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A Fantastic Four Retrospective
2 months ago
As a kid growing up in the early 90s I was really getting into superhero stuff; collecting some toys, and watching their respective cartoons. And as a kid growing up, my dad had a wall of action figures still in their packaging. Besides toys like Iron Man, which really got me into armored heroes, Fantastic Four was among my dad's collection. It was around those times I starting watching those shows, and really got into them, even when me and my family moved from Glendale to San Jose in 1996. And the more I saw the Fantastic Four in other shows, even the 90s Spider-man cartoon, I just couldn't help but love 'em. 'Course from that, via causality, I learned about Galactus, Blackbolt and the Inhumans, and of course one of my all-time favorite Marvel characters, Silver Surfer! ^^ Hell, he's why silver's one of my favorite colors XD On that note, even though it might be a pipedream given it's now infamous rep, but I wouldn't mind Marvel Studios taking another crack at the Inhumans. There IS potential, it's all about execution.
I admit to not being an avid comic book reader, but from all the cartoons and such I have seen them in, there's was just always something so fascinating to me about 'Marvel's first family'; their style, their teamwork, their adventures.
As we were getting more comic book movies and Fantastic Four was announced, I was hyped believe you and me. And I know somebody's gonna let me know in the comments about the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie from the 90s. I haven't seen the while things, but via reviews on Youtube. Yes, it's campy as all hell, and very low-budget, but I think it's unfair to hold that against the abundance of comic book movies we got today. Sure, we had Superman and Batman movies, but even then some studios scoffed at the idea of superhero movies, never mind and ENTIRE franchise full of these movies. And I gotta say, out of these four Fantastic Four movies, this movie's a pretty dang faithful adaptation to the comic, campiness and all. This movie does have it's own problems, and a couple characters just weren't needed... and a scene that'll probably get the FBI knockin' on your door. Yeah, it was pretty much a right's grab thing that caused the movie to go unreleased. If it wasn't for it's cheap-lookin' quality, it probably woulda been a really good movie back then. Also gotta say, the cast had very great chemistry.
But in preparations for 'Fantastic Four: First Steps', I decided to take a look back at the previous Fantastic Four movies. Unfortunately that involved watching 'Fant4stic' from 2015, for the first time in a decade, and yeah, it still sucks. I mean I did watch it with an open mind, and there WAS some kinda potential with it. But all that is just surface deep, cuz the first red flag was going with a darker tone. Yeah, worked great with 'Man of Steel. The reason why stuff like Daredevil and Moon Knight worked, despite the intention darker tone, didn't wallow in that tone, was still fun, and still functioned as part of the MCU. 'The Crow's' a dark film, but still knew how to have fun. Same with the likes of 'Batman Begins' and 'The Batman.' It just doesn't work for something like the Fantastic Four; something that's suppose to be adventurous, not to be something that was inspired by 'The Fly', body-horror and all. I came across concept art of the Four for this movie, and apparently the body-horror element was gonna be far worse! Oy! Just... oy.
'Fant4stic' should be taught in film school as an example of how studio interference can ruin something. With all the behind-the-scenes tumult that went on with this, yeah, this movie was doomed from the word 'go'. Barely any character development, things just happening for grittiness' sake, and something that resembled Dr. Doom. Oh, excuse me, I meant 'Crash-test Doomy'. And how the hell did Dr. Doom get his cloak in this? And of course, the controversy with race-swapping Human-Torch. Yet oddly enough, he was the only character I liked and thought was interesting. I'm glad Michael B. Jordan bounced back with 'Creed' later that year ^^ Though when it comes to watching either this and 'BvS', guess which one I'll watch over the other. I'll give ya a hint, one of 'em doesn't have 'Martha'. Yeah, oddly enough 'Fant4stic' doesn't anger me like 'BvS' does. And yeah, cuz of this movie, Disney bought out Fox, and it was for the best, cuz Fox proved they really didn't care about the source material nor storytelling with that material they had. Oh, and least I forget the meme that's gone on in Youtube's comment section since the first 'First Steps' trailer dropped. Y'all should know what I'm talkin' about.
