Fantastic Four (4)

[dennish]

I just saw this movie today, and I thought it was a very good film. Jessica Alba is HOT!, her role as the Invisible Girl was solid as was all the actors on the movie. Doctor Doom was very cool, the mask was better then I thought it would be. I would have loved to see the rockier Thing, but the early version was good none the less. My ranking so far for this summer movies are... 1) Batman Begins 2) Fantastic Four 3) Star Wars III 4) War of the Worlds

[josharpie99]

I think you are the first person to actually say they liked this movie. In fairness, I have never seen it. However, every review I've read on F.4. pretty much says the same thing -- that it's dreadful.

[Mark 138]

I saw it, I liked it, I may actually go see it again. And that's something I don't usually do. I can see why critics didn't like this movie. Simply put, it wasn't made for them. At points it was like watching an old Fantastic Four comic book come to life. The characters were generally painted in broad strokes. No layers, no intricate portrayals. They just get the point across of who everyone is and move on with the action. It's not meant to be high-art, it's meant to be fun. It was a fun movie.

And yes, Jessica Alba is beyond hot and they took full advantage of that fact with several of the costume choices. That alone would almost be enough to warrant a repeat viewing. Almost.

[Chris Ingersoll]

From what I can tell, whether or not you enjoy the movie comes down to whether or not you were a fan of the FF comics*. Their appeal isn't as broad as, say, Batman, Spider-Man, or even the X-men. I don't plan on seeing this any time soon for the same reasons I didnt see Hulk or Daredevil in the theaters -- they're just not my heroes.

*And able to get past the "Doom on the spacecraft" issue.

[Adam Smasher]

I saw it the mornig it came out (midnight shows are becoming a habit of mine) and I liked it. I was never really a fan of the Fantastic Four comic besides for Doom, but the film did a good job of keeping me entertained throught the whole show. Michael Chicklet or whoever was EXCELENT as Thing. Jessica Alba was very atractive, but with the wife next to me I tried to keep the drooling down. I have no Idea the names of the actors who played Reed and Johnny, but Johnny's was a good pick. The guy theye got to play Reed looked like he had to much sun, not good for a guy that's supposed to be a geek that spends all his time in a lab (but I guess lasers and suck can tan you too). Doom was also AWESOME, although I forget the actors name as well, but he's on Nip/Tuck. Gee, between him and Chickless, the director must have a thing for FX. Anyway, it was a good film all-in-all.

[ringsyde]

I'm a big FF fan and a big comic fan. I saw the movie. The combination of Jessica Alba's acting, the horrible Thing suit (anyone else catch the rip in the arm?) and the complete lack of a descernible plot (aside from "Me Doom, Me want power, me kill!!") made me feel pretty badly about this film.

I'm not the type of comic fan who becomes furious when, say, Wolverine isn't 5'2" with a yellow and blue suit and a ferral look. I am enough of a fan to be furious when Dr. Doom, the premiere villain in the Marvel universe is relegated to little more than Skeletor (the 1986 feature film version) with Electro's powers.

The box office bottom fell out of this thing for a reason. Even many of the fans of the comic left feeling pretty disappointed. Keep the Torch and Reed, make the Thing CG (because he's too small, too flawed and not very believable looking as a costumed actor), write a script with a plot and bam, you've got the beginnings of a worthwhile comic movie. Certainly one worthy of comicdom's first family.

[cakejedi]

I am a big fan of the Fantastic Four comic book and went to see the movie at midnight on opening night. I really enjoyed it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The characters were pretty close to how they are in the comic. It had a lot of great action. But most of all, it was a fun movie. I get a llittle tired of the dark and gritty comic book stuff (the dark stuff has its place and I do enjoy some of it). But sometimes it is good to stress the COMIC part of comic book. The FF comic book is more lighthearted and fun, and this is what the movie was. The midnight crowd seemed to enjoy the movie as well, laughing throughout the film and appluading at the end.

The box office bottom fell out of this thing for a reason.

It still did 22 million last weekend and finished 3rd, which is not too bad in a year where box office numbers are down drastically.

[Chris Ingersoll]

ringsyde said:

make the Thing CG (because he's too small, too flawed and not very believable looking as a costumed actor)

Ironically, the Thing was originally going to be CG, but the people making the film saw how bad The Hulk (which was CG) looked and opted against it.

[ringsyde]

cakejedi, a 50% or higher drop-off in box office revenue is considered a failure on every level. The usual suspect here is that word of mouth was bad enough to deter most people from it. 58 million in week one followed by 21 million in week two suggests a significant downturn.

