Fantastic Four: All signs point to a terd..

[exile]

The trailer left me underwhelmed. Then comes the early reviews including Roger Ebert's 1 star:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050707/REVIEWS/507070301/1001

 

Then comes Rotten Tomatoes reviews at 21%.

 

Needless to say while I'm going for free, I may demand my money back :lmfao

 

Some of the reviewers are calling it "Yep, Catwoman bad". The movie will do ok though but won't make it's money back. There aren't enough Jessica ALba fans in the world to make up that kind of debt.

 

Low expectations indeed.

[JFo]

Some of the reviewers are calling it "Yep, Catwoman bad". The movie will do ok though but won't make it's money back.

 

You really think it will do okay? I personally think that this will be the major flop of the summer.

[MastaRedSnappa]

You really think it will do okay? I personally think that this will be the major flop of the summer.

 

Well he did say that it would do ok but not make it's money back. That's pretty much a flop (unless the DVD sales and toy/video game merchandising are a hit).

 

I'm planning on seeing it this weekend. I grew up reading the Fantastic Four and the TV commercials have my 5 year old son brainwashed.

 

My expectations are pretty low though.

[GreenMonkey]

The score keeps going down on Metacritic. Now @ 40/100. I like the quote at the end of the Ebert review (metacritic used it as their primary quote)

 

The really good superhero movies, like "Superman," "SpiderMan 2" and "Batman Begins," leave Fantastic Four so far behind that the movie should almost be ashamed to show itself in the same theaters.

 

He also said

screenful of characters, who, despite the most astonishing powers, have not been made exciting or even interesting. The X-Men are major league compared to them.

 

And he gave Xmen 2.5 stars, and Xmen 2 3 stars. :lmfao

 

 

Another funny review from the NY post:

 

A perfect storm of wooden acting, hackneyed direction, inane scripting and laughably cartoonish special effects produces a shapeless mess more wearyingly stupid than arch-villian Dr. Doom is evil.

[MastaRedSnappa]

Whenever I read a Roger Ebert review of superhero movies I always remember the last paragraph of his Spider-Man review:

 

I have one question about the Peter Parker character: Does the movie go too far with his extreme social paralysis? Peter tells Mary Jane he just wants to be friends. "Only a friend?" she repeats. "That's all I have to give," he says. How so? Impotent? Spidey-sense has skewed his sexual instincts? Afraid his hands will get stuck?

 

The ending is pretty clear in that Peter Parker says the above quoted lines because he's trying to protect the ones he loves (Mary Jane, etc.) from Spider-Man's enemies, not from "extreme social paralysis". I can't believe he couldn't grasp this basic concept and it makes me question the accuracy of everything he writes.

[JoeyN]

I have not read one good review for the film online or offline. that usually spells trouble

 

capt

[General Zot]

Thank God I don't have to watch any more commercials for this stinker after this weekend. Man, have those things been annoying.

[Covak]

Whenever I read a Roger Ebert review of superhero movies I always remember the last paragraph of his Spider-Man review:

 

 

 

The ending is pretty clear in that Peter Parker says the above quoted lines because he's trying to protect the ones he loves (Mary Jane' date=' etc.) from Spider-Man's enemies, not from "extreme social paralysis". I can't believe he couldn't grasp this basic concept and it makes me question the accuracy of everything he writes.[/quote']

 

Hehe, I always remember that, too. Ebert is a tool

[GreenMonkey]

Hehe, I always remember that, too. Ebert is a tool

 

Honestly, I don't generally agree with Ebert's reasons, but I oddly tend to agree with his scores. I think it is because he rates the movie on what it is trying to be: so a decent action movie that doesn't pretend to be anything else, he rates as an action movie, and not just as a movie in general. So I like to use him as a score benchmark.

[Anthony G]

The ending is pretty clear in that Peter Parker says the above quoted lines because he's trying to protect the ones he loves (Mary Jane, etc.) from Spider-Man's enemies, not from "extreme social paralysis". I can't believe he couldn't grasp this basic concept and it makes me question the accuracy of everything he writes.

 

I also remember Ebert's review of X-Men. He could not grasp why Magneto wanted to turn the world leaders into mutants. The reasoning was pretty apparent in the movie.

[JoeyN]

The reasoning was pretty apparent in the movie.

 

Yeah maybe he wanted it stameped on his fore head

[Calvin]

The movie was okay . I liked it,though I would put it near the bottom of the recent superhero spurt of films (nowhere near Catwoman bad,though).

