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GGGOOOAAATTT LLLEEGGGSSS

Why does a Russian computer hacker have goat legs?

This second trailer looked much better. Plus, the director has done good work with similar material in the past.

I'm not willing to condemn it yet.

Why do they all look like they're 14 years old?

I don't think they look that young.

Anyway, they are significantly younger than the Classic FF - being part of some kind of wunderkind think-tank type of organization.

Well, perhaps I exaggerate somewhat, but they're seriously young compared to what they appear to be in the comics, as you say.

I guess if you need a blanket appeal to the kids, but the other comic moves I don't feel really do that. At least not to such an extreme. Cumberbach as Strange will be interesting, but I could see him being someone who could look much older than he appears to.

 daedalus wrote:
I guess if you need a blanket appeal to the kids

Teens. The word you are looking for is teens. They see movies in droves and spend tons on merchandise.

The movie seems to take a lot from Ultimate FF.

And the actor who plays Johnny doesn't even have a Johnny feel to him from the trailer. At all. Evans NAILED the HT persona, dead on. This trailer did nothing to convince me the movie won't be garbage. Thing looks good. I'll definitely give them that. Ben Grimm is garbage, but Thing is fine. Slow clap, Fox, for being asshats.

 Ahtman wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
I guess if you need a blanket appeal to the kids

Teens. The word you are looking for is teens. They see movies in droves and spend tons on merchandise.

The movie seems to take a lot from Ultimate FF.

I thought we already established that?

 reds8n wrote:


.. meh.

Sounds like a typical Fantastic Four experience to me.

Seriously. the last time I enjoyed anything fantastic four, it was when X23 was babysitting the Reed babies, and that was almost ruined by Hellion being a total creeper.

 LordofHats wrote:


Seriously. the last time I enjoyed anything fantastic four, it was when X23 was babysitting the Reed babies, and that was almost ruined by Hellion being a total creeper.

The last time I enjoyed anything Fantastic Four, it was a strip in Twisted Toyfair Theater. And that was satire.

Ahh come on guys...it doesn't look that bad.

I'm actually quite intrigued.

GG

Agreed!

This has a looks to have a lot of potential - and looks to be better than the last 2 efforts.

Of course, having said that, if you're not a fan of the Fantastic Four, well...

 Alpharius wrote:
Agreed!

This has a looks to have a lot of potential - and looks to be better than the last 2 efforts.

Of course, having said that, if you're not a fan of the Fantastic Four, well...

No. No it does not. It looks like a steaming pile. Take off your beer goggles, Alph!! Seriously, you're about to take home the ugliest dog at the bar!! That coquettish laugh? It was really a belch and pit-scratch. Run!!

Er, no?

But feel free to...not go see the movie?

I'm on the fence. On the one hand, I think it looks kinda crap. I think the Thing looks pretty terrible. Mind you, I never really liked FF even in the comics, going back to the X-Men vs the FF way back when.

On the other hand, it's a new franchise, and part of the MCU, right? I feel like I sort of have to watch it. I like Kate Mara pretty well, also, and Michael B. Jordan was the guy from Chronicle, right? He was great in that.

I think I'd enjoy them as a subset of a larger force fighting Thanos, anyway.

No, not part of the MCU.

And I think this version of the Thing looks pretty good - way better than Chiklis' rubber suit version!

Oh man, not part of the MCU? Sigh.

And yeah, better than Chiklis, but still bad. Ultimately IMO. I think the Thing is impossible to look good outside of comics. I think maybe what they have is the best possible of a design that is not going to translate to the screen.

I'm curious - what is so bad about this version of the Thing for you?

I just think he looks kinda goofy.

I don't!

At all!

I think that's clearly and easily the best he's ever looked on film - but maybe for some, as you note, he'll never look good enough outside of the comics?

Maybe.

I'm gonna go see it, I think, anyway. So I'll reserve judgement until afterward.

I honestly can't see the Fantastic 4 franchise continuing to exist away from Marvel. The Marvel release schedule by itself makes for a very crowded market, but then on top of that you've got DC trying to build their own franchise in movies, and the X-Men franchise.

The pressure to release or lose the rights already caught up with Spiderman, and that's after Sony had a lot of success with the property, before eventually deciding it wasn't a good continued investment given the saturation of the market.

Now the X-Men franchise is in the same position as Fantastic 4 - keep releasing films or the rights revert to Marvel. But the X-Men has a solid record of performance at that box office, while the Fantastic 4 have really, really do not. And this time they're rebooting it with no a-listers among the cast.

I can't see Fantastic 4 franchise continuing outside of Marvel, to be honest.

 Goliath wrote:
It's actually almost funny how wrong you are. Michael B Jordan was rumoured to be the human torch for months before other casting occured, specifically due to him having worked with Josh Trank on Chronicle. It's not a case of going 'we need a black character' and choosing the worst person for the job, it's a case of the director going 'I know the best person for the job of Johnny Storm', and that person happened to be black. Having seen Chronicle, and having seen Michael B Jordan in it, I think he'll be able to play an excellent Johnny Storm.

There was a film released maybe 10 or 15 years ago, called Room for Romeo Brass. It features a black kid living in a white family, and it's never explained how or why. What had actually happened was that during casting the director had picked the actor, and he just happened to be black, same as what happened here from what you've said.

