Fantastic Four Movie Reviews Out

[Kefkataran]

A bunch of Fantastic Four movie reviews are popping up around the net, and the general consensus? Ehhhh. Ebert (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050707/REVIEWS/507070301) grants the film a paltry one star, saying:

And 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.

Meanwhile, Comic Book Resources gives not one (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=5530), but two (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=5531) more comic-focused reviews. Unfortunately, even the comic fans seem to be agreeing with the movie critics:

"Fantastic Four" manages to capture the feel of the comic books and deliver some fun and entertaining moments. However, as a movie it was not satisfying in the way films like "Spider-Man 2" and "Batman Begins" were.

I'll be going to see the film with friends tomorrow night, but I'm more than a little cautious. At least, judging by Ebert's major problems with the film (it's huge amount of background info/origin without much payoff), there's maybe some hope for a much better second film.

[Deadend]

Damn, I am good!

I managed to predict this movie would be 'meh' just from the trailer. Who needs a review to tell if a movie will be good? Just give me a trailer and I can predict if it will get good reviews or not.

[Orphiuchus]

The second I saw the adds for this I knew it was going to be bad. Not because the adds dedicated to this film looked particularly bad, but because the adds infected every goddamn other product on earth. I'm surprised we didn't get tampon adds starring the invisible woman.

When a movie finds its way into fast food and travel website adds it sucks about 100% of the time. Unless its from pixar.

[Kefkataran]

There's a lot of movies that do big ad campaigns with fast food and I think it's pushing it to say that all of them suck.

[Goronmon]

Damn, I am good!

I managed to predict this movie would be 'meh' just from the trailer. Who needs a review to tell if a movie will be good? Just give me a trailer and I can predict if it will get good reviews or not.
I wouldn't exactly use this movie as an example of your amazing abilities ;)

[ldi222]

Wouldnt it be ironic if the video game happens to be good?

[Kefkataran]

I think the game's already been out a week or two now. Getting average rankings:

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/926907.asp?q=fantastic%20four

[crashedout]

I don't know which trailer had me groaning more, F-4 or Stealth. IT appears that Hollywood's slide will continue unabated.

[A Lusty Alien]

Personally, I've never thought that the Fantastic Four was all that interesting. (The X-Men were pretty dull too, before Wolverine showed up.) Reed Richards was too arrogant, Sue was too submissive, Johnny too predictable (always rushing in and getting into trouble). The only interesting member of the team was Ben Grimm; and because he was the only interesting one, too many story lines involved him.

Let's face it the only Fantastic Four character with any depth to him was Dr. Doom. (And why did they have to bring him up on the ship. Doom was a self-made man, not some freak of a cosmic storm.)

Reading Ebert's review, I get the impression that he's done some serious comic book reading in his day.

[BleedTheFreak]

I don't know which trailer had me groaning more, F-4 or Stealth. IT appears that Hollywood's slide will continue unabated.

I love A Perfect Circle, but honestly when I saw the original F4 ad with "Counting Bodies Like Sheep.." playing, I could only scratch my head. That was the first inclination I had that things were going to go badly. I do think the Human Torch actor will probably be the hightlight of the movie, unless all his best lines were already in the trailers.

[Ernst_Jager]

From what I have read Stealth isn't as bad as you might think. Johnny 5 as a fighter plane in the future sounds good to me. Besides Jessica Biel in a swimsuit would be worth the price of admission alone. Damn good stuff there.

[Abednigo]

Well, I remember the first teaser for the Fellowship of the Ring I saw and I thought, "meh". I was certainly wrong on that one. When I saw the FF trailer I thought it looked entertaining, but didn't think it would come close to Spiderman.

[Savok]

I've never liked the Fantastic Four either. As mentioned above, Ben was the only interesting one and as a result, overmilked. The film looked awful from day one, the fact they screwed with Dr Doom (best thing about F4) made it all the more worse.

[bapenguin]

I can't believe no one has said it....

Blandtastic Four...lol!!!!!11111111 oh yezzz!

[Hellstorm]

Save your money and go see a good movie. It's called Dark Water.

[Wyrm]

And this wasnt so unbelievably obvious...?

"FLAME ON1!!!!"

The comic was bad enough...

[mister_slim]

I'm not a fan of the Fantastic Four, even with Warren Ellis writing them, but seeing the cast pictures made it pretty clear that the movie would be poor.

[Kefkataran]

FF has had some great moments, but I think the couple people who have said that Doom is the most interesting FF character are correct in pointing that out. Doom is definitely my favorite Marvel villain and probably one of the best and most complex characters in the Marvel universe, right up there with Sub-Mariner. It's too bad it sounds like he's been turned pretty boring in the movie. No Latveria? Blegh.