 

I will say this,here in Southern New England,it had some sold out shows...

[Whooter]

The movie was fine. It does not, in any way, shape, or form, belong in the same sentence with "Catwoman".

 

It's an origin movie, so mostly it just sets up the characters. Some cheesy dialogue, yes. There's also a scene that doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than to show Jessica Alba in her bra and panties (not that it's a bad thing). Otherwise it's pretty serviceable.

 

Things like Spider-Man 2 and Batman Begins have set the bar pretty high, now. Can't expect them all to measure up.

 

I'd give it about a C+, I guess.

[Brandondragons]

This has been mentioned before but it bares (pun intended) repeating: Jessica Alba is in her bra and panties. Thank you.

 

We took the kids to see it today and we liked it. It did not blow me away and it didn't repulse me either. It was NO Catwoman, but it was far from Batman Begins. The Thing was the best of the cast (although did I mention bra and panties?) and there were no surprise appearacnes (I kept hoping for Spidey or Jonah).

[MastaRedSnappa]

I just got back from a matinee showing. It's neither the best nor the worst superhero movie I've seen but it is an entertaining summer flick.

 

It takes many liberties with the Fantastic Four's (and Dr. Doom's) origin but probably for the benefit of the movie's narrative. For example, in the movie,

Dr. Doom is irradiated by cosmic rays along with the Fantastic Four and it mutates his body into a form of energy-absorbant metal alloy.

In the comics (at least in the original run, I haven't kept up with recent stuff), Doom is disfigured in a science experiment and uses his super-intellect to construct a high-tech suit of armor that both gives him great powers and hides his disfigurement. The writer's did a fairly good job keeping the story light in tone and semi-tongue-in-cheek and also managed to provide reasonable motivations for the characters and their actions.

 

The special effects were hit or miss. Some, like the Human Torch's flame powers, worked while others, like Mr. Fantastic's stretching powers, seemed a little off (it almost reminded me of old school morphing special effects). I didn't particularly like the design of The Thing (as he is my favorite character from the FF), but it wasn't too distracting.

 

Overall, I'd probably give it a 6.5 out of 10.

[Romier S]

Doom is disfigured in a science experiment and uses his super-intellect to construct a high-tech suit of armor that both gives him great powers and hides his disfigurement.

Having not seen the movie, I can't comment on how effective the ideas behind it work. Though, I have no idea why they would bother changing so much of his origin. I'm not one that's opposed to change in these movies to serve a narrative but when you have a character as complicated as Victor Von Doom, making him some cosmic ray superpowered being takes away from the fundamental brilliance of the character in my mind.

 

I'm curious as to how Doom is handled in general. Does he still exhibit jealousy towards Reed Richards for, what he feels in his own mind, being superior and causing his disfigurement (or he just not disfigured at all)? The motivation behind the Doom character is simple but poignant. Doom was working on an trans-dimensional portal with which to communicate with his long dead mother. Doom and Richards being friends at the time. Richards points out a flaw in the design of the system which Doom chooses to ignore (since he thinks he's better than everyone else) and proceeds anyway. In the process Doom discovers that his mother was in Mephisto's hell when the portal opens and shortly after, the machine explodes disfiguring his face. Instead of placing the blame on himself, he chooses to believes it was Richards fault. Eventually he is aided in building his iron suit and overthrows his homelands government to become ruler of Latveria.

 

Now all of this is of course really off the wall and most of it doesn't belong in a film that's trying to tell a contained story in two hours. You would have to setup his mother, mephisto etc. That poses a problem of course. In my mind you can break all of that down that to core motivation of the character. Doom wants revenge on Reed Richards. You could jettison the mother. Have the two as friends working on the experiment (change the reasons for it being built), and proceed with the accident. You can have Doom disfigured and have be the reason for wanting his revenge. You can have him construct the suit still (hence keeping with the idea that he is a brilliant scientist on the level of Richards). It makes Doom more human (and a more emotional character) to be sans powers IMO. It's why characters like Batman are so interesting. Regular people that make themselves extraordinary because of a motivating incident in thier lives.

 

Of course I have not seen the film either so I may be comepletely off on my assesment of how they treat the character entirely. I'd definitely like to hear more on that front.

[Adam Tyner]

It takes many liberties with the Fantastic Four's (and Dr. Doom's) origin but probably for the benefit of the movie's narrative.

