OK, I got back from this, and it’s pretty much exactly what I expected it would be, given I have pretty straightforward expectations about what a Fantastic Four movie should be. So, standards not so high - did I enjoy it? Did I feel it translated the comic? Did it have a couple good action sequences and a relatively light-hearted attitude? Yeah, I thought it was fine. But I’m not terribly interested in discussing the merits of the movie; I just have to waste some space before my spoiler question.
I had heard over and over again that The Watcher was in the movie. Anybody see that?
Once thing I really, really loved:the shadow Galactus cast on Saturn - it was the classic profile.
Reed’s line about the planets turned into lifeless worlds struck me as humorous - as opposed to all the planets teeming with life he’s discovered?
I have no desire to see this, but I’ve had one question I’ve been wondering about since I saw the first trailer - do we actually see Galactus? If so, how does he look on the big screen? His scale is so massive I’m thinking that he might look ridiculous…
[spoiler]It’s a giant vortex-looking storm cloud. It’s several times bigger than the Earth. It has these filanges that spread out and enter giant holes that the Surfer has drilled into planets – it makes a lot more sense than it sounds. At the end, there is definitely a form inside the cloud, when the Surfer confronts it. Problem is, it’s pretty damn fleeing and the screen gets so busy, it’s hard to be sure. You get a sense of a face, but that’s all I noticed. I’d really like to rewatch that in slow motion.
But as the cloud flies by Saturn, the shadow it casts, it looks exactly like Galactus’s helmet. Definitely a nod.[/spoiler]
My 11-year-old son wants to see this, so I’m on the hook, I’m afraid.
I understand that it sucks less than Episode One (and it couldn’t very well suck any more, unless it was the Hulk movie or the Daredevil movie). Is this true?
A friend of mine who is a HUGE comic AND movie fan saw it with his young son and BOTH of them hated it. BIG TIME. You couldn’t DRAG me to this movie, and I was first in line for all the X-Men movies.
I didn’t like the first one, but I liked this one. The team dynamic was sharp. All the main characters were hitting their marks. Surfer was awesome.
Good, but nothing special. It wasn’t the X-Men but it was better than a lot of crap out there.
Regarding Galactus:
I liked the storm take on Galactus. It seems more cosmic than an alien with a “G” on his belt. I bet we see his real form in the inevitable Silver Surfer solo feature.
I, too could have done without Doom. He really wasn’t necessary. I would have rather seen the team fight a collection of Galactus’s robots instead of Doom.
I think that drops this one to “rent, but not in the theater” for me. Hell, with DVD prices these days, I can buy the stupid thing for less than it would cost for the wife and I so see it on the big screen.
If you’ve got a DLP movie theater showing it closeby, I’d recommend going and seeing it on that, since some of the effects shots are amazing, but otherwise, making it a rental isn’t a bad thing.The Silver Surfer creates a giant sinkhole in the Thames, which drains the river dry in minutes.
It’s called a plot hole. It’s created by allowing idiots to write your script.
For example,
How come Silver Surfer is able to destroy Galactus now that he wants to? You could imply he’s motivated by his encounter with the FF, but wouldn’t he have been motivated in the past too? All the writers had to do to provide an explanation would be to have Johnny pass the combined powers of the FF to the Surfer as he rose to fight Galactus and that would have explained it acceptably. But the first thing my wife (not a comics geek) said after watching it was “why hadn’t the Surfer done that long ago?”
I don’t remember if the original comics had the
[spoiler]giant holes in the earth, but those were a weakness as well. We see the Surfer emerge from the holes as they are formed several times. In fact, the time the FF fail to get him, it’s because as soon as the hole reaches the surface, he emerges from it and flies away too fast. There’s no vulnerability to ambush – when he comes out of the hole, he goes. And we know from London that they cannot predict in advance exactly where the hole will form – they’re looking around for it to start. Given those established principles, we know for sure that whne they gather at the hole in the woods with Reed’s toys, the Surfer is already long gone. In fact, building the toys is a waste of time because the ambush the FF springs requires more setup time than the Surfer gives.
But possibly worst of all for the movie’s sense of drama…when the giant, fingerlike projections of Galactus are reaching for the giant holes drilled in the earth, all I could think was…Oh no! He’s turned the earth into a gigantic bolwing ball![/spoiler]
At least that opens up possibilities for promotional slogans for the sequel…
Even now, Galactus roams the space lanes…Will he strike again? Or will Galactus spare us?
He may have always known how to take out Galactus. Since he at least thought he was sacrificing his life he needed extra motivation to take on the big guy. IIRC this is close to what happened in the comicbook. The difference being that it was his encounter with Things girlfriend that got him all sweet on the human race and not Sue Storm.
I liked the first one (the Thing-Torch dynamic was perfectly done), and I’ll probably go see this one tomorrow or Wednesday. But I think they made a mistake by having one movie dedicated to the Silver Surfer and setting up a sequel dedicated to Galactus. If I were in charge, I would have done the following, most of which elements come from the comics, though not slavishly so:
Movie 2 - Skrulls imitate FF and frame them as criminals. FF get captured by police, who are actually Skrulls as well, and their powers are imprinted into the Super-Skrull. After the FF turn the tables on their captors (but the Super-Skrull escapes capture by flying into space), the Skrulls tell them they wanted to conquer Earth as a replacement homeworld, because their real home planet had been eaten by Galactus (description of Galactus and Silver Surfer given). FF offers them asylum on Earth as cows. Epilogue shows Super-Skrull, on path from Earth back to Skrull base, crossing paths with Silver Surfer going in the opposite direction.
Movie 3 - Encounter with the Silver Surfer AND showdown with Galactus. Very possibly including Doctor Doom stealing the Surfer’s power for himself at a critical moment during the fight.
