-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
FANT4STIC 4OUR |OT| Fantastic 4/10
- Thread starter Toa TAK
- Start date
- Status
E the Shaggy
Junior Member
Jesus.
Thatonemoor
Member
Yeah that's real, I was also like "WTF!" When that happened lol.
I was trying to dig deep and remember some of the smaller things. The timeline still really didn't make sense to me for some reason, now I remember...
Reed's childhood garage teleportation device is powered by a bunch of things, including about a dozen Nintendo 64 consoles linked together.
Not saying it's not plausible for him to have that in 2007...but still...
Gordon Shumway
Banned
EB Games had a going out of business sale?
TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared
Member
That is 100% true.
It's almost as if they didn't originally plan it to BE 2007 when they wrote those scenes.
Simply Sarah
Member
Never mind the fact that the N64 is a comically underpowered device for much of anything including playing N64 games. And in 2007? I'm pretty sure 5 minutes at a dump would get you vastly more powerful hardware.
TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared
Member
I really thought it would be more of a jump. Like Reed goes from fifth grade (which is what, ages 9-10) to 7 years later being suddenly invited to this prestigious expensive lab. And the whole thing about Sue being adopted is literally brought up once and her and Johnny seem to have no source of friction together, except for a bit where they argue about the fact Reed ditched them.
starchild excalibur
Member
This is a pretty unnecessary comment. There are people who will always legitimately like, or at least appreciate, elements of a film that may be popularly derided. And it's not like the internet doesn't have a tendency to gain momentum when the idea is put forward that something is the "worst ever" when really it's just below average or mediocre.
I'm actually more intrigued by those that aren't as quick to use hyperbole in their impressions than those that are. I mean, as garbage as Pixels looks/probably is, it was pretty obvious that some reviewers were basically playing a game of "Who can have the most tweet-able headline" with their reviews.
That usually is where I come from. I go to the movies too much to the point where I can't have a rating scale that is either shit or amazing. If a movie is shit, and I know going in it's going to be shit, I'll try and find the elements that work or stand out. Otherwise I'm just harping the ongoing narrative.
starchild excalibur
Member
I'm the same way. It really takes a lot for me to think a film is absolute garbage (or likewise, absolutely amazing). This is even more the case with superhero films as they mostly tend to fall into the category of "generally fun, but mostly stupid and forgettable" for me. And given that F4 seems to either elicit comments along the lines of "The actors are all terrible in it" or "It excelled in its portrayal of its characters," I'm really curious to see how I feel about it.
Had to re-read this old article to see how well the movie stacked up.
8 Ways to Keep the Fantastic Four Reboot from Sucking
... They pretty much ignored every last single point.
8 Ways to Keep the Fantastic Four Reboot from Sucking
... They pretty much ignored every last single point.
Joel Was Right
Member
Is there a better superhero movie than Unbreakable?
……forgetit
Member
Yep, that happens.
Simon pegg doesn't do his own tweets anymore it is handled by other people
That doesn't mean he doesn't approve them though. He has been put regardless of whether not other people actually post things. That's how it works for Takei.
That tweet is amazing by the way, and that is the movie I will be seeing this weekend.
"Doom"
If only I could've warned my young naive self.
Joel Was Right
Member
Reed and Ben create a small machine with DIY materials. It looks like something built in a garage by a couple of teenagers. Reed puts a toy plane on the machine - there is a ball of light on it, and it vanishes. He then manages to bring it back, or reappear. His teacher doesn't buy it, dismisses it as 'magic' and then moves on.
There is context, however.
In a previous scene when Reed is a small kid, he claims to want to build a teleportation machine when asked what he'd like to do as a career. "What happened to your flying car project", quips the same teacher. "I've moved on from that". Reed is portrayed as an eccentric, imaginative child who does nothing but make grand claims. So when he actually shows something, its not surprising to see him be dismissed for making something disappear and reappear. He could have dismissed him by challenging him on the science behind it, but it is clear from the onset that he doesn't even like Reed.
There is context, however.
