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Fantastic Four movie

 
 
 
Underseer

Underseer

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How much involvement does Marvel have in this version?

There are few reviews up yet, and that worries me. Sounds like it's going to be another dud.
 
Originally didn't have much hope for it. A number of changes from the original story, like making it a trip to another dimension (negative zone?) that gives them their power, making Doom some kind of hacker?? :thumbsdwn: From the clips it started looking like it might at least be a good action flick.
 
Marvel had zero involvement in this adaptation. Co-writer Simon Kinberg, who wrote a few of the X-Men movies has stated that this movie is sort of a celebration of the comics, and draws inspiration from them. In other words, if you couldn't tell by the previews, it is going to be utter crap that bears little resemblance to the comics. Think Ang Lee's Hulk, and you will probably be in the right ballpark.
 
Wasn't this whole thing just to get the FF and the Avengers on screen together at some future point without Chris Evans having to sneak off and change costumes every other scene?
 
Underseer said:
How much involvement does Marvel have in this version?
Click to expand...
zero.
much like the last 2 spider-man movies, this basically exists for the sole reason that if FOX doesn't make an FF movie every couple of years, they lose the exclusive rights to the franchise, which is why it looks so god damn stupid... they're just slapping something together quickly in order to get a film out.

James Brown said:
Wasn't this whole thing just to get the FF and the Avengers on screen together at some future point without Chris Evans having to sneak off and change costumes every other scene?
Click to expand...
no - that was never the plan, and never could be, and never would be.

i don't quite get why people have such troubles following this because it's very simple - and james brown this isn't a rip against you at all, this just happens to be something that has bugging me lately:
Marvel Comics is the publisher that makes the comics.
in the late 90s and early 2000s Marvel Comics sold the rights to make movies with their characters off to several movie studios - notably, FOX bought the rights to FF, x-men, and daredevil while sony bought the rights to spider-man.
while Marvel Comics had always had a film and TV division (Marvel Entertainment) they didn't really do much of anything until about 2007 when they made Iron Man, which was released in 2008.
all the movies in the "MCU" are made by a production company that is part of the Marvel Comics corporation.
all other movies made using characters from Marvel comics are made by whatever studio bought the rights to those characters and Marvel the company has no input on them whatsoever.
 
prideandfall said:
zero.
much like the last 2 spider-man movies, this basically exists for the sole reason that if FOX doesn't make an FF movie every couple of years, they lose the exclusive rights to the franchise, which is why it looks so god damn stupid... they're just slapping something together quickly in order to get a film out.

James Brown said:
Wasn't this whole thing just to get the FF and the Avengers on screen together at some future point without Chris Evans having to sneak off and change costumes every other scene?
Click to expand...
no - that was never the plan, and never could be, and never would be.

i don't quite get why people have such troubles following this because it's very simple - and james brown this isn't a rip against you at all, this just happens to be something that has bugging me lately:
Marvel Comics is the publisher that makes the comics.
in the late 90s and early 2000s Marvel Comics sold the rights to make movies with their characters off to several movie studios - notably, FOX bought the rights to FF, x-men, and daredevil while sony bought the rights to spider-man.
while Marvel Comics had always had a film and TV division (Marvel Entertainment) they didn't really do much of anything until about 2007 when they made Iron Man, which was released in 2008.
all the movies in the "MCU" are made by a production company that is part of the Marvel Comics corporation.
all other movies made using characters from Marvel comics are made by whatever studio bought the rights to those characters and Marvel the company has no input on them whatsoever.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, thanks. I knew about Sony's perennial release of a lousy Spider-Man movie to keep the rights, but didn't know Fox was in the same boat with the FF and X-Men.

So why hasn't there been Daredevil movie every five years? And why have the X-Men movies been decent but FF not so much?
 
James Brown said:
So why hasn't there been Daredevil movie every five years?
Click to expand...
because FOX decided that the franchise wasn't worth the investment, so let the rights revert back to Marvel - this is why Marvel studios were able to partner with netflix to make the Daredevil series this year.

And why have the X-Men movies been decent but FF not so much?
Click to expand...
it's basically a corporate-think scenario, and it hinges on a pretty simple fact: studio executives have absolutely no idea what constitutes a good movie.
bryan singer did a great job with x-men and x2, and despite x3 and x-men origins being absolutely laughably fucking awful, the two prequel films have also been popular and well liked.
so, the x-men movies are both lucrative and seen as a good film series, but that's largely a total stroke of luck that bryan singer managed to make them good movies.

the two previous FF movies did decent business but were pretty trashed critically, so you can see by the trailers for the new FF that FOX went "oh wait, shit, this gritty thing is all the rage right now, and since our x-men movies are a bit more lightly toned, we have to make a depressing and emo superhero movie... what have we got on hand? fantastic four? great, belt me out a script by next month and making it mopey" and thus, you have the new FF movie.
 
prideandfall said:
because FOX decided that the franchise wasn't worth the investment, so let the rights revert back to Marvel - this is why Marvel studios were able to partner with netflix to make the Daredevil series this year.
Click to expand...

Cool. By all accounts the show was far better than the movie. I enjoyed the show, but I never saw the movie precisely because it was so panned.

Thanks for the helpful explanations, prideandfall.
 
James Brown said:
prideandfall said:
because FOX decided that the franchise wasn't worth the investment, so let the rights revert back to Marvel - this is why Marvel studios were able to partner with netflix to make the Daredevil series this year.
Click to expand...

