Fantastic Four Movie (mild Spoilers)

Zeeks · Post by **Zeeks** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 9:00 pm

So, it pleases d00m to be the first to comment on what is, IMO, the most spectacular movie of the year so far......
Screw STar Wars. Screw Batman. This is film making/viewing at its best.
At this point, I'm not even sure I can formulate coherent thoughts and sentences to express my feelings about what I just witnessed.........

Having read the movie novelization and compared it to the movie, I have a few opinions here.....

The panoramic views and close ups reminded me of true Marvel fashion in regards to expressing "larger than life" visuals i.e. instead of viewing a figure with perfect horizontal and vertical positioning, things were intentionally knocked off kilter to give these views dramatic effect, and it worked well, especially in the ending fight scene with Victor.

After a disappointing try with CGI on the Hulk, it was a rather bold step, IMO, to make the Thing a live action character, and they pulled it off with grace. Michael Chiklis captured the very essence of the ever luvin blue eyed Thing, both as a human and as a transformed outer shell. Obviously, this movie concerned itself very much with how people place such emphasis on outer appearance- Johnny, the stud master whose radiation effects seemed to heighten his persona and stature among women, Ben's loss of his true love who could not bring herself to accept the same inner person with a different outer shell, and Victor's disgust at himself from being an extremely handsome man turning into a disfigured (albeit not as drastic as Ben's) human being. The value of image we preoccupy ourselves with is brought right to the forefront here.

Sue's inner rage and consequential nose bleeds when using her powers were also more than a nod to her comic character, although I still have a hard time buying the whole "working for Victor" part.......but I can also give room to different interpretations of the Fantastic Four's origins after reading the Ultimate Series, which took me quite a long time to accept. Guess it's just the inner fanboi in me :P

As I calm down from the excitement, I will be able to form better opinions.

Chromia · Post by **Chromia** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 11:05 pm

Okay, I just saw the movie and.....wow. It rocked my world.

From the opening, to the ending...it was awesome...

A few minor points though:

Sue Storm: Spent more time trying to get into Reed's pants than solving the issue at hand. And seemed to be content to play the "pretty girl role" But again, minor....

Reed: Maybe could have been a bit more "scatter-brained" seemed to be unsure about everything, but then would push the same issue in the same sentence. Again...minor.

Johnny and The Thing....played to perfection!

SPOILER! (select to read)
The scene in the Baxter building where the Thing is sleeping, and Johnny is doing the old "whipped cream in the palm" scene..

Classic! The look on Johnny's face when the Thing finally slapped himself with it....priceless!

Whew! Gonna see it again on Sunday.

Xille · Post by **Xille** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 5:27 am

Very good, indeed. I often think that they waste too many of the funny or cool moments of a movie in the preview, but the few that I knew about were still all great and the others (such as Kup's spoiler) were amazing as well.

My only disappointment? The torch never said "vugly".

Hawkeye · Post by **Hawkeye** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 1:15 pm

mehn it was ok...... not the worst comic book movie ive ever seen but certainly not as bad as the reviews ive seen for it. although batman was definetely A better movie :P.

Xille · Post by **Xille** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 2:04 pm

Originally posted by Hawkeye
batman was definetely A better movie :P.

Oh, no doubt in that at all.

Sir Auros · Post by **Sir Auros** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 10:44 pm

I wasn't that impressed and it certainly didn't live up to the expectations the trailer set. Except for the scene Kup mentioned earlier (which I completely agree with), most of the good stuff had been shown in the trailers already.

The movie meandered too often, Doom's motives were completely unbelievable, and there was some awkwardness in the lines. The worst thing in the entire movie that completely pulled me out of the experience was...

SPOILER! (select to read)
The blind, black woman who learned to love The Thing. Christ, not only could it not be any more cliché ("seeing" his face by feeling it!?), but they rolled three minorities into one and insulted me with their pandering. It was so cornball and unnecessary that I was pulled out when I was really into the movie.

That being said, it wasn't nearly as disappointing as the reviews lead me to believe. Hot stuff was actually believable in her role and Dr. Doom was played by a decent actor, but his motivation just wasn't clear. I'm looking at this as being similar to the first X-Men movie where it's not the strongest movie, but there is potential in a series. Batman Begins has spoiled us though as a first step in forming a new franchise that is also a great movie.

Hawkeye · Post by **Hawkeye** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 10:58 pm

yeah doom's motivation was one of the turn offs.....I want to destroy the FF......yep.....what happened to dominating earth and such...

Zeeks · Post by **Zeeks** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:14 am

I guess, because I have kept up with this from the very beginning conception of the movie, I take my understanding of Doom's motives for granted, but I will try to attempt to answer your questions:
Victor has everything in the world- except Sue Storm's heart and Reed's intellect. He is a multi billionaire with absolutely no wants in the world, but the two things he can't buy are things he will never be able to own. So, after the whole accident in space and the revelation of his un-caring for other's lives in front of Sue, he gets transformed both mentally and physically. His money is going down the tubes and all he can see is Reed Richard's face plastered on the tube. The more he tries to draw Sue in, the more he actually pushes her back to Reed, but doesn't have the self-realization to know this. He still harbored a feeling of resentment against Reed prior to the accident, and after, it just consumes him. Also, he is a vain man in regards to his handsome looks- once the scars start setting in, it pushes him over the edge and yet, the only thing he can see is Reed taking his spot light as VonDoom enterprises and his personal life come crashing down. So, using Reed's intellect, he figures "what better way to destroy them than to take ben's powers, get Ben out of the picture, and destroy the remaining three?" which he knew he could do.
IMO, I thought the reasons for his transformation into a brutal villain were more believable than the Green Goblin in Spiderman, but, meh, to each their own.
Like with the Ultimate Series, I think we have to kind of view this as a major step apart from the comic series, whereas several key ideas were re-written and re-imagined for the sake of the movie. I have a hard time, too, because I am used to the honorable yet vile version of Doctor Doom who does want to rule the world in hopes of turning it better.

