

Fantastic Four was...

Discussion in 'Off-topic Zone' started by DallasEast, Jul 9, 2005.

  1. DallasEast

    DallasEast Cowboys 24/7/365 Zone Supporter

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    ...borderline lame. I was highly disappointed. It departed from the book's true storyline too much:

    • There was zero need to group Victor von Doom at the moment they were granted their powers.
    • The movie invested very little background into the fierce rivalry which existed between the world's most brilliant men, Victor and Reed Richards. This ignored plotline undercuts the book's original, central theme to threads.
    • Reed Richards is highly intelligent, but is sometimes shown as being inept. Ioan Gruffudd's portrayal was almost as bland as Eric Bana's Bruce Banner in Hulk a few years ago. His only saving grace were the few computer special effects for his character.
    • They morphed Susan Storm's character into that of a fairly renowned scientist. Then, throughout the movie, she isn't allowed to display her intelligence. Stupid. They did promote Jessica Alba's eye candy appeal as much as possible, but that backfired by having her go 'accidentially' invisible too often.
    • The Ben Grimm character was all over the place. Literally. One scene has Michael Chiklis' character in a mountain range. One or two scenes later, which was in one, maybe two days movie time, he is shown sitting on the Brooklyn Bridge, but very few people noticed him between those two scenes. However, Chiklis' performance was the second best behind...
    • ...Chris Evans' Human Torch. Either he's a comics fan or did his research very well. His character was 100% on the nose. From Johnny Storm's wild, flamboyant nature to his childish pestering of Ben, he made the price of admission tolerable.
    • Julian McMahon acting as Doom was weak. He, and 20th Century Fox, dropped the ball. Badly. His character was the native of a fictional European nation called Latveria (sp?). Very, VERY few times in the movie throughout the movie, McMahon didn't even attempt to give Doom an accent! Amazing. Doom is one of the classic villians in comics, period. Instead, the director tried to copy the Willem Dafoe/Norman Osborn American industrialist story arc from Spider-Man for McMahon's Doom in this film. It failed.

    The intensity of the fight scenes looked as if they were dictated by the movie's production budget--not equal to that of one of comicsdom "World's Greatest Fighting Teams".

    When one of the highlight's in the movie is spotting Stan Lee, who makes an appearance in all his characters' movie adaptations, it's struggling, imo. This may be the weakest Marvel-to-film effort thus far and could potentially grade lower than Hulk. That's sad. For twenty years, the FF was the headliner for Marvel Comics, until the X-books gained worldwide success. To see this title brought to the screen in this fashion is almost enough to make a grown man cry.

    As far as comics adaptation, 2005 is the year of Batman Begins. A masterpiece which ranks just behind both Spider-Man films at number three all-time, imo. If there is an FF sequel, FOX would do well in allowing Christopher Nolan to direct it.

    I'll give FF barely :star: :star: out of :star: :star: :star: :star:
  2. diehard2294

    diehard2294 America's Team

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    that being said,I bet it was still good to see J.Alba ;) :)
  3. adbutcher

    adbutcher K9NME

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    Great review. I guess I will put this on my "wait for it to hit dvd list". Thanks for taking one for the team.
  4. Qwickdraw

    Qwickdraw Benched

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    No one even needs to make these movie results threads anymore.
    They (movies) all suck. Really. I haven't seen a decent movie in ages. And after what they did to Star Wars, I gave up.
    Hollywood has gone to complete garbage and I refuse to pay 20$ a person to go witness their crap anymore.
  5. AmarilloCowboyFan

    AmarilloCowboyFan Active Member

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    The Lord of the Rings was the last really good movie I have seen.

    But I will still go to the movies and even if the movie isn't great, I'll usually still enjoy it. I'm just a movie fan. I even like bad movies.
  6. Yeagermeister

    Yeagermeister Active Member

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    Amen!!!! She :yourock:
  7. jksmith269

    jksmith269 Proud Navy Veteran 1990-1995

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    Passion of the Christ was a very Good movie. SW3RotS was a very good movie.
  8. Crown Royal

    Crown Royal Insulin Beware

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    I agree with you.

    As for comic movies - I thought that Daredevil was worse than Hulk. If FF is anything like DD - I'll lose it.
  9. Yeagermeister

    Yeagermeister Active Member

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    At least DD had Jennifer Garner in a tight leather outfit :D
  10. junk

    junk I've got moxie

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    Cinderella Man was good.

    Where do you pay $20 to see a movie? Hit the matinees. Maybe they are more expensive in your part of the country, but I rarely pay more than $5. Don't buy popcorn or soda either.

    I agree on movies though. Its like people are scared to be original anymore.
  11. blindzebra

    blindzebra Well-Known Member

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    The minute you cast a really hot woman to play an invisible super hero, you know you are in trouble.

    Batman Begins is terrific, Cinderalla Man was very good, there are always good movies out there but so many are made for the teenage market.

    Clues it will stink:

    Cost over 100 mil to make, 25 mil on big star, 75 mil on special effects, 0 on script.