In a previous scene when Reed is a small kid, he claims to want to build a teleportation machine when asked what he'd like to do as a career. "What happened to your flying car project", quips the same teacher. "I've moved on from that". Reed is portrayed as an eccentric, imaginative child who does nothing but make grand claims. So when he actually shows something, its not surprising to see him be dismissed for making something disappear and reappear. He could have dismissed him by challenging him on the science behind it, but it is clear from the onset that he doesn't even like Reed.
The scene isn't bad, and yet people want to give half-assed descriptions to present it in the worst possible way. Same thing with the 'clobbering time' line. This is why I can't take some of you guys seriously.
TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared
Member
Thats complete horse-shit. Your telling me if a student showed you a fucking project like that, you'd be like 'oh its magic you suck?'
We see Bens brother and family once in the whole film, that brother has maybe two lines? So the whole 'its clobbering time' line comes across as complete and utter bollocks, frankly.
Triggerhappytel
Member
It sounds like they made a film called 'Fant4stic', but didn't actually want it to have anything to do with the source material. Good job, Trank!
Save me jebus
It's not dreadful. I think the poster that compared it to more of a 80s-era thing makes a bit more sense, as I was kind of thinking the same thing.
The spoiler I posted about the materials he used for his machine seemed far more out there, but yet we are nerds.
If Reed used a Dreamcast, this movie would have been 100% better!
Joel Was Right
Member
How is it that you've seen the film 3 times and cannot understand the teacher finds Reed to be a crazy kid? How can you not see that his bias against Reed -- which is understandable considering his claims of building flying cars -- is likely to see him dismissed?
If a teenager showed me that same experiment, I would be impressed. But if I knew him as a small child making BS claims and then shows something spectacular to me? Would I be likely to call him a genius in response? Probably not. Would I even look at this experiment with a neutral mind? Unlikely.
You need to understand the context behind these scenes.
Lashley
Why does he wear the mask!?
Even with context it sounds like shit writing
Agreed
Nope Greatest superhero movie and the only good Shamalamadingdong movie.
In the context of the scene, and what happens during it, yeah. The teacher would have been correct with his statement. The scene prior with the teacher felt more cold and dumb for being so dismissive.
The brother scene isn't really awful in motion either. He says it pretty swiftly to the point where you can miss it easily. There is no dialog that really focuses on him for any sort of duration. Only reason Ben's family exists is to point out his social standing in the film.
Joel Was Right
Member
It's not worth mentioning, no. There are actually good scenes in this film, some quite emotional and some that are clever. I'm just saying it didn't stand out as a cringe worthy moment, or something that makes you think "gah, wtf is this". We could do similar for other Marvel/Fox films of scenes that sound like shit on paper.
It really isn't. Out of the three major twitter "lines" that people have been harping, it translates to film fine. Even the "Fantastic Four" reveal isn't anything drastically different from what the Avengers movies would have done.
It can't be stressed enough that these things aren't really the problem with the film. It's pretty much everything to do with structure here.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
God this is fuckin lame.
ScreenSplitter
Member
With all due respect, you sound like you have a huge tolerance for this sort of thing when it's related solely to this movie.
Did you think "If we can't protect the earth you can be damn sure we'll Avenge it" line was cheesy?
Bobby Roberts
Banned
I did. That shit was shoehorned in pretty poorly.
Joel Was Right
Member
Yeah it is, so is "you walk out of that door you're an Avenger". But it doesn't stand out in those films (maybe because of the several examples of poor dialogue), partially because I thought the delivery made it acceptable enough.
Steve Rodgers couldn't deliver that line, nor could Morgan Freeman (lol). But an emotionally unpredictable and erratic Tony Stark, known for his cheesy quips? It works for him. Then again, I'm defending this film because it does characterisation better than other Marvel films. Does that mean the characters are well written? That we have Shakespearean tension in the writing? Brilliant arcs? Do we even have 'good' writing in this film? No to all of them, but the fact that I felt it did it better than other films should highlight the oddity of labelling this movie as a category of shitness on its own.
ScreenSplitter
Member
It really doesn't though man. People have mentioned on various, literally dozens of sites that the characterisation is off, not for having "Shakespearean tension", but for being inconsistent, poorly acted (for direction or aptitude, whatever, Teller fucked up), and yes, the lines. No matter the performance, some lines are just bad. And you are criminally underselling the characterisations of the nearly twenty MCU films out there to fit your own argument. And it shows, poorly.