Those saying the comics are bad, I fear you don't know what you're talking about. Of course there have been bad runs on FF, but it all depends on the writer. The original Jack Kirby/Stan Lee stuff? Awesome. Of course it was corny, like all the '60s Marvel stuff was, but it was also great, full of interesting stories and imagination. Plus it had Doom. I mean shit. And I thought Ellis's run on Ultimate was pretty good stuff. The dialogue was perfect.

And to whoever said X-Men was boring before Wolverine, personally, I think Wolverine turned the X-Men boring because suddenly every storyline had to be about some further revelation involving his past. Wolvie fanboys make me even more sad than Batman fanboys.

[chazio]

well i worked on the game, and we were treated to a screening of the movie last night. it's actually not bad. the reviews that are out seem a bit too harsh. sure Thing's suit sucks, but Chiklis is actually really great as the Thing. Johnny Storm/Human Torch is the standout of the film, much like Wolverine was from X-Men. The movie didn't suck. Trust me, after working on the game since last year, I would think I'd be more critical of the movie. We weren't going into the movie thinking it'd be Fantastic, we were surprised when it wasn't really bad at all. it was quite fun and entertaining.

[Wyrm]

See, I'm expecting the guy who plays the human torch to be the reason I fucking HATE this movie.

I'll still go see it. I'll see just about anything once...

Plus, Jessica Alba is UNBELIEVABLY hot.

[Kefkataran]

sure Thing's suit sucks, but Chiklis is actually really great as the Thing. Johnny Storm/Human Torch is the standout of the film,

Everything I've heard (including all three of the reviews I posted) talked about how great the Thing was. Going with the suit, in my opinion (and the opinion of every one else I've heard), was a much better idea than going full CG ala the Hulk. I've also heard lots of positive comments about Torch's performance. It's Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman (as well as Doom) that I've been hearing negative things about.

[chazio]

It's Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman (as well as Doom) that I've been hearing negative things about.

I thought Reed Richards and Sue Storm were just 'ok'. What surprised me the most was Dr. Doom was the worst of them all. I was really thinking Julian McMahon was going to be awesome, but he really, really sucked. That was my biggest disappointment.

[TrackZero]

I just got in the door from seeing this. And this quote did hit it best:

"Fantastic Four" manages to capture the feel of the comic books and deliver some fun and entertaining moments. However, as a movie it was not satisfying in the way films like "Spider-Man 2" and "Batman Begins" were.

It's a movie with some issues, but overall I found it a fun little romp. Definitely not as painful to watch as Daredevil, Electra or the Hulk though. More in line with Punisher.

[TrackZero]

FF has had some great moments, but I think the couple people who have said that Doom is the most interesting FF character are correct in pointing that out. Doom is definitely my favorite Marvel villain and probably one of the best and most complex characters in the Marvel universe, right up there with Sub-Mariner. It's too bad it sounds like he's been turned pretty boring in the movie. No Latveria? Blegh.

Those saying the comics are bad, I fear you don't know what you're talking about. Of course there have been bad runs on FF, but it all depends on the writer. The original Jack Kirby/Stan Lee stuff? Awesome. Of course it was corny, like all the '60s Marvel stuff was, but it was also great, full of interesting stories and imagination. Plus it had Doom. I mean shit. And I thought Ellis's run on Ultimate was pretty good stuff. The dialogue was perfect.

And to whoever said X-Men was boring before Wolverine, personally, I think Wolverine turned the X-Men boring because suddenly every storyline had to be about some further revelation involving his past. Wolvie fanboys make me even more sad than Batman fanboys.

They really start dropping the Latveria stuff throughout the movie, I don't want to ruin anything, but needless to say, if there's a sequel, there'll be some Latveria in it. Ok?

Heh, and I'm surprised by the number of people here dissing the film from what they've seen on the trailers and read. I went into the movie knowing Rotten Tomatoes had it at 12% last night, but you know what? I liked it. So fuck the critics. Maybe you'll like it, maybe you won't.

[CrysDark]

From what I have read Stealth isn't as bad as you might think. Johnny 5 as a fighter plane in the future sounds good to me. Besides Jessica Biel in a swimsuit would be worth the price of admission alone. Damn good stuff there.

LOL, I am not the only one who made the AI struck by lightining connection to Johnny 5. When I saw this trailer I leaned over to my wife and whispered, "Het it's short circuit 3, and Johnny's pissed! Hilarity insued.

:D :D

[RainOfTerror]

My wife and I saw it earlier this week at a SF avant premiere, and I must say, I expected a bad movie, and walked away entertained.

I don't think it's bad at all.

Let it be understood I never read the FF comic books, so maybe I'm not in the know, but it's a movie, it's entertainment, and that we were. The entire movie theatre laughed out loud on 6-7 occasions, so it even has a few chuckle moments, which I didn't expect either.