But cuz of this movie, Fox's 'Fantastic Four Duology' was reevaluated in a more positive light. And I'd be remised if I didn't give a shout out to Julian McMahon who played Dr. Doom in the movies: he passed away early July. RIP, man. Yeah, Julian definitely had the look as Victor Von Doom, pretty intimidating. Ugh, I know the nerds always love to point out Marvel's 'villain problem,' but long as they're intimidating or just fun, I really don't need too much depth. But since 2005, I learned a bit more about Doc Doom, aaaaaannnnnnd.... yeah the Fox movies didn't do him justice at all. Regardless, I do have a small soft spot for this Doom, not because of Julian's death (I mean I literally learned about last week at the time of this journal's post, a week before I started writing this XD) If they tweaked him just a little bit more, particularly giving him a bit of an accent, then I really wouldn't have minded not giving him his mysticism/science origin. Yeah, looking back at the 2005 movie, Doom's deal is VERY similar to Norman Osborne in the first Spider-Man movie. I really liked the cast for these movies, they really worked well and had chemistry. For the longest time I thought Jessica Alba was a miscast for Sue Storm in these movies. But seeing these movies again recently, that opinion on that's changed. I'm happy Chris Evans got to reprise his role as Human Torch in 'Deadpool and Wolverine'; I totally didn't see that coming. Michael Chiklis WAS Ben Grimm/The Thing for me back then, but I'm really liking Ebon Moss-Bachrach's take on it. Ioan Gruffudd played a pretty damn good Reed Richards. When 'First Steps was announced, I thought John Krasinski was gonna reprise his role, even direct the movie. When 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' came out, I was fully on board (pun intended XD). Doug Jones as the body and Laurence Fishburne as the voice? Instant win. This Silver Surfer is my personal favorite live-action Silver Surfer till we see Norrin Radd in the MCU. While I'm glad we're getting Galactus for the new movie, I can't harp on what we saw in 'Rise of the Silver Surfer' as a cloud; CGI limitations back then and all. We did see his silhouette and all. These movies did pull stuff from the 'Ultimates' comics...which really ain't that good a template to a lot of the times. Least these movies didn't feature cannibalism. Yeah, the duology still ain't perfect even after seeing them again years later. There's some stuff I would've done differently, scenes to be cut out, not feel so bogged down to just the Baxter building, and yeah, the CGI is definitely rough, especially for Reed's stretchy scenes. But after seeing them again this time around, I gotta say they're my favorite pre-MCU movies, and I'll watch them again. Call it my guilty pleasure, sue me. Like the '94 movie, the characters and their chemistry is what makes the duology worth it to me.
Far as cartoons go, if you have Disney+ go check out the '94 Fantastic Four cartoon. And definitely recommend checking out 'Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes'. Got one of my favorite versions of Doc Doom and the Fantasticar in there ^^ Not to mention one of my favorite versions of the suits. Y'all know I love me some blue, white and orange mix ^^
I'm excited for 'First Steps', even though I can already smell the incel grifters on Youtube already calling it a 'disaster', like they haven't labelled everything else a disaster already. Been hating on this for the most bizarre and stupidest reasons and keep making mountains out of molehills for; thinking Sue Storm will bully Reed, the men of the movie will get less spotlight, Johnny not being a womanizer. Womanizer means you sleep around with women and treat them like shit, ya dumbasses! I should make a list of things these clowns don't seem to know. We all know 'woke' is at the top of that list. Shala-Bal/Silver Surfer's speech in some TV spots... whew. Herbie is cute as hell! Galactus... damn! I really dig the retro-future 60s aesthetic. Man, Jack Kirby would be proud. And that awesome Fantasticar! If there's a Lego set of that, I will buy it no questions asked. But overall, I just wanna have a great time with this movie like I do anything MCU-related. ^^
The only thing bumming me out is that my dad, who wanted to see a good Fantastic Four movie in the last 20 years, isn't around to see it. Well, I gotta enjoy it for both of us then.