Joel Was Right
Member
I can point to several shitty lines in the film and examples of poor acting (agreed with Teller). But:
- Avengers 1 and 2
- Captain America films
- Thor films
- Hulk
- Amazing Spiderman 1 and 2
- GotG
Reed, Ben and Victor were better written, and better developed, characters than anything in those films in my opinion. I could actually sit down and blog about the relationship of these characters. I can't do that for the others in the above list. That's what I was looking and what I got. Ultimately, I really enjoyed it as a result. More so than I did with Man of Steel, Dark Knight Rises etc.
E the Shaggy
Junior Member
Look at Dr. Doom over here!
Er, well, I could.
In fact, even in a stinker like ASM 1 & 2, critics at least praised the chemistry between Peter and Gwen.
Lime_In_Da_Coconut
Banned
By lame, you mean hilarious, right?
ScreenSplitter
Member
Honestly it just sounds like you equate a dark tortured backstory with deep characterization. If Tony Stark's daddy issues had been played up or Starlord had a few poorly written monologues about his Mom's cancer would you have appreciated it further?
Nope, it's pretty fucking stupid and lame and tired.
E the Shaggy
Junior Member
With a $2.7mil debut last night, folks are now predicting the movie to do something around the lines of $30-35 mil this weekend. Ouch.
http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/ne...weak-start-with-2-7-million-thursday#/slide/1
http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/ne...weak-start-with-2-7-million-thursday#/slide/1
Pai Pai Master
Banned
Tony has a very clear character arc from Iron Man 1-3. To claim that there's nothing to write about there is simply bullshit.
It's fine if you prefer the character writing in one film over the other but don't start saying there's nothing of value in any of the MCU films because that's simply not true. Those movies live and die by their character writing and relationships, and that's why people give a shit about them and they resonate with people.
Stuff like Steve vs Bucky at the end of Winter Soldier works because there is excellent character development for Steve before that face-off. Even though I wasn't hot on the character, Tony vs Killian worked because Killian represented the kind of danger Tony was responsible for in his past life and he had grown so much since the events of the first film.
Obviously there have been missteps though - while the final battle in Thor 2 looked cool, it wasn't exciting because there was no interesting character dynamic between Thor and Malekith. Sounds like the final battle in F4 falls flat for similar reasons - Doom doesn't have sufficient character development, he's just a plot-driven boss fight meant to give the movie at least one superpower-driven action sequence.
It's fine if you prefer the character writing in one film over the other but don't start saying there's nothing of value in any of the MCU films because that's simply not true. Those movies live and die by their character writing and relationships, and that's why people give a shit about them and they resonate with people.
Stuff like Steve vs Bucky at the end of Winter Soldier works because there is excellent character development for Steve before that face-off. Even though I wasn't hot on the character, Tony vs Killian worked because Killian represented the kind of danger Tony was responsible for in his past life and he had grown so much since the events of the first film.
Obviously there have been missteps though - while the final battle in Thor 2 looked cool, it wasn't exciting because there was no interesting character dynamic between Thor and Malekith. Sounds like the final battle in F4 falls flat for similar reasons - Doom doesn't have sufficient character development, he's just a plot-driven boss fight meant to give the movie at least one superpower-driven action sequence.
Lime_In_Da_Coconut
Banned
Thats... Not so much? I am not so into boxoffice numbers.
ScreenSplitter
Member
I'll concede that Avengers 2 doesn't pay too much attention to character arcs outside of its focus on Natasha/Hulk and the twins. I think that whilst they're all about "it's all connected", they're too afraid of people not having watched prior films to fully take advantage of it.
I mean Tony and Cap are friends at the end of A2 even though it makes huge amounts of sense for Cap to be pissed at him. Irks me.
Amazing Spiderman 2 budget = $255 million vs Opening weekend = $91 million
Avengers budget = $220 million vs Opening weekend = $207 million
Fantastic 4 budget = $122 million vs Opening weekend = $30 million
Gordon Shumway
Banned
It's extremely poor. It was initially projected to open in the mid-50s, like the other two Fantastic Four movies.
- Status