That one always looked like a parody of coming of age indie movies.
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FANT4STIC 4OUR |OT| Fantastic 4/10
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That one always looked like a parody of coming of age indie movies.
Sibersk Esto
Banned
DizzyCaffeine
Member
Whatever minor profits they made just got obliterated, though.
I said the exact same thing. Like every coming of age hipster trope ever.
George Oscar Bluth II
Banned
Spy made money though.
Nydius
Member
I didn't even realize Poltergeist came out. My wife just asked about reviews for it. The TV spots disappeared so suddenly I thought they were teasers for a fall release.
DizzyCaffeine
Member
It did, but not as much as you might think. For a comedy, a $65 million budget isn't small. I think they were hoping for somewhere in the $150 million range, like The Heat and Bridesmaids.
Loved it, btw.
So basically this?
If Marvel gets the rights I hope they go full spite mode and make the after credits stinger Miles Teller and Ioan Gruffudd coming through MCU Reed's bridge setting up the Council of Reeds. Just to prove that they can turn any garbage into gold.
Then I hope they make Miles into the Maker
roflwaffles
Member
The first one is pretty awful all around aside from Johnny Storm, the second one is a guilty pleasure for me.
Like, I know it's not a well-made film by any means, but even the most cringe worthy scene where Reed is dancing with those club rats is entertaining to me.
E the Shaggy
Junior Member
Because Fox hates the Fantastic Four, the concept I mean. They keep arbitrarily changing things based on test audiences and market research rather than doing what makes Marvel's movies successful: being true to the source material.
With X-Men, at the end of the day, it's an easy concept that people can relate to. With FF, it's more difficult and rather than going the extra mile to bring a difficult vision to life, they bring on writers, directors, and actors who all think that the basic premise is ridiculous/impossible to translate so we get terrible ill fitting "drama" that tries to appeal to a younger/broad market while also throwing shit in like a hacker Doom because Gamer Gate is big at the time.
You left out worldwide, Spy did around 230.
Dominican Power
Member
I haven't seen the movie but I'm hearing how dreadful the film is. How the fuck do you fuck up FF? The characters and the stuff they get into is fucking movie gold. It's a movie that you'll take the whole family to see. Marvel Studios would of made FF one of their more popular franchises and tie them in with the rest of the cinematic universe. FF is all about a family that goes on cosmic adventures.
Just got back from seeing it. I'm alive. That's good.
No spoilers, but it's not the total disaster I was expecting. It's a super sloppy movie. Terrible CG and awful action. The pacing is all over the place and time jumps are super weird. There's no character development and the movie completely glosses over key setups and then doesn't pay off with others.
It's rampant with strange decisions and to be honest, it feels like an ironically "edgy" 1990's cartoon. It tries so hard and it thinks it's so good. Its arrogance as a movie is only rivaled by Doom himself.
Don't even get me started on Doom.
That said, it has glimmers of potential. It's completely watchable and the beginning is super solid. However, our standards as movie goers have evolved since the 90s. It's not 4%. It's probably closer to 60%. It just leave a lot to be desired.
Edit: And one more thing!
This is an interpretation of the Fantastic Four. I did not mind that as much, but it's something to keep in mind if you do want to see it. I honestly don't recommend it, but definitely don't go in expecting the themes you've come to expect with FF stories. They're generally not present.
No spoilers, but it's not the total disaster I was expecting. It's a super sloppy movie. Terrible CG and awful action. The pacing is all over the place and time jumps are super weird. There's no character development and the movie completely glosses over key setups and then doesn't pay off with others.
It's rampant with strange decisions and to be honest, it feels like an ironically "edgy" 1990's cartoon. It tries so hard and it thinks it's so good. Its arrogance as a movie is only rivaled by Doom himself.
Don't even get me started on Doom.
That said, it has glimmers of potential. It's completely watchable and the beginning is super solid. However, our standards as movie goers have evolved since the 90s. It's not 4%. It's probably closer to 60%. It just leave a lot to be desired.
Edit: And one more thing!
This is an interpretation of the Fantastic Four. I did not mind that as much, but it's something to keep in mind if you do want to see it. I honestly don't recommend it, but definitely don't go in expecting the themes you've come to expect with FF stories. They're generally not present.
ASSauLTxMasTER
Member
just came back from seeing it.
the fuck happened there, Marvel? Sloppy, sloppy everything.
the fuck happened there, Marvel? Sloppy, sloppy everything.
