Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Fantastic Four: The Movie

Did Mister Fantastic doff his duds in the movie too?

Saw the movie. Comments:
-- fun movie. Not great, but enjoyable.
-- I agree that Johnny and Ben were the best things in it. Even Reed had more heat with Ben in their scenes than Sue.
-- Biggest disappointment was Doom as smarmy rich guy.
-- I could almost buy that Sue, as a fellow scientist, would be attracted to Reed (in that one scene where she apparently needs glasses) but the romance fell short.
-- I totally couldn't buy that after all that misery, Ben would suddenly turn down the option of going back to normal even when the machine is proven to work.
-- the bridge scene bothered me for the fact that there was really no reason for Sue to go invisible (and naked) to get past the crowd. Reed and Johnny popped up right behind her anyway.
-- The special effects were fine for me, but there were a couple of scenes where Reed's stretching CGI didn't seem to match the actor, making it look low-budget
-- Pseudo science run amok: So Johnny can go "super nova" against Doom and Sue holds him in? She can contain the power of a sun?

So Drake..did ya like it. (kidding)

Your thoughts did make me come to some of those same conclusions. Why did Sue take off her clothes?? First time I saw it it did not click but when I saw it again...it made me think.

Just got a copy for my PSP. Probably sit down and watch it tomorrow unless I decide last week's Battlestar Galactica looks better.

I caught a mantinee of it on Sunday and I thought it was great! There seemed to be good amount of chemistry between the main cast. I can't wait to get the dvd when it comes out, in fact if possible I'll probably go see it in the theatre at least once more.

Well, I was right. I watched BG instead. At least at first. Sat in the doctor's office so long that I watched the whole episode and 1/2 of FF.

I know I was going into the movie (and I'll finish it in a bit while my brakes are being worked on) with major doubts. Still have them. I just sat through part of Corman's version the other day and, honestly, what's the difference? Bad acting, hokey special effects and no story.

Unless something in the second act redeems it, I'll rank this one lower than Elektra. Not quite as low as Catwoman though.

Well, my main critism of the film is that the FF really didn't do anything heroic. They are, directly or indirectly, the cause of all the problems.

They definitely emphasized the interpersonal dynamics at the expense of a real story. Too bad they couldn't manage to do both.

Took my 3-year-old to see it last Sunday. He was bored, and so was I.

-- plot holes: Why did Sue have to get naked? Where the heck were they after they came back from space? Was it within walking distance of NYC?

-- Doom: I cannot express my disappointment. I realize, ever since Darth Vader appeared on screeen in 1977, it would be harder to pull off the classic Dr. Doom. But this bozo was a joke. I don't mind him having backstory with Reed and Sue -- that's fine. But Doom is royalty. Doom is tyrrany. Doom is classy. This guy was none of those.

-- Music: Does anyone remember anything from the soundtrack?

-- Heroics: None. That's why my boy was bored. The exciting climax was blink-and-you-miss-it.

I echo what others have said -- it felt like a TV movie. Missing some essential qualities of style, intensity, verisimilitude, bigness, that make a movie a movie. This is not easy to do, especially when you have 5 larger-than-life characters to unfold. I heard the director describe the FF as the "rock stars" of Marvel. If so, he should have emulated "Hard Day's Night." No origin, no backstory, just zany ensemble fun.

No. There was a brief scene of Ben arriving in NYC (though honestly, I don't remember if he got off a boat or train) - he didn't walk the whole way.

Did anyone else notice (it may have been too fast for some) that when Johnny was being chased by the missle, the first time he passes the screen in full view, the frame was reversed the wrong direction. The 4 logo was on the right side of his chest instead of the left and it was backwards. How do you let a gaffe like that slip through?

I finally saw this today. Broke a few years long streak of absence from movie theaters to do it.

I liked it; I'd rank it alongside X-Men but under X2.