Cool. By all accounts the show was far better than the movie. I enjoyed the show, but I never saw the movie precisely because it was so panned.

Thanks for the helpful explanations, prideandfall.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Letting the rights revert to Marvel turned out to be very good for the fans.
 
The movie probably sucks, given the delay in the reviews, however I want to comment on the change in Reed Richards' power:

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/How-Fantastic-Four-Reboot-Change-Mr-Fantastic-Powers-71094.html

In this movie, instead of stretching his body, he is able to manipulate space curvature, but only for his body, thus producing a similar effect to what we see in the comic books. I actually like this reinterpretation of his powers, because it means Reed has to use his intellect to make his powers work. Relatively few Marvel characters understand space-time well enough to properly utilize a power like that.
 
Underseer said:
The movie probably sucks, given the delay in the reviews, however I want to comment on the change in Reed Richards' power:

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/How-Fantastic-Four-Reboot-Change-Mr-Fantastic-Powers-71094.html

In this movie, instead of stretching his body, he is able to manipulate space curvature, but only for his body, thus producing a similar effect to what we see in the comic books. I actually like this reinterpretation of his powers, because it means Reed has to use his intellect to make his powers work. Relatively few Marvel characters understand space-time well enough to properly utilize a power like that.
Click to expand...

I don't have a problem with a change like this, either. If the only changes they made were similar in scope, I would be fine with the movie. Truthfully, I wouldn't even have a problem with their powers coming from a trip to an alternate dimension. It's just that the tone of the movie taken together with everything they have changed totally turns me off to it. It just doesn't seem like the Fantastic 4 to me, and I think I will be looking back fondly on the other two movies (which were not good) after I finally see this turd on the movie channels.
 
The problem is with producers and writers who pick up a comic book story, then read it like any other script and point out things that don't make sense. For fantastic four, the origin story was four friends who snuck out to space and got hit by "cosmic rays" that gave them highly illogical powers, because it was written in the sixties during the space race and the kids reading it wouldn't wonder why cosmis rays didn't just give them cancer instead. Doom's origin story of a gypsy in an obscure eastern european country is likewise a bit outdated. So, that in mind, the changes in the script do make sense... it's more plausible to have them go to negative zone or wherever instead of just space that's almost mundane now. And it makes more sense to have Doom be a hacker or something than some slavic dictator. Kinda.

But the problem is that then the story becomes unrecognizable, and fans will fucking hate it, and if fans hate it they are not going to hype it to their friends or in social media, so nobody else is going to watch it either. This isbasically why Ang Lee's Hulk was such a flop... I think that as a movie it's not so bad, but it just rubs the fans the wrong way because it drew so much attention to the changes, instead of familiarity.

What Fox should have done is to skip the origin story altogether and just start with the Fantastic Four already established within the world and doing fantastic stuff. Just like the Incredible Hulk or Ant-Man.
 
Jayjay said:
The problem is with producers and writers who pick up a comic book story, then read it like any other script and point out things that don't make sense. For fantastic four, the origin story was four friends who snuck out to space and got hit by "cosmic rays" that gave them highly illogical powers, because it was written in the sixties during the space race and the kids reading it wouldn't wonder why cosmis rays didn't just give them cancer instead. Doom's origin story of a gypsy in an obscure eastern european country is likewise a bit outdated. So, that in mind, the changes in the script do make sense... it's more plausible to have them go to negative zone or wherever instead of just space that's almost mundane now. And it makes more sense to have Doom be a hacker or something than some slavic dictator. Kinda.

But the problem is that then the story becomes unrecognizable, and fans will fucking hate it, and if fans hate it they are not going to hype it to their friends or in social media, so nobody else is going to watch it either. This isbasically why Ang Lee's Hulk was such a flop... I think that as a movie it's not so bad, but it just rubs the fans the wrong way because it drew so much attention to the changes, instead of familiarity.

What Fox should have done is to skip the origin story altogether and just start with the Fantastic Four already established within the world and doing fantastic stuff. Just like the Incredible Hulk or Ant-Man.
Click to expand...

If there is one thing they should preserve from the comics, it's this:

  • It's more about exploration than punching bad guys. Honestly, sometimes the book feels more like a Star Trek adventure than a comic book. To my knowledge, none of the movies thus far have given us any sense of that.
  • They are the first flawed heroes in the Marvel universe. They are effectively a dysfunctional family that bickers constantly.

The movies seem to get the latter to varying degrees, but screw up the former.

One thing about the trailers that got me excited is the interdimensional travel thing. It is my hope that this movie does the exploration/adventure thing. Even if they screw everything else up in the movie, if they get that right, I can hold back my vomit long enough to watch.
 
Jayjay said:
What Fox should have done is to skip the origin story altogether and just start with the Fantastic Four already established within the world and doing fantastic stuff. Just like the Incredible Hulk or Ant-Man.
Click to expand...

Or they could develop *new* stories.
 
marc said:
Originally didn't have much hope for it. A number of changes from the original story, like making it a trip to another dimension (negative zone?) that gives them their power, making Doom some kind of hacker?? :thumbsdwn: From the clips it started looking like it might at least be a good action flick.
Click to expand...

I'm reading the same thing. Instead of the family dynamics that the FF was ALWAYS about, this apparently is about a group of 20 somethings who get hit with special powers and their angst about it. Doom is also a 20 something blogger.

I'm not feeling these changes. :thumbsdwn:
 
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