Zisteau · Post by **Zisteau** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 2:59 am

Well, I hate to have to say it, but Fantastic Four is a steaming pile of sh*t. A giant, festering, maggot-ridden pile of sh*t.

:down:The dramatic/plot beats are horribly overt, most of the incidental dialogue is terribly written, and the pseudo-science isn't even bad- its boring. Here we have the two most brillaint men on the planet battling, and what sort of brilliant concepts do they come up with? I'll heat plastic! Oh yeah? I'll cool metal! Middle school science lab, eat your heart out!

:down:The orchestral score is abyssmal. A 3-year old could have written a better score.

:down:Mr. Fantastic. The 'stretch' effects are really terrible, but I would have willingly overlooked them had Reed Richards been anything more than a bumbling incompetent dork. This isn't supposed to be Sideways with super powers. This is Reed Richards, damnit!

:down:Sue Storm. Not even close to the empowered, confident, sexy, and smart character seen in the comics. Sure the actress is attractive, and she probably couldn've done more had she been given more, but sadly, she wasn't.

Johnny Storm. The shining light in this abyssmal movie. The guy that played Johnny Storm completely nailed the character in every way. At least one of these guys is Fantastic.

The Thing. I'm conflicted over this one. Micheal Chiklis (sp?) did quite a lot with what he was given. Unfortunately, we have far too much in this movie of the depressed monster, and not nearly enough of the ever-lovin blue-eyed Thing.

Doom. Terrible. Absolutely terrible. Abyssmal. Horrid. Tragic. This guy has none of Doom's nobility, none of his intelligence, none of his eloquence, and his megalomania is a joke in this film. The portrayal of Doom more than anything totally ruined this thing for me. The voice is terrible. The mask and cloak is terrible. The setup of becoming Doom is horribly executed.

:down:Cinematography. Bad. Just bad. And the blocking is like something from a 3rd rate WB show.

This film sucks. Don't give it your money. If you want superheroes, go see Batman. Or go to a comic store and dig through some old FF comics, anywhere from the early 200's into the high 300's and you'll get something vastly superior to this. The film sucks. Should I say it again? I will. It sucks.

Chromia · Post by **Chromia** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:38 am

Well, I hate to have to say it, but Fantastic Four is a steaming pile of sh*t. A giant, festering, maggot-ridden pile of sh*t.

Aww, no really. Tell me how you really feel.

LOL!

Meh, different folks like different things, I guess.

DrSpengler · Post by **DrSpengler** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 4:16 am

Well, it was better than Daredevil.:\

Zisteau · Post by **Zisteau** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:40 am

Originally posted by Kup1
Well, I hate to have to say it, but Fantastic Four is a steaming pile of sh*t. A giant, festering, maggot-ridden pile of sh*t.

Aww, no really. Tell me how you really feel.

LOL!

Well...I tried putting nine or ten thumbs down next to Doom's name, but the software wouldn't let me.

Originally posted by Sir Auros
The worst thing in the entire movie that completely pulled me out of the experience was...(spoiler snipped)

Actually, while I agree that was handled really badly, in the comic

SPOILER! (select to read)
Ben does have a blind girlfriend named Alicia Masters who is blind.

Dark Dranzer · Post by **Dark Dranzer** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:28 am

I haven't seen the F4 since I was little. I read the comic (Movie format) and from what you guys said it appeared very different from the comic book.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 10:32 pm

I didn't go in with high expectations, heck I wasn't planning on seeing it. Of course, considering how I didn't want to see War of the Worlds, it became a choice between Fantastic Four and Herbie Fully Loaded. Okay, no... it wasn't. :-p Ha.

So yea, great fun film that enjoyed from beginning to end, and it felt much more comic bookish than some of the other comic book adaptations.

I can't wait for more. ^_^

-Predaking- · Post by **-Predaking-** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 1:46 am

Saw it. Love it. It's not as bad as many of you said. Just sit back relax and enjoy the ride with popcorn and coke. I did and I had a great time. Sure there are many problems with the movie but there are many positives as well. The audience I saw it with loved it. They laughed at every joke and when it's over many of them applauded (me included). It's not surprising that it pulled in $56 mil last weekend. It will face some stiff competition this week but I am sure families will continue to go see this one cuz it's that good.

axio · Post by **axio** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 2:22 am

Lets just say... I'd rather watch an extended version of the Hulk where he figures out how to cry or something and does so for another 4 hours than sit through F4 again.

Rodimus Convoy · Post by **Rodimus Convoy** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 6:48 pm

Wow Zeeks, you're really gettin' into this aren't you? The movie was all around good. Good cast, script, humor... etc. Too bad it won't be on DVD, the commercials said therters only.

*theaters

Zisteau · Post by **Zisteau** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 7:44 pm

Originally posted by Rodimus Convoy
Wow Zeeks, you're really gettin' into this aren't you? The movie was all around good. Good cast, script, humor... etc. Too bad it won't be on DVD, the commercials said therters only.

*theaters

Of course it is going to be on DVD. The commercials always says stuff like that, so you know its not going to be on TV or DVD right now.

Rodimus Convoy · Post by **Rodimus Convoy** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:06 pm

Oh. OK.

axio · Post by **axio** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 9:07 pm

Originally posted by Rodimus Convoy
Too bad it won't be on DVD, the commercials said therters only.

Are you serious?