The Not So Fantastic Four (Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four, 2016)

You may think that there have been three Fantastic Four films. There were the two Tim Story film with Jessica Alba and Chris Evans…and the 2015 film with Miles Teller and Kate Mara. But there are tales of a first film, never seen by the world. Spoke in hushed tones. Okay, not really. There actually was a first movie made back in 1994. It was completed and even had release material. Outside of bootleg copies, the film has never seen the light of day.

The short version is that in the early 90’s, Marvel Comics was in real dire straights (they went into bankruptcy)…this resulted in them selling the film rights to multiple characters, such as Captain America, the Punisher and the Fantastic Four. The producer with the option for the Fantastic Four shopped the option around, finalizing a deal with the king of low budget film Roger Corman. The catch? Unknown to the cast and crew, This producer simply wanted to keep the rights. He had no plan to release the film.

But there is more to the story, and really? It is quite interesting. Doomed! The Untold Tale of Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four delves deeply into the story, giving the viewer insight into exactly how it all played out. With a cast of actors that were at least semi-recognizable at the time (and many who are still working today) such as Jay Underwood and Alex Hyde-White.

What stands out is that the director, cast and crew were dedicated to making a good movie…though one hindered by a tiny budget. The effects were limited and the story was not very strong…they never did ADR to make Joseph Culp’s Doctor Doom understandable. They hired a guy who claimed he was an effects supervisor on Independence Day…and they discovered…he was not.

The people behind the film were passionate, and it become clear that even Corman thought the film was going to be released. He was creating posters, button and trailers (I have a poster in storage somewhere, as well as a couple of the buttons). The people involved clearly wanted (and still want) the film to be seen. And there is a lot of hurt feelings involved, including some understandable bitterness towards Marvel Icon Stan Lee.

The film is a fascinating exploration of the passion that can go into film-making and when those hopes and big dreams get dashed. Even if you do not care about the Fantastic Four, this tale is epic and engaging. It is an effective documentary that can give you insight into the more heartbreaking side of film-making.

June 13, 2017 0

The Four (Fantastic Four, 2005)

Oh…the controversy. The first Fantastic Four film was coming up after the successes of X2 and Spider-Man. The time seemed ripe to bring forth Marvel’s first family. This is not the first attempt. Roger Corman made an absolutely terrible film simply to retain the film rights in the early 90’s. The film was available on the convention circuit, but was never officially released.

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Fantastic Four ushered in the age of Marvel comics. Spider-Man and the X-Men may have gotten to the big screen first, but the First Family? Well…they were…uh…first. Lee and Kirby produced 102 issues of grand cosmic adventures.

The 2000’s seemed like an ideal time to adapt the film, because effects allowed the possibility of the characters not looking quite so ridiculous. And both X2 and Spider-Man 2 had proven what you could do with a comic book movie.

Marvel hired Tim Story, who at that time had Barbershop and Taxi as the big films under his belt. Writers Mark Frost and Michael France had long histories (Frost wrote for Twin Peaks and a lot of television since then, while France contributed to several Marvel films). The announcement of Story was surprising, as this was a big event movie. But one of the reasons Marvel brought him on board was to have the focus be on the family dynamic of the Fantastic Four. This is important, because it is that family dynamic that makes the Fantastic Four work. They are not simply four team members. They are a family unit and operate as such.

The first big controversy was the announcement of Jessica Alba. Specifically, former Fantastic Four writer/artist John Byrne declared Hispanic women who dye their hair blonde look like prostitutes. He’s all class.

The film begins with Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffud) and Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) making a pitch to Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), Science Based Industrialist. He has the money, while Reed is on hard times. Agreeing to do a test involving a cosmic cloud that will pass by Earth, the crew-comprised of Reed, Ben, Victor, Sue Storm (Alba) and hot Hamish Linklatershot pilot (and Sue’s Brother) Johnny Storm (Chris Evans).

Due to a miscalculation, the storm hits earlier than expected. When the crew comes to on back on earth, they find themselves quarantined in a very fancy mountaintop chalet. They start to notice changes. Sue starts to fade, Reed can stretch like rubber, Johnny can generate fire and Ben? He gains weight. Well, that and turns into an orange rock monster.

In a moment of desperation, Ben unintentionally causes an accident, and then goes about trying to save people. The other three jump in and help. After successfully averting a fatal disaster, they find themselves to be celebrities. Reed discovers that their space suits now work in conjunction with their powers. Reed begins a search to cure the four. However, Johnny is enjoying his powers. While showing off, he gives them all code names-The Invisible Girl (to which Sue bristles), Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch and the Thing.

Meanwhile, Doom is having troubles of his own. He is apparently mutating, and his board of directors is taking him company out from under him. Doom is growing more and more paranoid. He soon discovers he can manipulate electricity. He starts exacting his revenge.

Ben meets a young woman named Alicia (Kerry Washington) who is a blind sculptor. She is instantly smitten, while Ben cannot understand why she would be interested in a monster.

Johnny continues to revel in his popularity, while Reed works to solve the riddle of returning them to normal and re-kindling his romance with Sue. Victor sees his opportunity. Victor helps Ben reverse his condition, but Ben realizes this is mistake, as the Fantastic Four is a family and a team who all bring something to the table with their powers. After Ben gets his powers restored, they have an all out battle with Doom, learning to work together as a team and taking Dr. Doom down.

To be blunt…the film is just not that great. Oh, it has it’s moments. The sequence where they save people on the bridge is thrilling. The resolution of their fight with Doctor Doom is solid. There is a lot of humor and nice touches (Johnny walking along popping popcorn with his hand). But so much of the problem lies in the villain’s motivation. Why is he so keen to kill our heroes? Sure, he’s jealous, and he becomes paranoid…but it feels like there is no real solid reason for Victor getting his hate on.