So that's my two cents on this here matter.
Also, show of hands. Anyone else thought his name was 'Galacticus' not 'Galactus'? No? Just me? Ah well.
Thanks for your time ^^
I admit to not being an avid comic book reader, but from all the cartoons and such I have seen them in, there's was just always something so fascinating to me about 'Marvel's first family'; their style, their teamwork, their adventures.
As we were getting more comic book movies and Fantastic Four was announced, I was hyped believe you and me. And I know somebody's gonna let me know in the comments about the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie from the 90s. I haven't seen the while things, but via reviews on Youtube. Yes, it's campy as all hell, and very low-budget, but I think it's unfair to hold that against the abundance of comic book movies we got today. Sure, we had Superman and Batman movies, but even then some studios scoffed at the idea of superhero movies, never mind and ENTIRE franchise full of these movies. And I gotta say, out of these four Fantastic Four movies, this movie's a pretty dang faithful adaptation to the comic, campiness and all. This movie does have it's own problems, and a couple characters just weren't needed... and a scene that'll probably get the FBI knockin' on your door. Yeah, it was pretty much a right's grab thing that caused the movie to go unreleased. If it wasn't for it's cheap-lookin' quality, it probably woulda been a really good movie back then. Also gotta say, the cast had very great chemistry.
But in preparations for 'Fantastic Four: First Steps', I decided to take a look back at the previous Fantastic Four movies. Unfortunately that involved watching 'Fant4stic' from 2015, for the first time in a decade, and yeah, it still sucks. I mean I did watch it with an open mind, and there WAS some kinda potential with it. But all that is just surface deep, cuz the first red flag was going with a darker tone. Yeah, worked great with 'Man of Steel. The reason why stuff like Daredevil and Moon Knight worked, despite the intention darker tone, didn't wallow in that tone, was still fun, and still functioned as part of the MCU. 'The Crow's' a dark film, but still knew how to have fun. Same with the likes of 'Batman Begins' and 'The Batman.' It just doesn't work for something like the Fantastic Four; something that's suppose to be adventurous, not to be something that was inspired by 'The Fly', body-horror and all. I came across concept art of the Four for this movie, and apparently the body-horror element was gonna be far worse! Oy! Just... oy.
'Fant4stic' should be taught in film school as an example of how studio interference can ruin something. With all the behind-the-scenes tumult that went on with this, yeah, this movie was doomed from the word 'go'. Barely any character development, things just happening for grittiness' sake, and something that resembled Dr. Doom. Oh, excuse me, I meant 'Crash-test Doomy'. And how the hell did Dr. Doom get his cloak in this? And of course, the controversy with race-swapping Human-Torch. Yet oddly enough, he was the only character I liked and thought was interesting. I'm glad Michael B. Jordan bounced back with 'Creed' later that year ^^ Though when it comes to watching either this and 'BvS', guess which one I'll watch over the other. I'll give ya a hint, one of 'em doesn't have 'Martha'. Yeah, oddly enough 'Fant4stic' doesn't anger me like 'BvS' does. And yeah, cuz of this movie, Disney bought out Fox, and it was for the best, cuz Fox proved they really didn't care about the source material nor storytelling with that material they had. Oh, and least I forget the meme that's gone on in Youtube's comment section since the first 'First Steps' trailer dropped. Y'all should know what I'm talkin' about.