Doom's origin is different in the re-envisioned "Ultimate Fantastic Four" comic, and it sounds like the movie leans in that direction. The catalyst for what happens is completely different, but the end result is the same.

[MastaRedSnappa]

Having not seen the movie, I can't comment on how effective the ideas behind it work. Though, I have no idea why they would bother changing so much of his origin. I'm not one that's opposed to change in these movies to serve a narrative but when you have a character as complicated as Victor Von Doom, making him some cosmic ray superpowered being takes away from the fundamental brilliance of the character in my mind.

 

It doesn't really portray Dr. Doom as a true multi-faceted character like in the comic book (I'll go into more detail below). Considering they had to introduce the four main characters in the Fantastic Four, going too far into Dr. Doom's origin would have resulted in some LOTR trilogy-type length. There's some serious spoilers below so if you haven't seen the movie, you might want to stop reading.

 

I'm curious as to how Doom is handled in general. Does he still exhibit jealousy towards Reed Richards for, what he feels in his own mind, being superior and causing his disfigurement (or he just not disfigured at all)? The motivation behind the Doom character is simple but poignant. Doom was working on an trans-dimensional portal with which to communicate with his long dead mother. Doom and Richards being friends at the time. Richards points out a flaw in the design of the system which Doom chooses to ignore (since he thinks he's better than everyone else) and proceeds anyway. In the process Doom discovers that his mother was in Mephisto's hell when the portal opens and shortly after, the machine explodes disfiguring his face. Instead of placing the blame on himself, he chooses to believes it was Richards fault. Eventually he is aided in building his iron suit and overthrows his homelands government to become ruler of Latveria.

 

At the beginning of the movie, Victor Von Doom is the egomanical but charismatic head of his successful corporation. There is no mention of his mother, Mephisto, or anything mystical. Latveria is mentioned a few times in the movie but seemed to be almost more of a nod/wink to the comic book fans. I think there are a few lines where they talk about Victor and Reed having gone to MIT together.

 

Reed Richards is a brilliant yet unsuccessful scientist and Ben Grimm is a NASA astronaut. After being denied by NASA for his latest experiment, Reed turns to Victor for financial help. Sue Storm is Von Doom's Science Director and her brother, Johnny Storm, is a former NASA astronaut (where he was under the direction of Ben Grimm) and now top pilot for Von Doom.

 

Victor greenlights Reed's experiment and allows him to use his space station. There is a scene between Victor and his top aide that reveals that Victor thinks Reed is more brilliant but often doesn't see the lucrative opportunities of his scientific discoveries, something that Victor is great at (which is why Reed is having financial troubles while Victor is on top of the world financially). There's a love triangle between Victor, who could have any women in the world but wants Sue, Reed, who used to date Sue but seemed unable to move forward emotionally without analyzing every angle, and Sue, who broke up with Reed but still has feelings for him.

 

Of course, something goes wrong up in the space station and the FF and Dr. Doom are irradiated by cosmic rays and immediately brought back for medical treatment. Apparently, this failed experiment was a financial disaster for Von Doom's company and the bank providing financing pulls out their support. The Fantastic Four start to slowly exhibit their new super powers but Von Doom seems to only have suffered minor injuries, one of which is a small cut on his face which they use to show how vain he is. Eventually, Von Doom too starts to exhibit changes as his emotional state seems to have an effect on local electricity (lights, etc.) and his hand starts to turn into an organic metal. He learns that he can absorb energy and project it from his hands with deadly consequences.

 

While Victor is obviously perturbed by his appearance, the feeling of true power, not just financial power, is a revelation and he realizes that he could rule the world with it. The only thing that could stand in his way are the similarly irradiated Fantastic Four. He plots to kill them and tries to take them out one by one, starting by turning Ben against Reed. As his more and more of his body begins to change to organic steel, the scar on his face also grows with organic steel. He dons a metal mask given to him by the people of Latveria and his transformation into Dr. Doom is complete.

 

Dr. Doom does blame Reed and his failed experiment for his disfigurement, the fall of his successful company, and his unsuccessful relationship with Sue.

 

As you can see, that's pretty different than Dr. Doom's original origin you gave above. From Adam's post:

 

Doom's origin is different in the re-envisioned "Ultimate Fantastic Four" comic, and it sounds like the movie leans in that direction. The catalyst for what happens is completely different, but the end result is the same.