Ben Grimm was indeed the best character though.

Its not in the same league as Spider-Man, thats for sure, but it's fun, no matter what.

[agentgray]

Plus, Jessica Alba is UNBELIEVABLY hot.
No, she's invisible. Chris Evans is the hot one.

:D

[askheaves]

Phil Villarreal of the Arizona Daily Star:

Most of the characters are bland, but not Johnny. He's extreme. Whenever he comes onscreen, punk music blares, he does a Mountain Dew commercial stunt and starts making out with one or two chicks.

"I've never been good with rules," he says.

That Johnny.

[Royal Fool]

I saw the trailers.

I was so horrified by the cheesy one-liners and awful acting that I decided it was gonna get bad reviews.

And so it did. Go me!

[agentgray]

From IMDB's trivia page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120667/trivia) on the movie:
To keep Chiklis cool in the Thing suit, a rock was removed from his head and cold air was sprayed into the gap between the suit and the actor
That doesn't sound right.

[Kefkataran]

They really start dropping the Latveria stuff throughout the movie, I don't want to ruin anything, but needless to say, if there's a sequel, there'll be some Latveria in it. Ok?

Definitely okay! I had read that in one of the reviews also. The more I hear about this movie, the more I'm thinking that despite how average it might be, it could set up for a great sequel. Of course there have also been murmurings of having the Puppet Master in the sequel, and Alicia playing a bigger part.

[Deadend]

I would now like to see an Ultimates movie please, not Avengers, just give me some Ultimates with a side order of non-shitty acting and a $100 mil budget.

[Kefkataran]

Being as the movies have stuck just slightly more to the Ultimate re-imaginings than the original versions, chances are that if/when they do get around to making an Avengers movie, it'll be more reminiscent of the Ultimates than the original Avengers.

According to that video interview I posted yesterday, they're planning to start connecting the Marvel U in the movies eventually, after some spin-offs of the more popular franchises (X-Men, Spidey).

[Wyrm]

Legion or a Green Lantern movie please.

[BigJonno]

The more I hear about this movie, the more I'm thinking that despite how average it might be, it could set up for a great sequel.

That just makes me think about Spider-Man. I thought that the first one was "meh" and really enjoyed the sequel. It's the curse of superhero movies, they spend so much time getting the origin out of the way that they hardly have any time for real content before the inevitable big showdown at the end. What I find ironic is that Batman Begins is excellent and does it by concentrating almost entirely on the origin.

[kickmybum]

I'll see anything with Jessica Alba in it once. I think I was the only one in the theaters when Honey came out.

[Zanzibar]

Speaking of scary trailers, has anyone seen the trailer for the new Michael Bay movie, The Island? He doesn't even have to explain his plots anymore. The trailer consists of him saying 'I just wanted to make a summer popcorn movie.'

[Kefkataran]

No Green Lantern or Legion announced yet, but a Flash one is coming by the guy who wrote Batman Begins, so that should be great.

[Maskatron]

Speaking of scary trailers, has anyone seen the trailer for the new Michael Bay movie, The Island? He doesn't even have to explain his plots anymore. The trailer consists of him saying 'I just wanted to make a summer popcorn movie.'

It also looks like a rip-off of Logan's Run.

[bryan]

Also, 'The Island'? People running out of ideas for movies names? Being in the tropics it just makes me think of sunny beaches and hot Japanese chicks. (I work in the travel industry)

[51|RandoM]

It also looks like a rip-off of Logan's Run.

It also looks pretty good, although we pretty much already know everything going on from the trailers.

[LilAbner]

Who did not see this coming!?!

[Shodan2020]

I knew it was gonna be a bad movie from the second I saw the first trailer. The Thing looks like a giant orange turd, and they turned Doc Doom into some weird looking freak. F4 could have been a great movie if they'd done more research into the comic books and written some quality scripts, I mean come on, you've got Doc Doom (who they've already fucked up, sadly), Galactus, the Skrulls, the list goes on!

[Kefkataran]

The Thing looks like a giant orange turd

Like in the comics? I'm still praying for redemption by a well-written sequel. Yes, I am naive.

[51|RandoM]

I just got back from the movie, and I have to admit that I liked it. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and you can't either. With that perspective, it was an enjoyable experience.

The Thing looked perfect, as far as I'm concerned.

Umm, err, anyways, flame on?!?! hehehe.

[Kefkataran]

I just saw it. The lowered expectations helped a lot. I didn't expect something on par with Batman Begins, and what I got was actually solid and enjoyable. I noticed that the further the movie got from the group's origins, the more interesting it seemed to get. This confirms what I was thinking from the reviews -- if they do a sequel, I think it has a high chance of being pretty good.