But cuz of this movie, Fox's 'Fantastic Four Duology' was reevaluated in a more positive light. And I'd be remised if I didn't give a shout out to Julian McMahon who played Dr. Doom in the movies: he passed away early July. RIP, man. Yeah, Julian definitely had the look as Victor Von Doom, pretty intimidating. Ugh, I know the nerds always love to point out Marvel's 'villain problem,' but long as they're intimidating or just fun, I really don't need too much depth. But since 2005, I learned a bit more about Doc Doom, aaaaaannnnnnd.... yeah the Fox movies didn't do him justice at all. Regardless, I do have a small soft spot for this Doom, not because of Julian's death (I mean I literally learned about last week at the time of this journal's post, a week before I started writing this XD) If they tweaked him just a little bit more, particularly giving him a bit of an accent, then I really wouldn't have minded not giving him his mysticism/science origin. Yeah, looking back at the 2005 movie, Doom's deal is VERY similar to Norman Osborne in the first Spider-Man movie. I really liked the cast for these movies, they really worked well and had chemistry. For the longest time I thought Jessica Alba was a miscast for Sue Storm in these movies. But seeing these movies again recently, that opinion on that's changed. I'm happy Chris Evans got to reprise his role as Human Torch in 'Deadpool and Wolverine'; I totally didn't see that coming. Michael Chiklis WAS Ben Grimm/The Thing for me back then, but I'm really liking Ebon Moss-Bachrach's take on it. Ioan Gruffudd played a pretty damn good Reed Richards. When 'First Steps was announced, I thought John Krasinski was gonna reprise his role, even direct the movie. When 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' came out, I was fully on board (pun intended XD). Doug Jones as the body and Laurence Fishburne as the voice? Instant win. This Silver Surfer is my personal favorite live-action Silver Surfer till we see Norrin Radd in the MCU. While I'm glad we're getting Galactus for the new movie, I can't harp on what we saw in 'Rise of the Silver Surfer' as a cloud; CGI limitations back then and all. We did see his silhouette and all. These movies did pull stuff from the 'Ultimates' comics...which really ain't that good a template to a lot of the times. Least these movies didn't feature cannibalism. Yeah, the duology still ain't perfect even after seeing them again years later. There's some stuff I would've done differently, scenes to be cut out, not feel so bogged down to just the Baxter building, and yeah, the CGI is definitely rough, especially for Reed's stretchy scenes. But after seeing them again this time around, I gotta say they're my favorite pre-MCU movies, and I'll watch them again. Call it my guilty pleasure, sue me. Like the '94 movie, the characters and their chemistry is what makes the duology worth it to me.
Far as cartoons go, if you have Disney+ go check out the '94 Fantastic Four cartoon. And definitely recommend checking out 'Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes'. Got one of my favorite versions of Doc Doom and the Fantasticar in there ^^ Not to mention one of my favorite versions of the suits. Y'all know I love me some blue, white and orange mix ^^
I'm excited for 'First Steps', even though I can already smell the incel grifters on Youtube already calling it a 'disaster', like they haven't labelled everything else a disaster already. Been hating on this for the most bizarre and stupidest reasons and keep making mountains out of molehills for; thinking Sue Storm will bully Reed, the men of the movie will get less spotlight, Johnny not being a womanizer. Womanizer means you sleep around with women and treat them like shit, ya dumbasses! I should make a list of things these clowns don't seem to know. We all know 'woke' is at the top of that list. Shala-Bal/Silver Surfer's speech in some TV spots... whew. Herbie is cute as hell! Galactus... damn! I really dig the retro-future 60s aesthetic. Man, Jack Kirby would be proud. And that awesome Fantasticar! If there's a Lego set of that, I will buy it no questions asked. But overall, I just wanna have a great time with this movie like I do anything MCU-related. ^^
The only thing bumming me out is that my dad, who wanted to see a good Fantastic Four movie in the last 20 years, isn't around to see it. Well, I gotta enjoy it for both of us then.
So that's my two cents on this here matter.
Also, show of hands. Anyone else thought his name was 'Galacticus' not 'Galactus'? No? Just me? Ah well.
Thanks for your time ^^