 

I read the first graphic novel of Ultimate Fantastic Four and I thought it did a pretty great job of re-envisioning their origins (where Victor Von Doom plays a role in the Fantastic Four's birth). However, it didn't show what happened to Doom so I don't know anything beyond that first graphic novel. I'll have to pick it up and find out what they did with the Dr. Doom character.

 

Now all of this is of course really off the wall and most of it doesn't belong in a film that's trying to tell a contained story in two hours. You would have to setup his mother, mephisto etc. That poses a problem of course. In my mind you can break all of that down that to core motivation of the character. Doom wants revenge on Reed Richards. You could jettison the mother. Have the two as friends working on the experiment (change the reasons for it being built), and proceed with the accident. You can have Doom disfigured and have be the reason for wanting his revenge. You can have him construct the suit still (hence keeping with the idea that he is a brilliant scientist on the level of Richards). It makes Doom more human (and a more emotional character) to be sans powers IMO. It's why characters like Batman are so interesting. Regular people that make themselves extraordinary because of a motivating incident in thier lives.

 

As you say, it would be incredibly hard to condense Doom's original origin to fit into a two hour movie (even if the movie was just about his character!). While I agree about Dr. Doom being an interesting villain for not having any true powers (disregarding the mystical powers he seems to gain later in the original comics), I think the whole hi-tech suit of armor thing would have been hard to explain and fit into the movie (if that kind of technology existed, why wasn't it seen/created before in the movie's reality?). In the movie, the Dr. Doom character was probably the most negatively impacted by the movie's changes to his origin/powers. In the comics, he is a great and complex villain because not only is he charismatic (the people of Latveria love him), brilliant (as brilliant as Reed Richards), and uses his vast mental/financial resources to build his hi-tech suit of armor and an army of Doom clones (so you never know which one is the real one), he also has an almost tragic quality to him because of his disfigurement and his quest to save his mother's soul.

[JoeyN]

Reading comments on a bunch of different boards the opinions are what everyone on here has said. It wasnt great, but it wasnt bad either. I may have to check it out

 

capt

[Chatakinns]

IMHO if you go into the movie seeking a wham-bam-shoot-em-up action flick, you WILL be disappointed. If you go into the movie looking for a little super hero testing of powers, and a simple introduction of characters to the GENERAL population of the world, then you should have a good time.

( remember, not everyone was a geek like we were as kids/young adults and collected comic books.... ) My aunt thought the Fantastic Four was a new slang reference for the Beatles. :eh

 

The movie did not suck. It also did not make me want to stand up, clap loudly, whistle or " woo-woo-woo " at any time. I don't think it was a waste of my money, but if I had a choice between F4 and Batman Begins as comic book movies, I'd certainly choose Batman over F4. :tu

[exile]

Just got back from an 11am showing.

 

It was rather awful. Not Catwoman awful but certainly I would have wanted to demand my money back if I had paid anything more than $3 for it. Luckily the free tickets I got from Man on Fire SE paid for the event.

 

Dr Doom was HORRIBLE. The characters themselves were awful as well. The only redeeming factor is seeing the invisible woman in her bra and panties and even that is a reach. As I said I don't think their are enough guys in the world with the hots for Jennifer Alba to get this thing to respectability money wise.

 

It was entertaining in a way but not in good one.

 

Given what X-Men did, this is an ultra dissapointment even with my low expectations. The director should be ashamed for pawning this stuff off on comic book fans.

 

SFX were ok at best. Acting was awful even with the SHield guy in it. I guess he must be hard up for cash or roles to play in this terd. I would like to see him in a real acting role outside TV. He has potential but this doesn't help him.

 

3 out of 10 and that is being VERY generous.

[JoeyN]

.Acting was awful even with the SHield guy in it. I guess he must be hard up for cash or roles to play in this terd. I would like to see him in a real acting role outside TV. He has potential but this doesn't help him.

 

Michael Chiklis is his name. He isnt in much of need for money as he gets paid a nice sum for the Shield. The reason he took the role is because of his kids.

 

capt

[Brandondragons]

I thought Mike was quite good in this. I thought he and the guy who played Johnny were pretty good at capturing the spirit of their characters.

[Chris The Rock]

6/10

[Romier S]

As I said I don't think their are enough guys in the world with the hots for Jennifer Alba to get this thing to respectability money wise.

The movie is on track to make more than 50 million this weekend. It's Friday and Saturday numbers surpassed 20 million. Opinions on it are all over the place, the majority of them are purely negative in fact. However, the movie is looking to make some serious cash this weekend.