Thing is, in Room for Romeo Brass it worked great, because it suited the family theme explored in the movie. And maybe that will be the case here - adoption will be part of a greater theme of finding family where you can (which makes sense given the team nature of the Fantastic 4), and if that's the case the inter-racial brother & sister could be brilliant. But honestly, seeing that preview I doubt it. I suspect the director had the actor he wanted, and just reworked the backstory to make it fit. If that's the case then it isn't promising at all.

I like the way Thing looks in this one. As someone else mentioned, Sue Storm's casting is far better -- I mean WORLDS better -- in this movie than in the others. I don't think either movie got the right guy for Reed. Conversely, both seem to nail Johnny but he's not the most complex character.

So it's down to Doom. And Russian hacker Doom, possibly with goat legs, is NOT NOT NOT the one I love.

 Frazzled wrote:
Maybe there isn't a great movie to make?

I think there is, but I think it'd require a massive tone shift to something more Silver Age. Unfortunately Hollywood only understand that in terms of camp, when what they should be going for is breathless storytelling - don't worry about background explanations, just tell a shamelessly fun story. The original Galactus two parter is just a cracking good story, and if well handled would make for a great movie.

 sebster wrote:


Now the X-Men franchise is in the same position as Fantastic 4 - keep releasing films or the rights revert to Marvel. But the X-Men has a solid record of performance at that box office, while the Fantastic 4 have really, really do not. And this time they're rebooting it with no a-listers among the cast.

X-Men vs. Fantastic Four might also be down to which is the more popular franchise and/or has the biggest fan base?

Because the first two FF movies did OK - possibly even solid - at the box office at (2005) $330M and (2005) $289M respectively - and this even with neither of them being particularly great movies.

X-Men (2000) $296M
X2 (2003) $407M
X-Men Last Stand (2006) $459M

(2008 --> Iron Man is released)

X-Men First Class (2011) $353M
X-Men Days of Future Past (2014) $748M

We're now in the post-Iron Man age, where Superhero movies, if done well, make a lot more money.

Of course the Fantastic Four still has to actually be a good movie, with a good story, with good effects, etc. - but if it is, I think it can do quite well.

Certainly well enough for Fox to continue to want to develop films using these characters.

I do wish it would revert back to Marvel though, as I don't think we're going to see the 'real' Dr. Doom until it does...

The problem they have with the Fantastic Four is they seem to be going to a new story, which is an origin, and basically just a 'super hero' movie.

Fox has been having success with the X-Men lately because they've been adapting (however loosely) fan favorite stories from the comics, rather than trying to homebrew their own stories.

Marvel has been finding success post-Avengers by making genre films that happen to have a super (or not) hero as the main character/s. IM 3 was the snarky revenge/redemption action movie, Winter Soldier was a spy/intrigue movie, Dark World was pure science fantasy adventure, Guardians was a big space opera, and Ant Man (though unlreleased so we don't know if it will have any succes) is a heist movie.

Fantastic Four seems like it's harking back to the pre-Iron Man days, where they're not only still making an origin reboot, but they're making a generic superhero movie with a name tacked on.

Thing is, though, X-men is now on its 8th film next year, as has consistently got better with each one, standing equal with or even ahead of its contemporary competitors.

In the early 00s, you have X1-3, Daredevil, the first F4s and the Maguire Spidey, and X-men comes out light years ahead of any of those in just about every way. Then, in the solo pre-Avengers MCU years, Wolverine Origins and First Class were as good as anything in the MCU. Now, in the Teamup-years, DOFP is every bit as good as Avengers Assemble, and Apocalypse should go the same way. In terms of consistency, X-men has a better track record than any other Marvel property. Say what you like about Origins or X3, neither are anywhere near as unwatchable as Spiderman 3, F4 or Iron Man 2/3.

X-men has momentum, consistency, variety and a stellar cast in every version. Fanastic 4 has none of that.


I will admits bias here, I have never really been a fan of F4 even before the films, but I see this film as the weakest link in the chain of upcoming superhero movies. Up against the guaranteed hit of Avengers 2 it won't stand a chance, and over the next year, I'm pretty sure Deadpool, Ant Man, SuperBat, Cap3, Thor3, Apocalypse and maybe even Suicide Squad are going to leave F4 as the poor kid standing in the corner crying, both in terms of money made and quality of film. Not to mention the fact that to most MCU fans, all this film does is stop Marvel using one of their best villains. Proper Doom vs The Avengers would be so much more awesome than hacker-Doom vs F4.

Have to disagree with what you said about Origins and X3.

Iron Man 2 and 3 have their problems, no doubt. But I was literally cringing in parts of X3 and Origins due to how bad they were.

Exactly!

So, serious missteps there, but it worked out OK, eventually.

And since the past FF movies are possibly seen as 'unsuccessful' in terms of establishing whatever it is that Fox wanted to establish, it is no surprise that they're going with the ULTIMATE FF version - which would 'necessitate' a reboot - and new origin story.

Will it be enough to bring in people who don't like the FF already?

Probably not?

But will it be enough to start a successful franchise?

That remains to be seen - and I'll be seeing for myself in theaters on or around August 7!