Marvel had nothing to do with this movie. It was all Fox.
DizzyCaffeine
Member
For sure. When you consider that marketing is another $40 million at least (in just North America), it's unfortunately a modest success at best.
Same with Poltergeist. $95 million worldwide on a $35 million budget doesn't seem bad...until you consider the money spent on marketing.
Paper Towns could be their most profitable movie of the summer.
ASSauLTxMasTER
Member
Welp.
Better hope that Marvel buys back the movie rights to the Fantastic Four, because Fox sure as hell isn't gonna make a good Fantastic Four movie at this rate.
I'm surprised Marvel hasn't asked for Fox to remove the Marvel tag from the opening credits on these movies. It's not doing Marvel any favors, the confusion only helps Fox.
Oh uh, I hope the normally person isn't under the impression that this is a Marvel movie.
As long as the full-on Marvel Studios logo isn't in front of the movie, it won't be as confusing.
Alright, so here goes:
Fantastic Four was a mediocre movie. It wasn't bad, it wasn't good. The negativity around it is certainly warranted, but it began with a pretty good introduction.
Everything was actually just fine, from Reed and Ben meeting as kids ("It's clobberin' time!" from Ben's brother wasn't so insane) to the moment the accident happened the moment they teleported back to their lab.
Reed was an outcast and nobody understood him, but then he met Ben, who was also an outcast in his own right. They didn't really make an emphasis on his side of things, merely that his brother was abusive ("It's clobberin' time!"), but he had a protective mother to watch over him. The main character in all of this was clearly Reed. What was such a squandered opportunity early on was keeping the Reed/Ben relationship light. I think it could've used a bit more padding, but it wasn't bad.
They played the misunderstood genius a little too hard with Reed's teacher brushing off Reed's discovery of teleportation as a magic trick, but it wasn't overly offensive. It's like his teacher was deliberately sabotaging him - maybe he knew what would happen.
Ben was clearly just an accessory in the story, but they never let you forget that Reed and Ben are best friends. From the first scene to the science fair, it felt like there were some heavy cuts. It feels to me like there's more. Nonetheless, it was still good.
It gets even better once Reed starts working at the Baxter Building. Reed working at the lab with Victor, Susan, and eventually, Johnny was my personal highlight for the movie. I forgot for a moment that this was superhero movie with the way that was all done. The cast had great chemistry with how they were all building the machine. I'm actually glad they didn't push too hard on the Reed and Susan romance - in fact, they barely did. It was very subtle, and I appreciated that.
Victor was an interesting character, and was really inoffensive at this stage. He's supposed to be a recluse, and the way they had him break out of that shell with all of them hanging out while building the machine was good. But he was still clearly ambitious.
It falls apart the moment Reed drunkenly decides to use the teleportation machine. The motivation was idiotic and out of character, especially for a smart guy like Reed. I was expecting Victor to be the one to tell them to get in the machine.
After they all wake up at Area 57, things really start to crawl. I hated that Reed ran away. It seems initially like he was just in a panic, but all of a sudden, it becomes Reed vs. the Government. Especially with him suddenly hacking government databases looking into Ben's files.
Shit really hit the fan when Victor was brought back and he just started causing shit. Motivation felt weak. He hates the world, and now wants to destroy it and make a new one - uh, okay. I can understand the angle that the other dimension fucked him up mentally after being there for a year, but it just felt off the way it all played out.
"There is no Victor, only Doom" - that probably sounded good on paper, but execution was meh.
The fight between them and Doom was lackluster. Played out like a boss villain in a video game.
Personal standout for the entire movie is Michael B. Jordan. He had the charisma to pull off Johnny Storm.
Kate Mara came off a bit stiff, but that seems to be the way Susan was characterized.
Miles Teller was also good in the role. He has that whole "unconventional leading man" type locked down.
Jamie Bell was nonexistent. His best performance was the scene between him and Reed at the Baxter Building with Ben giving Reed his Swiss Army knife. Was he even doing voice work and/or mocap for Thing? It didn't really matter much. The part in the beginning where I said Ben felt more an accessory really shines through the more the movie played out.
To summarize: good beginning, slow and dicey middle, terrible climax. Ending was inoffensive.