Johhny Storm was great and kept me laughing. He and Ben translated very well from comic to movie. Sue translated well enough. Reed I felt was the least successful comic to movie translation. Doom was just kinda there to be the nemesis. Johnny and Sue *looked* the best.

Lots of falling scenes kept my heart racing.

I didn't mind the little tweaks to the FF mythos here and there, and I immedietely loved Alicia.

On the sequel front, Jessica Alba let loose that the Silver Surfer will be showing up in FF2. Could Galactus be far behind?

I think that since surfing is so 1960s, the movie Silver Surfer will be a skateboarder, perhaps played by Tony Hawk or Bam Margera.

Viva la Galactus!

So, the reboot movie is currently at 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. [Bring back Galactus The Cloud?]

I haven't had such schadenfreude at a movie's reception since... oh... Green Lantern. Try the Rolling Stone review on for size...

I almost feel bad for Miles Teller. He was just the lead in an Oscar nominated movie and now he's in this crap.

Even the director Josh Frank has thrown in the towel. A tweet he has since deleted basically blames the studio for screwing up what he was trying to do.

Stalgie, I agree, Teller seems like a good actor and good guy. Too bad.

A few too many of these terrible superhero movies and the age of superhero movies might find itself coming to an abrupt end.

Working with the assumption that it IS bad (and the ads I've seen and reviews I've read make it seem horrific), I hope it fails miserably so the studios will learn not to throw any more bullshit our way.

Fanboys will keep reading comics after they've gone to shit, but I don't think the movie-going masses will continue to go to shitty movies.

BTDubbs, I didn't mind the first one, I thought it was alright. Worst scene I remember is Sue taking her clothes off for whatever reason. That was "What happens to toads when they are struck by lightning, the same as everything else" level bad.

This should be the least of the hero movies to screw up. These characters are not that complex but they are identifiable.

They HAD to know they were unnecessarily complicating audience response with the Johnny race change, right? I mean, sites calling people "racist" simply for noticing. That's all distraction. And to have suddenly the most immature of the four played by the minority isn't racist?



Doom did not need a change. He's a mask. And it WAS time to show a Thing-Hulk battle, now that they have Hulk well figured out.

Kids on Thing's arm
Babes on Johnny's arm
Reed and Sue on each other's arm

The audience hooks are blatant. Their complexities always built and contrasted off that public persona.


Superman? Yeah I get why that can be difficult. But FF4? I don't.

Saw the movie today (went to matinee so didn't pay full price.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It was the *yawn* original all over again. You could say that Reed is the cause of all the trouble. So, they aren't being all that heroic.

I will say that pre-accident Victor Von Doom was a hotie.

I've been thinking that the Fantastic Four would have worked better as a period piece in the same vein as the underrated X-Men: First Class.

With NASA pretty much dead right now, space exploration just isn't the cultural zeitgeist it used to be during the 1960's, which is pretty depressing frankly. Entrepreneurship and cultural introspection are the forefront of modern society's interests, which is why Iron Man better fits our modern world. That's why superheroes like the Fantastic Four and X-Men work best as period pieces where they can play off the unique cultural context that birthed them. It's not a surprise that the best X-Men movie was set in the 1960's, where the filmmakers understood how to make Cold War themes of prejudice and scientific paranoia resonate with a modern audience. Though those ideas are centered around those time periods, they are universal concepts that anyone can understand and relate to in any era. You just need the right context to make it work.

Also, they need to do some story other than the origin.

Ugh I'm so tired of the origin movie getting redone with each franchise. F4, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, etc. It seems a bit ridiculous

Very interesting comments on the social context stuff. Methinks you're onto something.

(And I'm also a bit let down by the breakdown of NASA)

I think this is going to be a wait-for-Netflix thing

See... the Fantastic Four origin should take up about the first ten minutes of the movie. There's just not really enough there to make an entire movie out of.

I mean... imagine a Legion movie where they spend the entire film saving R.J. Brande? It's about like that.