Just got back from watching this. It was good and entertaining but nothing mind blowing. The setting does a lot for the movie, I think without it this would have felt a lot more generic and forgettable. Everyone did a good job, they actually managed to make Reeds stretchy powers to look… cool and heroic rather than goofy, because lets be honest stretching is absolute bottom of the barrel as far as “heroic” looking powers go. Stretching is the comedic sidekick power. They made it work though. Great cast, great setting, mid plot is my final verdict.
Trailer:
It was my favorite comic as a kid, so I’ll probably go see it on the big screen.
That was SO GOOD!! I absolutely loved the setting this was in, like early 1960s meets futuristic Jetsons. The production design was incredible. I did not know anything about what the plot for this would be going in and I was pleasantly surprised. IMO this is back to top tier Marvel.
What a fun movie!. Unlike most superhero films, it doesn’t feel like the makers are embarrassed by the source material; they embraced the comic book in all of its garish improbable fun.
I knew the set design was going to be fantastic just from the trailer, but I was blown away by the character design, especially the Silver Surfer and the way she moved on that board. The final battle with Galactus wasn’t the ordinary slugfest; it was full of clever uses of the characters’ powers. Reed getting stretched by Galactus like a rubber band evoked some chuckles but, damn it, that’s how it’s done in comic books. I got so swept up in it, I didn’t know what was coming next. Sue using her force fields to physically move Galactus. The Surfer’s sacrifice. Franklin’s powers. They all seem obvious in hindsight, but they all caught me by surprise.
I saw it tonight with my son. I kept tkinking galaticus was walking on thin ice. Sue was going to protect her baby to the end. I told my son.. Below is a major spoiler. I don’t know how to blur text, and I’m not too sure how spoilers are treated here.
When the baby started crying and reaching for his lifeless mommy, tthat he was going to bring her back.
I always loved the FF. I collected Marvel comics back in the day when they were 12 cents, every single one - my favorites were Thor, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. I stopped reading when Sue Storm got pregnant and never did find out what happened after…Reed Richards ‘stretching’ powers were indeed goofy looking, prompting my husband to make a deadpan comment that cracked me up. Something we all secretly imagined, but I’d never heard anyone actually come out and say it!
I liked it but didn’t love it. I was wrong about Pedro Pascal. He was very good as Reed Richards. The rest of the cast was also very good. I loved the art deco Gernsback style of the Alternate NYC. I loved the science optimism of it all.
But something seemed to hold it back from being great for me. Not sure what but I really enjoyed it.
I have been thinking about why I felt it was lacking and have two things that jumped out at me.
I was disappointed that Mr. Fantastic didn’t go ham with his power. I would have loved to see something like him stretching to protect a crowd from falling debris, even if it were in a montage. I wonder if they are saving something like that for Avengers.
Sue’s rally speech wasn’t all that great. I liked that she was the one people looked to and how she was the one Mole Man trusted but the speech was kind of flat with the exception of the line, “I won’t sacrifice my son to save the Earth but I won’t sacrifice the Earth to save my son.” which is a great line but didn’t save the speech.
Unless I missed something why didn’t Galactus send the Silver Surfer after the baby? Why were they so sure he would come for him himself when he used her for everything up until then? To make it work they should have incapacitated her somehow and have her break free right at the end to make her sacrifice.
Just some little things that keep a good movie from being a great one.
Probably because they stuck her in a black hole. And even if she was already out, they already beat her once.
After her talk with Johnny I assumed she went… elsewhere. Not back to Galactus.
I’m also trying to remember if they kept Galactus the same scale throughout the film. You think “planet eater”, you think “really big” but it was his ship that was really big.
It was hard enough for the comics to keep the Thing’s size consistent. They didn’t sweat the details about Galactus’ dimensions.
I just meant in the film. They had this problem with Godzilla too.
In his ship it was hard to tell how big he was. But in NYC he’s taller than the Statue of Liberty but small enough to stroll around town with minor property damage (before the fighting).
I saw this in IMAX (3D). The 3D doesn’t detract from, but also doesn’t add to. the experience. I like it. I would put it in the top half of Marvel Universe movies. There have apparently been three previous attempts at a Fantastic Four movie, two of which were high profile failures. I think what it gets right in comparison to previous movies are:
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Jettisoning the idea that you need to spend a lot of screen time on an origin story most of the audience already knows.
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Not going with Victor Von Doom as the Big Bad. They choose an antagonist that they genuinely can’t defeat in a straight up battle and maintains some tension around the “cut and run” strategy through most of the movie.
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Makiing the final battle more than just a CGI-fest.
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Writing the Four as a real team with close knit relationships. There is no point at which one of the Four goes away because of some internal dissension. In fact, it’s refreshing that disagreements are resolved through talking and listening to one another. What a concept!
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Writing and acting the character of Sue Storm as an actual woman.
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Injecting humor in a way that you laugh with the characters, not at them
Oh sweet Jesus yes.
As I mentioned over in the “Movies seen recently” thread, I’m still irked at the “Let’s make Jessica Alba get naked” one. So fucking childish.
Reactions to this movie have either been that it’s ok or that it’s awesome. I’m in the awesome camp. Like, I honestly enjoyed this more than Superman.
And it’s interesting that I have yet to see anyone (credible) say they didn’t like it at all. That’s quite the achievement for a property that seemed like it was impossible to do “right.”
Interesting that the trailer does not show Reed using his stretchy powers at all. It shows the other 3 using their powers in various action scene clips, but just shows Reed running or doing the 3-point superhero crouch after a jump.
It wasn’t fantastic, but it was still really good. It was like reading a silver age F4 comic, but without Stan Lee’s verbose narration. Great chemistry with the cast. Great cgi. Amazing production design.
I have a few nitpicks but nothing that ruined the movie.
It was good, but a bit predictable, it was obvious, once Sue started forcing Galactus into the transporter, that:
- She was going to die doing it.
- Baby Franklin would revive her.
All in all it was enjoyable but nothing to write a home about.
(I got a laugh from my wife when they said the baby’s name by remarking that Sue had a Chilean husband and an Uruguayan son (Uruguayans have, or used to have, the weird custom of naming their sons for United States founding fathers, particularly Washington and Franklin))
Doesn’t his appearance depend on who is seeing him? That could explain his size not being constant.