What the Tranktastic Four owes to the comics (spoilers)

[stubbleupdate]

I've seen it. It is objectively bad, not just as an adaptation, but as a film in general. The iFanboy review pointed out a lack of fan service, which was true, but not entirely.

Here's where some bits have been lifted from

Sue's costume is modelled after the Hitch/Millar version



The whole sending-toy-cars-to-other-dimensions story is lifted straight from Ultimate Fantastic Four #1





Ben being kept in a cell and then let out to smash things in return for his owner to work on a cure is a riff on The It from House of M, where Doctor Doom had the brain damaged Ben chained up as his pet. (I'm not sure if Doom at least allowed The It to wear pants; in every panel he's drawn hunched over, with his crotch in shadow)

Comments

[janegray]

I really wanted this movie to be good ;_;

You can get your last cent the takeaway from this will be "SEE THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CAST A BLACK ACTOR TO PLAY A WHITE CHARACTER!"

[starwolf_oakley]

You know what I thought when I saw Kerry Washington was playing Alicia Masters in 2005? "Does that mean the Puppet Master is going to be black too?" And that was it.

The Puppet Master WAS black in the anime-esque animated series that followed the 2005 movie, but that's another topic.

[stubbleupdate]

You can get your last cent the takeaway from this will be "SEE THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CAST A BLACK ACTOR TO PLAY A WHITE CHARACTER!"

I've heard that far more often than I've heard people complain about Michael B Jordan as Johnny Storm. True, he's not great in it, but that's because he doesn't get anything to do. Nobody does.

It is both the most decompressed and underdeveloped film I've seen.

[cainofdreaming]

I dunno. Sure, there are always those who'll focus on that, but... well, take Daredevil for an instance. Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin is pretty much the only positive thing to be said of the movie.

Aside though, since I've not followed up on this movie, he's still Sue's sister in the movie, right? That's the important part for me, not the colour of his skin.

[lucean]

On the black actor playing Johnny Storm, I felt Honest Trailers made a great point that when they cast a latina actress to play Sue Storm and had her wear blue contacts and dye her hair blond, basically nothing. Black actor as Johnny? The integrity of the character has been take away.

[bizarrohulk]

That wasn't even the biggest piece of WTF casting in the movie. If you have Michael Chiklis and Jamie Bell playing the same character, then clearly one of them was a mistake (spoiler - it wasn't Chiklis).

I've seen people claiming that Jordan's casting was an example of "political correctness". It wasn't - it was an example of nepotism. He got the part because he was a friend of Trank's. Whether he was the best choice for the role is almost a moot point, because no-one else even got to audition.

Unlike janegray, though, I'm happy that this movie bombed. Maybe now Fox will admit defeat and sell the rights back to Marvel, and we can get Galactus and the Silver Surfer in cosmic Marvel.

[bruinsfan]

Because casting Samuel L. Jackson to play Nick Fury was such a horrible mistake that ensured all the movies featuring the character failed at the box office?

Michael B Jordan is a great actor, but ...

[7dialsmystery]

...Racist a$$hats be racist a$$hats. They wouldn't like him as Johnny Storm in FF for any reason. Even if the movie was brilliant instead of a flop.

[starwolf_oakley]

I wonder if an FF movie should be a "straight" adaptation of FIRST FAMILY, a 2006 miniseries that (mostly) takes place between the fateful rocket flight and the first battle with the Mole Man. It also explains why the team chose a headquarters in the middle of Manhattan.

It starts with the team sort-of imprisoned. Everyone knows that if they wanted to leave, there wouldn't be much stopping them. Reed is trying to figure out how far he can stretch and Johnny is curious why is hair doesn't burn.

[locuatico]

that or just skip the entire origin altogether and just do an interstellar movie, only with blue jumpsuits...

