Couple more thought on Fantastic Four...

I just read a couple of reviews from people who, remarkably, liked this new Fantastic Four film. Oh, their praise was tempered with a fair share of criticism of the mishandled, jumbled mess of a finale this film sports, but they still claimed to enjoy it overall (although I do wonder if some of that isn't just a desire to go against the grain of public opinion).

But I thought about this, reflecting on whether I was being overly harsh in my assessment of the film. Sometimes you go see a film and afterwards it kind of grows on you. You begin to appreciate the finer details of it, and realize that maybe it deserves a second viewing


And then there are times you see a film and it just pisses you off more the more you think about it. For me, the new Fantastic Four definitely falls into the latter.

You see, the reason there is such a public backlash against the new film all boils down to one plain, simple reason. Listen up Fox, maybe you'll finally get this through your thick skulls.

The reason people hated this movie, and that it failed miserably at the box office is because IT WASN'T FAITHFUL TO THE SOURCE MATERIAL!

Look, I realize that some changes need to be made to make it fly in live action form. BUT, the most successful films and TV adaptations of comic book material are always those that stick closest to the source material. For someone to come along and make wholesale changes to what is canon to legions of fans is arrogant and insulting. This is why the backlash to Josh Trank and his "vision." I understand that he made a successful film with Chronicle (which I haven't seen). But here's the thing about Chronicle - it was an original story. It is credited as story by Max Landis and Josh Trank, screenplay by Max Landis.

Trank was working with his own characters there, and thus free to do whatever he wanted. And it worked great, apparently - though in hindsight I wonder if maybe it wasn't more Landis than Trank, especially since Trank wrote the new FF script.

Interestingly, just this week Landis released the first four pages of his OWN script for The Fantastic Four, and let me tell you, it is far, far superior to the murky mess that was just released to theaters.

Read the Max Landis script here:

http://sciencefiction.com/2015/08/11/max-landis-shares-pages-unused-fantastic-four-script/

Once again, Landis' version IS FAITHFUL TO THE SOURCE MATERIAL. It is creative, and adds some new stuff - but it's all in the spirit of the original. The characters and their personalities are faithful to the comic books! As I've said before, if Trank wanted to make a film about teenagers who travel into another dimension and gain powers he should have made THAT film.

Trank's arrogance is what really pisses me off. He instructed his actors not to read comics, as his version wasn't following them anyway. Why the hell did Fox go along with this? He made wholesale changes throughout - if he disliked the material so much, why bother? His "improvements" were far from that. All they managed to do was alienate fans of the franchise and make a lesser quality product.

His film is also VERY dismissive of women. There is only one female character throughout most of the movie, and she is relegated to second tier status. She is left home while the men travel to the other dimension and gain their powers. She is only granted powers as an afterthought, when some backlash of energy surges into the lab upon the brave men's return. They face danger and leave her home alone, and they bring back the superpower to her like good hunter/gatherers. Her purpose in this film seems to be merely to provide occasional stupid lines of dialogue and act emotionally distant.

Now Fox has announced they are proceeding with a second Fantastic Four film. I guess getting their asses handed to them at the box office once isn't enough. They are determined to try and make the public accept this train wreck. Good luck with that. What they have achieved here is to make not only the worst Fantastic Four film to date, but ARGUABLY THE WORST SUPERHERO FILM OF ALL TIME.

 
After this fiasco I was really hoping Marvel would get the rights back to the Fantastic Four. It's very disappointing, but maybe after the second FF flops it'll finally happen.

Who knows, maybe they would film Max Landis' script. It sure beats the hell outta his former partner's version.

The Fantastic Farce

I went to the drive-in this past Friday night and saw a double-feature of THE FANTASTIC FOUR and ANT-MAN. I had already seen Ant-Man, and knew what to expect with it; a fun film that fits nicely into the Marvel Universe. The Fantastic Four, however, was an entirely different story.

 There will be spoilers…

Where to begin? I think you have to place blame for this film’s failure squarely on the director, Josh Trank, and his casting of way too young actors in the lead roles. Every one of them was pretty much an exercise in complete, miserable miscasting. I discussed my issues with the cast in a previous post based off early press and rumors I had read. After seeing it firsthand, however, I can honestly say it was even worse than anticipated. The acting was as bland as the muted colors throughout the film. There was little character development, horribly written dialogue and no chemistry between leads. If there was supposed to be a love interest between Reed and Sue – an integral part of the comics, as they are eventually married – then they completely missed the mark. In this film Ben Grimm is physically smaller in stature than nerdy Reed Richards, who completely lacks any leadership qualities or charisma. Johnny Storm is now black, for some inexplicable reason. Honestly, there isn’t a single character that is well-cast. I guess Sue is cast closest to the comics, if you overlook the fact that she’s about 10 years too young.

