and was like "What the ****, Kaeb?", but then I read around it.

I'd be with the idea of taking it a new direction, but it's doing it in the "gritty comicbook reboot" kind of movie that I, by box office numbers apparently not other people, am kind of done with. Change up Fantastic Four for sure (I too have never been a huge fan of the series aside from Doom and Sue), but this is not the direction I'd ever imagine they'd go.

 

[Phil]

The dark, gritty robot can only work on some things. Fantastic Four is definetly not one of them. Neither is Superman.

 

[Johnnysaurus Rex]

I wouldn't say it can't be done on them, but it's not something I am personally looking for.

 

[Shiuzu]

I can't even tell you how fucking hype the Slamtastic 4 Specials are getting me.

 

[Phil]

I want to say the way I feel for this movie is the way you guys feel for "Man of Steel".

None of those breakfast dishes look even remotely appealing.

 

[The Derp of Hooves]

You're missing the fantastic slam in there @Shiuzu :3

Anyways, I don't mind modernizing and stuff, but if you're going to do it, at least keep the basics of what makes the character. The only one who I could recognize, somewhat, was Sue.... Some designs shouldn't be changed, or rather not so drastically. That’s what made Man of Steel fail imo. They changed Super Man into something he's not (among everyoneelse in the movie) and that's what I'm fearing that they're going to do here...

 

[Johnnysaurus Rex]

I'm not sure it is "modernizing". I wouldn't call the other two FF movies not modern. It's more just an unnatural genre shift to me. The Fantastic Four, to me, have always been somewhat about the high science fiction or in some cases science fantasy that was prevalent in the 50s and 60s. Like Superman, the material is supposed to be quite unrealistic and out of this world at times in a fun way.

If anything Fantastic Four would benefit from a X-Men: First Class treatment, which was rumored to be the direction before this movie which would lead into Fox having a sort of combined cinematic universe to compete with the Marvel Avengers and DC films.

While I am for taking ideas in new and interesting directions I do agree with Derpy in the way they are doing this is just a facet you don't change. A sort of box you don't uncheck if you will. With Superman's Man of Steel venture it seems odd and tonally improper for a Superman movie to be so dark considering what Superman as a character is.

So for the Fantastic Four to be in really drab black costumes and in an equally drab color palette of a movie really seems to rob the concept of a lot of its soul.

 

[The Derp of Hooves]

Well Marvel had to mess up sooner or later.... to bad it had to be F4 generally speaking, the characters were pretty awesome. I thought the previous F4 films got most things right (minus Galactus). I don't mean to be racist or anything, but in all the iterations of F4 I don't think I've ever seen a black Johnny Storm nor have I seen a Mr. Fantastic look like a teenager or The Thing look so not like The Thing...

 

[Phil]

Marvel Studios isn't making this. It's done by 20th Century Fox, who made the X-Men films, the Previous Fantastic 4 films, the Electra film and the Daredevil film. There are quite a few bad ones in there.

 

[Johnnysaurus Rex]

Well Marvel had to mess up sooner or later.... to bad it had to be F4 generally speaking, the characters were pretty awesome. I thought the previous F4 films got most things right (minus Galactus). I don't mean to be racist or anything, but in all the iterations of F4 I don't think I've ever seen a black Johnny Storm nor have I seen a Mr. Fantastic look like a teenager or The Thing look so not like The Thing...

This isn't a mess up on Marvel's part per the studio. This new Fantastic Four film is being made by Fox just like the past FF movies and all the X-Men movies. Not to mention how Marvel also isn't directly responsible for Spider-Man, Blade, Daredevil, Punisher, Ghost Rider etc. both good and bad.

I think the first FF film is okay. It was the right amount of campy and the look was pretty nice. I could have gone either way on the actors. FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer was just generally a super boring movie and that is putting it nicely.

Easy stuff of your post out of the way: Reed Rcihards was more of a teen in the Ultimate line of comics which I assume this is drawing from. The Marvel studios movies has healthily drawn from both the main series of comics and the Ultimate comics so Fox was probably trying to match the formula. Thing is just bad in the sense the made him a CGI naked rock. I'll take shitty orange suit like the other FF costumes any day over what I've seen so far from this movie.

Per Johnny Storm being cast as a black actor? There is no reason to complain. Even if there is no precedent in any other sort of media the race of a character is of very little importance in a lot of the cases. Unless you are dealing with things where a character is of a certain nationality where a race is uncommon in a modern setting (off the top of my head Whiplash in Iron Man 2 being a Russian) or whose character is fairly entrenched in being of a certain race (Black Panther being the leader of a fictional African nation) then there is absolutely no problem in making Johnny Storm black. Hell, they could make the entire Fantastic Four anything other than white and it wouldn't affect the characters at all. When it comes to most characters race is never a limit. They could cast a hispanic Superman or black Batman and it wouldn't fundamentally change their stories.

 

[Grumpy_Duck]

I watched it this week and was underwhelmed, the parts were good but the assembled whole was ordinary.
The explanation of their powers was done well in my opinion- I've never really understood the reason behind Ben Grimm being all rocky. Shy Sue turns invisible- sure, Hotheaded Johnny- yep, umm flexible? Reed- maybe, but rocks??
As for the race change with Johnny- I didn't notice it (aren't I mature?) What I mean is the character fit the actor, and where was the furor when Jessica Alba was Sue Storm?
Doom was a bit weird, but when I remembered that they were effectively in their college days it was easier to accept. But I'd still like to him done well on screen just once...

 

[The Derp of Hooves]

No surprise it was a fantastic flop.... le sigh...