I always find it funny when people complain about the "dark side" of comics. For me, there's nothing light-hearted about Dr. Doom, and there's no reason why Dr. Doom couldn't have been accurately depicted in a "light-hearted" movie. Of course, part of what killed this flick was that it was originally filmed as a comedy, and Avi Arad was booed out of two comic conventions and a gamers' conference upon sharing this with the attendants. A revised script was written, chucking a lot of the comedy elements to appease an audience unwilling to see the FF turned "light-hearted".

Makes you wonder if Avi and the boys at Marvel buy into the "fun" part of comics or listen to the movie and merchandise purchasers who overwhelmingly demanded a closer depiction of the group than what was originally planned. Interestingly, AMC and GKC theatres did in-theatre surveys on the movie during opening weekend. Responses seemed to heavily support disappointment in the film because :

- It was NOTHING like the comic
- It trivialized timeless characters in the Marvel univers
- It was poorly cast /produced
and shock of shocks . . . .
- Did not understand plot

And these were responses from people who paid and attended the film across the country on opening weekend. Many of them were longtime fans of the comic.

[Mark 138]

Who couldn't understand the plot? A two year old? What was there to not understand? They go up in space, there's a cosmic ray storm, the mission is a failure. They come back to earth, learn they have powers, 3 don't want said powers, Johnny embraces them, and Reed sets out to find a way to "cure" them. Doom loses his company and blames Reed, wants revenge, learns he has powers now too, likes it, they have a big brawl.

And it wasn't "nothing" like the comic book. All of the Fantastic Four came out with characters in tact. The whole thing with Doom wasn't accurate to the original, but neither was the Joker in the first Batman movie, Spider-Man's webs coming out of his wrists or the Green Goblin's entire character, Punisher's origin, huge parts of both X-Men movies, ect.

I won't argue about the casting. That's all up to personal interpretation. I thought everyone got their character across pretty well, especially the guy playing Johnny. And Chiklis as Thing was great, too.

I guess it all comes down to expectation and mood when going to see the film. I knew what I was getting and I was happy with it. Hollywood always changes things, there has never been a super-hero movie that was 100-percent accurate to the source (Sin City was a comic book movie, not superhero).

[Chris Ingersoll]

marktaggart said:

Hollywood always changes things, there has never been a super-hero movie that was 100-percent accurate to the source

I want to say that Spawn came very close, but it's been a while since I both watched the movie (which I'll admit I own) or the comics (which I also own, up to a point).

[kaz]

I don't want to turn this into a Spawn thread, but I thought that movie was horrible.. Sure it stayed pretty close to the comic roots, but it was just a painful expirence to watch.

CGI: Horrible
Acting: Horrible
Chapel is a girl? WHAT?? Horrible...
Cinematics: Horrible
Plot: Was good at first, really fell apart at the end.

That movie could have been incredible. But it just never got there.

[Chris Ingersoll]

Eh, I'm not hard to please when it comes to movies. I'm not gonna say that it was a good movie at all, but I've seen worse. That being said, I haven't watched it in a long time for a reason.

[dennish]

I think for every great comic book film (Batman Begins) you have a good one like Fantastic Four. I can say for sure Batman Begins has
been the best comic book film in the rescent releases. My rankings for the comic book movies are... 1) Batman Begins 2) X-men 3) X2 4) Fantastic Four 5) Punisher 6) Spider-man 2 7) Spider-man 8) Daredevil 9) Elektra 10) Hulk

[Chris Ingersoll]

Wow. Why the hate on the Spidey movies?

[CaseyJonesatwork]

To be fair, Spawn couldn't use Chapel because he wasn't McFarlane's character-he was Liefeld-created for Youngblood and Liefeld had since left the company and everyone hated him.

They probably retconned the comics to say whatshername-Priest? killed Spawn in the first place anyway, like they've retconned Angela out of existance(right?)

[Joe]

ringsyde said:

cakejedi, a 50% or higher drop-off in box office revenue is considered a failure on every level. The usual suspect here is that word of mouth was bad enough to deter most people from it. 58 million in week one followed by 21 million in week two suggests a significant downturn.

True, a fifty percent drop-off is considered disappointing. It should be noted, however, that hollywood insiders anticipated a $30-35 million opening weekend take for this film, which was nowhere near the actual haul of $58 million. Many cited less mainstream appeal for the Fantastic Four than other comic-inspired films such as the Batman, X-Men and Spider-Man franchises.

[David Bazzy Basnett]

We have never read the comics . But we (me and wife Suzanne) saw the movie . Personally I thought it was utter rubbish crap .Suzanne loved it , even though it was rubbish . Apart from maybe "The Thing" character . Who wouldn't love to turn up to work like him . No one would give you any hassle ? . Give me the Daredevil (my favourite superhero film) or Batman anyday ? .