How come no one can get the Fantastic Four right?
I finally saw the latest, frankly underwhelming, F4 movie and...meh.
I'm comparing it to so many other Marvel movies I've enjoyed. So many of the characterizations, and the choice of actors, was spot on. My childhood heroes brought to believable life onscreen. They just nailed it over and over, from RDJ, to Tom Holland, to Chris Hemsworth to Patrick Stewart, just a string of home runs.
The actors and their written parts in F4 were simply nothing like their comic book counterparts. Not physically, certainly, even the Thing didn't look right.
Why is this material so difficult to nail down? Is there some special challenge? Because the people who have tried were no doubt talented, they just missed.
I'm comparing it to so many other Marvel movies I've enjoyed. So many of the characterizations, and the choice of actors, was spot on. My childhood heroes brought to believable life onscreen. They just nailed it over and over, from RDJ, to Tom Holland, to Chris Hemsworth to Patrick Stewart, just a string of home runs.
The actors and their written parts in F4 were simply nothing like their comic book counterparts. Not physically, certainly, even the Thing didn't look right.
Why is this material so difficult to nail down? Is there some special challenge? Because the people who have tried were no doubt talented, they just missed.
Commentaires
* >!Sue goes into space to confront an evil that is threatening to destroy the planet...while pregnant? Not just pregnant, so pregnant she's able to give birth without preemie complications.!<
* >!What doctor signed off on that? At that stage most doctors won't even let you fly between cities much less solar systems.!<
* >!Reed's superpower is apparently being chastised by his wife. He only stretched twice, while he spent most of the movie being chastised.!<
* >!The Thing is more invisible than the Invisible Girl. He did nothing in the movie.!<
* >!It's apparently contagious too, we meet his love interest who promptly disappears.!<
* >!Torch does almost nothing the whole movie, his powers were useful two, maybe three times, probably less than 15 seconds of screen time.!<
* >!Torch deciphers an entire alien language with only audio, based on one sentence, with no idea what the phonetics are. He has no idea if a pause between words is a separator or a word component, he has no idea if jumbled words are compound or separate. It cannot be done.!<
* >!The entire world is calmed down by Sue's speech and choose to just accept extinction after listening to her. In reality, several million people, maybe tens of millions, would've stormed the building, killed all of the Fantastic 4, and started sending frantic radio signals advertising "Come get the kid!". A metric ton of people are going to sacrifice one kid if they and their family get to live instead of dying.!<
* >!They build massive hundred foot towers across the globe, using specialized architecture not used in anything else, using rare earth elements in limited supply, in a few days. Which is also impossible. 100ft custom architecture cannot be made in a few days. Disney knows this, it takes them 1-3 years to build custom architecture in their parks using common materials.!<
* >!Galactus, a planet killer, is apparently more interested in kidnapping and is the least threatening villain in all of the MCU.!<
* >!The Silver Surfette is convinced to switch sides by hearing her name and the radio signals from the planets she helped destroy...like she didn't know her name and didn't know she was destroying planets.!<
* >!Sue gets Luke Skywalkered. So either she'll now die in every movie we see her in or we'll have a major contradiction when she can use her powers without consequence in later movies.!<
* >!Reed, the smartest man in the universe, doesn't know how to perform CPR. Pushing on the upper chest does nothing. His hands are 4 inches too high. It's no wonder he couldn't resuscitate her.!<
Youre literally talking about a human with superpowers, btw
\-This is more of a character-driven film than an action movie. The F4 is about family, and the movie went to great lengths to show the family dynamics of the team. They tease but don't insult. They are supportive of each other. And even when Sue and Reed have their big fight, it's not with raised voices. Reed even accepts responsibility for accidentally hurting Sue.
\-Johnny had a handful of other recordings that had been picked up from their monitoring of deep space. Remember that Reed had identified several other planets that had apparently been devoured by Galactus. You can still call Johnny's accomplishments dubious, but the movie did lay down some foundation for it.
\-Galactus switches his focus onto Franklin because he sees the child as a successor for having the Power Cosmic. That is more important to him than a planet to eat. How long he would have chosen to prioritize Franklin over his next meal is unknown. However, considering that the Power Cosmic is among the highest tier of power level in the universe, to suddenly find another being with that capability would surely keep Galactus' attention for quite some time.
\-Shalla Bal got guilt-tripped into betraying Galactus. Until the F4 showed themselves capable of putting up at least some decent measure of resistance, all Shalla Bal had to do was show up, deliver her message, and fuck off until Galactus arrived. No one before Johnny was able to confront her with the countless others she sacrificed to save her own planet.
The closest to getting it for me is the Roger Corman 1994 version and those Tim Story 2000s movies. The F4 needs to have a bit of humor and not take itself so deathly serious. You gotta have fun with invisible lady, rock dude, fire man and stretch person.
But it has the most comic accurate Dr. Doom and those fun Silver Age comic vibes. The very low budget and janky effects really add to the charm.
edit - I just now realized this question could be interpreted as very sarcastic, but I assure you it was not.
You must be reading very different FF comics to me.
Is this a troll? It's 1:1 with the comics.
FF movies take place in NYC, probably the city that we've seen the most of in movies. They've given us the same villains with Doom three times and Galactus twice.
I think it's pretty simple. They could have just given us Mole Man as a villain, with locations like Monster Island and Subterranea, and having superheroes fighting Godzilla. Their fight scenes should be written by a kid's creativity. Reed uses Pym Particles to make the Thing a giant to fight Giganto. Reed should be able to use his powers in a unexpected ways instead of just stretching. Not Sue just pushing into the air.
Even their setting should be ultra futuristic, they need to be more advanced than Wakanda. Putting them in the past means pushing them backwards, not forward where they need to be.
The thing that makes them interesting to me is the variety, but the movies keep retelling the origin story or pitting them against the same two villains.
I didn't mind the most recent movie, but it still did the same thing, skipping over or outright cutting what could have been fun villains, just to rush to Surfer and Galactus (and even cameo Doom as well) in their first outing. It always makes it feel like the studio isn't confident in their longevity so they have to rush to what they consider the essential villains.
Can't help but have a hard time seeing Pedro as Mr. Fantastic for some reason too. He didn't fit the bill and though his writing was weak and made him look less than brilliantly intelligent, I thought John Krasinski looked way better (though Ioan Gruffudd was perfect casting IMO).
Aesthetic and the space sequence were on point though, as was Galactus's design specifically.