Everything was actually just fine, from Reed and Ben meeting as kids ("It's clobberin' time!" from Ben's brother wasn't so insane) to the moment the accident happened the moment they teleported back to their lab.
Reed was an outcast and nobody understood him, but then he met Ben, who was also an outcast in his own right. They didn't really make an emphasis on his side of things, merely that his brother was abusive ("It's clobberin' time!"), but he had a protective mother to watch over him. The main character in all of this was clearly Reed. What was such a squandered opportunity early on was keeping the Reed/Ben relationship light. I think it could've used a bit more padding, but it wasn't bad.
They played the misunderstood genius a little too hard with Reed's teacher brushing off Reed's discovery of teleportation as a magic trick, but it wasn't overly offensive. It's like his teacher was deliberately sabotaging him - maybe he knew what would happen.
Ben was clearly just an accessory in the story, but they never let you forget that Reed and Ben are best friends. From the first scene to the science fair, it felt like there were some heavy cuts. It feels to me like there's more. Nonetheless, it was still good.
It gets even better once Reed starts working at the Baxter Building. Reed working at the lab with Victor, Susan, and eventually, Johnny was my personal highlight for the movie. I forgot for a moment that this was superhero movie with the way that was all done. The cast had great chemistry with how they were all building the machine. I'm actually glad they didn't push too hard on the Reed and Susan romance - in fact, they barely did. It was very subtle, and I appreciated that.
Victor was an interesting character, and was really inoffensive at this stage. He's supposed to be a recluse, and the way they had him break out of that shell with all of them hanging out while building the machine was good. But he was still clearly ambitious.
It falls apart the moment Reed drunkenly decides to use the teleportation machine. The motivation was idiotic and out of character, especially for a smart guy like Reed. I was expecting Victor to be the one to tell them to get in the machine.
After they all wake up at Area 57, things really start to crawl. I hated that Reed ran away. It seems initially like he was just in a panic, but all of a sudden, it becomes Reed vs. the Government. Especially with him suddenly hacking government databases looking into Ben's files.
Shit really hit the fan when Victor was brought back and he just started causing shit. Motivation felt weak. He hates the world, and now wants to destroy it and make a new one - uh, okay. I can understand the angle that the other dimension fucked him up mentally after being there for a year, but it just felt off the way it all played out.
"There is no Victor, only Doom" - that probably sounded good on paper, but execution was meh.
The fight between them and Doom was lackluster. Played out like a boss villain in a video game.
Personal standout for the entire movie is Michael B. Jordan. He had the charisma to pull off Johnny Storm.
Kate Mara came off a bit stiff, but that seems to be the way Susan was characterized.
Miles Teller was also good in the role. He has that whole "unconventional leading man" type locked down.
Jamie Bell was nonexistent. His best performance was the scene between him and Reed at the Baxter Building with Ben giving Reed his Swiss Army knife. Was he even doing voice work and/or mocap for Thing? It didn't really matter much. The part in the beginning where I said Ben felt more an accessory really shines through the more the movie played out.
To summarize: good beginning, slow and dicey middle, terrible climax. Ending was inoffensive.
Ganzlinger
Member
Yep. I have a cousin that doesn't know anything about comics and just like to watch the movies, but I was surprised when I brought Guardians of the Galaxy to show him and when he saw the Marvel logo he said: "Wait! is this from Marvel? Then must be really good!" That was the first time I realized how Marvel movies are having a great status with the "casual" people. I can see myself explaining to him the Fox deal with Marvel due to this FF failure.
Marvel doesn't have the bandwidth to do them, I think they are happier with various properties farmed out.
They still need the cosmic characters. On top of that, Doctor Doom would be a great Phase 4 villain, & a proper F4 reboot done right could easily headline Phase 4 as Marvel starts to run low on potential sequels.
Ganzlinger
Member
7 years iirc
Choppasmith
Member
7 years iirc
Gordon Shumway
Banned
BattleMonkey
Member
None of those movies had much of an advertising budget. None were treated like big blockbusters needing tons of exposures.
7 years
Supposedly there were three fight scenes but fox cut them and changed the ending as well.
http://comicbook.com/2015/08/08/fantastic-four-fox-reportedly-cut-3-action-scenes-days-before-jo/
http://comicbook.com/2015/08/08/fantastic-four-fox-reportedly-cut-3-action-scenes-days-before-jo/
torre_avenue
Banned
For anyone wondering how the film turned out the way it did, EW did a report of sorts on Josh Trank & the behind-the-scenes turmoil of F4.