 Then there is the script, which is probably an even bigger culprit. If I had to sum this film up in one word, it would be dull. It starts off okay, with Reed and Ben in High School, then quickly takes a turn into dullsville, and never returns. Ben Grimm is a useless character in this film. In the comics he was the pilot for the ship that went into space. In this one they go into another dimension to gain their powers. BUT there is no reason for Ben to be there. He didn’t work on the project, isn’t a scientist, and in fact if you removed his character completely it wouldn’t alter the story. He is pointless. As is Sue in this one, as invisible as the powers she gains. They give her very little to do, and in fact, she doesn’t even go on the voyage with the men. No, the helpless girl stays home while the boys go dimension hopping… with Victor Doom tagging along. Doom ends up getting separated and they have to leave him behind. Sue gains her powers when they return and a resulting explosion causes an energy surge that engulfs her? Huh? Or something like that. Anyway, her getting powers is an afterthought, as is her role in this film. There is also a ridiculous subplot of a scientist named Dr. Franklin who has an X-men like academy of kids who are scientific protégées. Kind of like a wayward home for genius orphans. This character and subplot is clearly in place only to explain why Johnny and Sue – brother and sister in the comics - are different races in this film.  

 Perhaps my biggest complaint is how they portray Reed in this film. After they return from the other dimension Reed slips through the ventilation shaft and RUNS AWAY like a coward from the military, who now have the remaining fantastic three in quarantine.  Reed hides out in another country for an entire year. Poor Ben Grimm, who is now a walking rock creature, doesn’t wear any clothes. Apparently his junk fell off in the transformation, cause there’s no male member there – nothing. Talk about a lack of dignity! He is portrayed onscreen completely CGI, and it looks bad. Really bad. The kind of bad that won't hold up well with time. The design of his face looks particularly bad.

The gang now have to wear specially designed clothing, invented by the military, to control their powers. Reed somehow manufactures his own version of this costume which magically stretches with his body. Where he got the money and resources to do so, hiding out in South America somewhere, isn’t explained. Once reunited they go back to the other dimension and Doom shows up, with a laughable costume design (seriously, someone should be really, really embarrassed trotting out that thing) and there is an ending tacked on that makes no sense at all. 

This film has managed one achievement – it is now officially the worst film in the Fantastic Four franchise. The Roger Corman film is far superior to this turd. It at least stuck to the source material and did the best it could despite lack of resources. This film alienated fans of the comics, and underwhelmed regular non-comics moviegoers.  When the best praise you get on a movie is, “Oh, it’s not as bad as the reviews,” you know you’re in for a rough time. This film sucks in a boring, dull, lifeless way that lacks entertainment value. It doesn’t even reach the “so bad it’s good” level – in fact, it falls far short of that mark. It’s just bad. Forgettable. 

My advice? Avoid this film. Catch it on Netflix if you’re curious. I’d give it a half star out of four on a rating scare. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 9% fresh rating from critics. That sounds about right.

Fantastic Four 2015

The latest trailer for the Fantastic Four movie, due out in August, has hit now. In it we get a better glimpse of the tone of this film and the characters in it.



The description on the trailer says:

"FANTASTIC FOUR, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. "

And that, right THERE, is the crux of the problem I have with this film. It's Marvel's longest running superhero team, created by the genius of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Therefore show it the respect it deserves, and make the film faithful to the source material.

But no, like so many other "remakes" or "re-imaginings," what you have instead is lesser-talented individuals who pervert the creative work of others. It's nothing short of bastardization.

The makers of this film don't give a damn about the source material, other than to cash-in on the popularity of the brand name. Every comic book fan out there should shun this film for that reason alone.

And the way they made changes to the source material is, frankly, insulting. All of the characters are, predictably, younger. The human torch is now black, for some reason, but his sister is white. Because, you know, we want to be politically correct but not TOO politically correct. We can't have TWO black characters in a film. So instead we'll make them step-siblings. Cool.

No, not cool - it's manipulative and shallow and people should be smart enough to see this dumbass ploy for what it is. They're brother and sister - make them both black, or asian, or white or whatever you want, because otherwise changing the plot to keep Sue white reeks of racism from the filmmakers.

Dr. Doom, the Fantastic Four's arch-nemisis, is no longer the ruler of the country of Latveria, he is instead now an internet blogger. No I didn't make that up. That is these filmmakers' idea of an evil villain. And no, the irony of writing about what a dumb idea for a supervillian a blogger is - on a blog - isn't lost on me.

I honestly don't know who this film is intended for. Not fans of the comic, that's for sure. You just took their much-lauded comic, the longest running one in the Marvel Universe, and pissed on it.

If you wanted to make a story about kids who get sucked into another universe and gain superpowers, make that story, but call it something else. But then you would lose the ability to cash-in on the Fantastic Four brand name, and that's what this is all about.

I hope this film flops. I hope Marvel in turn gets this back and makes a proper version of it, and puts it back in the Marvel Universe where it belongs. At least Ant-Man is being released in July. Maybe I can catch a rerun of that week instead.