[reveen]

Actually, I think the FF has some of the easiest costumes to adapt into a "realistic" style if that's what they wanted to do. They got their start being inter dimensional astronauts, so give them stylized astronaut flight suits, simple.

http://scottandkat.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Chris-Hadfield-Flight-Suit-2.jpg

[beyondthefringe]

If they weren't all white guys, I'd be "Just make -them- the Fantastic Four and it would still be better than this movie.' :)

[xakko]

y'know, the only appearance that bothers me is nekkid Thing in those Denny's ads. Whatever happened to no shoes, no pants, no service?

[junipepper]

I haven't seen the movie, but we saw some preview clip where Thing appeared to be naked. Some friends of mine were wondering if Thing would be circumcised. They reported back, "Moot point. The Thing has no thing."

(Was he actually naked in the film? And was there a Thing's thing? And which answer would be less horrifying?)

[doctor_spanky]

It's almost as if making a "very serious," "realistic" film with a dark murky color palette was the wrong (tone-deaf) way to develop a series of children's books called "The Fantastic Four," best known for their bright colorful art, and strong family dynamics

[bizarrohulk]

I know. What next - a dark and gritty Superman film?

Oh.

[sadoeuphemist]

This seems incredibly trivializing of comic books in general. How are strong family dynamics even at odds with something serious or realistic? And the Fantastic Four are not even known for their bright colorful art, their uniforms are all a flat blue.

[ablackraptor]

I'm glad that everything looks like the film is going to bomb and the rights will revert. Pretty much everything that the director and writer have said publicly about the film has made both the film itself sound awful and make them sound like unpleasant people.

Seriously, they did nothing but make it clear this film deserved failure. Hope it ends here so we can get the F4 back in Marvel's court.

[cyberghostface]

The rights aren't going to revert, Fox is just going to sit on them until they're about to expire and do another one.

The only reason why Sony made the deal with Marvel that they did was because they were running into financial issues. Fox is doing pretty well with the X-Men.

[cyberghostface]

I just find it funny that Marvel was able to make a hugely successful film -- both financially and with the critics -- out of something as small as Guardians of the Galaxy whereas Fox can't make a solid film out of something as big as the Fantastic Four.

[pyynk]

I think I remember Ron mentioning Sue's outfit as being reminiscent of the Hitch/Millar run. Definitely a good catch on those other elements and many thanks for taking that bullet. ;)

[alschroeder3]

I would like--just once--a Doom who is consistent with the comics, or at least recognizable. In neither the previous filmed version of the FF, or this one, is the brilliant leader of Latveria portrayed the way he is in the comics.
Everybody wants to "update" him. They give him extra powers, play around with his origin, make him something else. That's like updating Dracula. He's the best villain in comics, on the Marvel side. Don't screw him up! Embrace the Universal-horror aspects of his origins, and just run with it! The FF has one of the best Rogue's Gallery in comics, and Doom is number one. Updating Doom is like "updating" the Joker. Always a mistake.

[halloweenjack]

I like the idea that some people have had of Marvel Studios getting the rights back for Doom, and having him rebuild that East European country that got trashed in AOU as Latveria; also, his creating a real rival to Stark's company. He could be a persistent villain in a way that none of Stark's one-and-done rivals in the three Iron Man movies were.

[seisachtheia]

Apropos of nothing, but the scan kind of reminded me: I actually quite liked the Ultimate FF origin: not necessarily the alternate dimension experiment thing, but the way it was used: objects are given the characteristics of alternate versions of those objects, and so the reason they end up with super powers is because their counterparts have them. It was a nice touch, one gentle enough that the explanation worked within the story just as well as it did on the meta level.

[donnblake]

I... don't remember that part of their origin. Was it touched on later, or do I really need to reread the first couple books? Mostly I remember teleporter accident and then Reed and Dr. Storm rambling about the Classical Elements.

ROCK-MAN AND FRIENDS TAKE BEATING AT BOX OFFICE!

[lieut_kettch]

[kenn_el]

If Fox can manage it before the elections, Donald Trump as Doom and Megyn Kelly as Sue would make a terrific remake!