To me, it seems that Trank's mostly to blame here, with his behavior being described as "combative and destructive" to the crew and everyone. But who the fuck knows if these sources can be trusted. It seems too convenient that Fox is being portrayed as the studio that sought to save Trank's reputation from his behavior on set.
At the same time, I do think what Joe Carnahan says is right. If Nolan or Wright or anyone else had taken the job for this, we would have been praying that this movie would get made. Regardless of your opinion on the film, the Internet had it out for Trank & F4 from the beginning, and it played out exactly the way it wanted it to; bombing at the box office with Marvel Studios being the only group that might benefit from this debacle.
To me, it seems that Trank's mostly to blame here, with his behavior being described as "combative and destructive" to the crew and everyone. But who the fuck knows if these sources can be trusted. It seems too convenient that Fox is being portrayed as the studio that sought to save Trank's reputation from his behavior on set.
At the same time, I do think what Joe Carnahan says is right. If Nolan or Wright or anyone else had taken the job for this, we would have been praying that this movie would get made. Regardless of your opinion on the film, the Internet had it out for Trank & F4 from the beginning, and it played out exactly the way it wanted it to; bombing at the box office with Marvel Studios being the only group that might benefit from this debacle.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
7 years iirc.
Nintendoga
Member
Just saw it. That sure was a movie.
Some particular lines from the movie that simply left me awestruck.
This isn't the worst but god damn it's probably the most boring Superhero movie ever. It started out promising but only went downhill.
There was only one fight scene in the entire movie. For a Superhero movie that just feels unacceptable imo. Also it took over an hour and nineteen minutes for the F4 to be in the same scene together. Wtf. And I can't believe they pulled that sloppy "1 Year Later" bit after they got their powers. The point of an origins story is for the superheroes to discover and use their powers for the first time, not skip over it.
Sue and Johnny felt more like side characters in this tbh, like it focused more on Ben and Reed's relationship. Which isn't a bad thing, in fact their relationship was probably the best part of the movie.
Sue and Johnny felt more like side characters in this tbh, like it focused more on Ben and Reed's relationship. Which isn't a bad thing, in fact their relationship was probably the best part of the movie.
Some particular lines from the movie that simply left me awestruck.
When Victor is evil and tries to kill everyone.
Reed: Victor don't do this!
Victor: There is no Victor. There is only Doom.
Reed: Victor don't do this!
Victor: There is no Victor. There is only Doom.
Ending lines from where they're talking about naming the group.
Reed: We've come along way since the garage.
Ben: Yeah, it's fantastic
Reed: .....say that again....
Ben: ....Fantastic?
Reed: Yes it is. Guys, I got it, The Fa-
FANTASTIC FOUR LOGO POPS UP
Reed: We've come along way since the garage.
Ben: Yeah, it's fantastic
Reed: .....say that again....
Ben: ....Fantastic?
Reed: Yes it is. Guys, I got it, The Fa-
FANTASTIC FOUR LOGO POPS UP
This isn't the worst but god damn it's probably the most boring Superhero movie ever. It started out promising but only went downhill.
lazybones18
Banned
Real conversation with my oldest brother:
Brother: Thinking about seeing Fantastic 4
Me: Why? Haven't you seen Rogue Nation or Antman?
Brother (I'm not joking): Man, Antman looks gay and I'll see Mission Impossible on Bluray.
Me (In my head):
Should have said "It's Clobberin' Time!" and then proceed to beat him
Nintendoga
Member
Oh yeah, speaking of "It's Clobberin Time!"
Yeah Ben's brother says it before he slaps him, but near the end of the film right before Ben hits Victor he yells "It's Clobberin Time!" so uh...line redeemed?
DizzyCaffeine
Member
$40 million on marketing is the norm for a medium size pic. That much was spent on Tammy from last year, for example, which had a budget of just $20 million.
Joel Was Right
Member
I feel vindicated after reading more of these GAF impressions. Movie is of two halves. You will enjoy the first half, and it will surprise you how much you're enjoying it because of the bad reviews you read before walking in.
It's not a superhero movie. It falls apart when it tries to be. But it is about two friends. All the other criticism is legit.
It's not a superhero movie. It falls apart when it tries to be. But it is about two friends. All the other criticism is legit.
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