The casting is troubling as well. Now don’t get me wrong, Chiklis was inspired casting. He plays a perfect Ben Grimm. And Chris Evans is terrific as Johnny Storm. He is brash and excited, loving his powers. He uses his powers for fun as well as heroics. The chemistry between Chiklis and Evans is pretty great, they really capture that spirit of the adversarial friendship from the comics. The adversarial part is played up a little more, but it still makes for some enjoyable exchanges. And Julian McMahon does make a good Doom. He portrays the arrogant pride very well.

But then there is Ioan Gruffud. He has been good in other roles, but for some reason, his Reed Richards is pretty dull. And JessicaAlba. Oh, I get the idea of casting her. At the time she was more of a draw, giving them star power. And they took advantage of the casting (a gag wear Sue disrobes in public and suddenly becomes visible was apparently added after she had read the script). I get it, she’s pretty. But the problem is, Alba comes across as so much younger than everyone else-including her younger brother Johnny. It becomes hard to buy that she and Reed have some sort of broken past that needs mending.

Another big problem is some of the story choices. Specifically as this was meant to kick off a franchise. Curing Ben, albeit temporarily, in the first film is a poor choice. This is a franchise…build on that. Save it for down the road. Let it mean some something to the fans. Let it breathe, rather than be a five minute bit in the film.

This could have been a fun film, and the extended cut they released is a definite improvement. But this film does not rise to the levels of even the first X-Men and Spider-Man films.

September 12, 2016 0

Fantastic Lemonade

So…I was not a fan of the the latest stab f the Fantastic Four. And I was not alone. But Jamie Broadnax, whose writing I respect and enjoy, has voiced an appreciation of the film.

This challenged me to think about the film a bit harder. Specifically, are there things I did like? Things that I could appreciate even if they did not work?

There things I liked. For instance, Franklin Storm. I liked him. He radiated a general kindness and his interactions with Johnny and Sue were welcome additions. It’s frustrating he kind of fades away until he is needed for the “Big Emotional Motivation” towards the end.

I did like Johnny Storm in general. The specifics frustrate me…Johnny as a free spirited risk taker works better for me than “Angry Risk Taker”. Michael B. Jordan manages to still infuse some charm into the role.

I like the cast in general. All the actors are proven talent, so the issue was never performance. The actors did their best with questionable material. Dr. Doom especially suffers there. Nothing about his early behavior suggests what he will become. There is an offhanded comment about whether the world should be saved…but once everyone gets their powers, Doom is lost and nobody seems to care. Once he reappears he hates the world and wants to destroy…because.

The use of powers, especially by Reed, were pretty effective.

I liked the inter-dimensional travel part of the plot. The use of science in general. The early suggestions of Sc-Fi Adventure would have been a great path to go. This was clearly borrowed from the Ultimate Fantastic Four comics. I think this works well.

Leaping from there, I think would have benefited the film to have a different villain. Victor Von Doom should have been there, but more as a scientific foil for Reed. It might have been a good idea to borrow from the comics, unbeknownst to the rest of the crew, Doom alters their coordinates, resulting in the tragedy that gives them all powers. And Sue would be there with them. Not sitting back at a computer terminal.

Instead, a different villain. An obvious choice would have been Annihilus. The discovery of an alternate dimension is not one way. Save Doom for a later film in the franchise.

And then there is the whole deal of Reed running away. Yeah, it gives Ben his motivation for anger towards Reed. But it felt like getting rid of Reed was more because they did not know what to do with him. The idea that Reed sees Ben in his rock form and simply runs away…just does not gel. It would have made more sense to show Reed working with Franklin and Sue Storm with the goal of getting everybody back to normal. The big conflict with the military regarding the attempts to turn Ben and Johnny into weapons.

There are all sorts of ways this film could have gone to be better. A brighter color pallet for instance. More humor. More heroics.

And for Pete’s sake…give Ben Grimm some pants.

August 11, 2015 0

Blahtastic (Fantastic Four, 2015)

Truthfully, the Fantastic Four reboot is exactly what I would expect from someone behind Chronicle. Chronicle was a good film, but it was tonally dark, focused on the breakdown of family bonds and friendship. It was dark and sad. None of these are really good tones for the Fantastic Four.

Josh Trank has already tried disowning the movie, but the problem is? It sure looks like the kind of movie I would expect from him. The film has a color treatment to suck out any and all vibrancy. It is a serious and un-cheery affair. Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) is not a carefree adventure loving guy…now he is and aggressive, unhappy street racer.

Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) is…a guy? Sue Storm (Kate Mara) is awkward socially, so is Reed (Mile Teller) and so is Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell). There is nothing that makes the characters easy to tell apart…and little to see a spark of heroism.

The film takes forever to get to the pivotal accident that gives everyone their powers. And then the film gets real boring. Doctor Doom is terribly dull, and lacks any visual identity. Sure, he has a green cloak. But He looks like a generic villain, like they forgot to finish the character design in the pre-production stage.

The film lacks any joy of discovery with the characters, and focuses on the darkest take of their getting powers. They do not have code names in the film. Everybody refers to the as Subjects. Johnny’s digs at Ben are simply mean, lacking the playful spirit (Captured so well by Chris Evans) of the character in the comics.

This is a dull film, that misses why people love these characters in the first place. I wish it had been a disaster, because that might have been interesting to watch.

And there is just something about the Thing not wearing pants that just looks weird.

August 8, 2015 0