    It's a comedy or horror movie and it's rated PG-13.

    Action figures hit the stores and there are fast food tie ins months before it hits the theater.

    It gets mentioned on Ebert and Roeper by them saying, "There was not a screening for media."

    Teenagers really want to see it.
  12. Yeagermeister

    Yeagermeister Active Member

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    The marketing is really getting crazy. When you grab a bag of Doritos and get greeted by a picture of Yoda it's gone too far.
  13. GTaylor

    GTaylor Gif Dude

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    Oh thats a kiss of death, but War of the Worlds did something unique - they barred print media from screenings, and the result was what they wanted...an early 100% favorable rating on rottentomatoes.com

    If it's a sci-fi or comic book movie, best to check with the geeks - they were green with anger at Hulk screenings, laughed at Catwoman and were trashing FF just last December on trailers alone.

    BTW - So far the buzz is very, very good on King Kong. That's my pick for a huge hit...
  14. DallasEast

    DallasEast Cowboys 24/7/365 Zone Supporter

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    I mostly agree. Until about 12-13 years ago, I was a huge comics collector, so I'm well-versed in the origins and storylines behind these books (I try to keep current by buying a few titles every now and then).

    The central anger towards Hulk was directed at Ang Lee's usage of an computer animated character versus a live actor/computer animated character combo, imo. Don't get me wrong. The movie's plot was fractured. That, along with Eric Bana's sleepwalking through the picture, made it an average film.

    But, I believe that many moviegoers thought Lee would have a Lou Ferrigno (sp?) type actor as the Hulk. For me, as a comics fan, I disagreed. Lee's use of the computer animated character was sound. What the Hulk did in the movie was exactly what he has always done in the books. The character is almost a force of nature itself. The television series, which I tolerated more because I had always liked Bill Bixby than anything else, was a total farce and a 'Fugitive' lowbrow remake.

    I refused to watch Catwoman on the big screen. Instead, I waited for it to come out on DVD. After I rented and watched it, I asked for the video store manager for a refund. She refused. That made me feel even worse.

    On the sci-fi front, King Kong is giving me some good vibes from the trailers I've seen. And it doesn't hurt to have Peter Jackson directing it too.
  15. AmarilloCowboyFan

    AmarilloCowboyFan Active Member

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    I can't wait to see Kong. The trailer looks incredible.
  16. Kangaroo

    Kangaroo Active Member

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    That is sad Ioan Gruffudd is a very good actor hate to see his talent wasted. If you have watched the hartio Hornblower series on A&E Ioan does a masterful job.

    How much is on the cast for the movie or is it the screen writers and director that once again destory a good story.

    I am going to watch the movie tonight anyways. Even though I liked the X-Men movies parts of it still grate me. Example they have iceman as a young boy yet he was one of the orginal five x-men. The five orginal where Beast; Iceman;Cyclops;Angel and Jean Grey
  17. Yeagermeister

    Yeagermeister Active Member

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    And a 6'2 Wolverine....in the comics he's only 5'2 or 5'3
  18. DallasEast

    DallasEast Cowboys 24/7/365 Zone Supporter

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    I agree, but I won't stop there. There are other points to the X movies worth mentioning...

    1. Sabertooth and Wolverine weren't vicious enough.
    2. Pyro was American, but should have been a grown man from Austrialia or New Zealand if memory serves.
    3. Storm should have had an African accent.
    4. Colossus should have been Russian.
    5. Rogue should have been a Southerner (deep south, actually).
    6. Mystique's makeup was overly done. She has blue skin, but no scales.
    7. Magneto should have a Austrian/Polish accent.
    8. A major character, Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), was practically ignored.
    9. Nightcrawler didn't need angelic symbols to justify his mutant diversity.

    Still, the films were great in other areas. The Professor Xavier, Toad, Magneto, Cyclops, Deathstrike and Mystique characters' powers were presented in the movies very well, imo. The mansion, Cerebro, X-Jet, etc. were well done. Singer got the romantic triangle between Cyclops, Wolverine and Jean pretty well established. Wolverine's mysterious past was addressed well in X2.

    I could go on and on, but overall they were good movie adaptations. The best comics-to-film effort done thus far has been the first Spider-Man film, imo. It's the standard for all others to aspire for. Of the two major comics, Marvel has the clear advantage over DC in the quality of movie versions. But if Batman Begins is any indication, DC has finally 'gotten it' and is on its way to reclaiming the throne.
  19. Qwickdraw

    Qwickdraw Benched

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    X-MEN was surprisingly good. But Wolverine was not such a "softy" in the comic books. Matter a fact, he had a BAD temper. But other than that, I thought they did a fine job.

    The villians were gay in Spiderman 1 and 2. Especially 1.

    And don't get me started on Spawn, The L.O.T.R. and Star Wars.
  20. Crown Royal

    Crown Royal Insulin Beware

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    It was an adaptation. Some things must be changed into adaptations, because not everything translates the same from page to film.

    For example, I am pretty thrilled that the costumes weren't gold and Marvel blue....

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