It can’t possibly be worse than the first two films...right?
You’re watching Beyond The Trailer’s review of the NEW Fantastic Four...
Does anyone really care about The Fantastic Four? I mean, yeah, we’re SUPPOSED to because
they’re the first superhero team Stan Lee ever created - Marvel’s so called first
family - but the popularity of the characters has been in decline for years. In fact, I
bet you’re most familiar with Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm from their
interactions with other more popular characters - either as guest stars or in one of Marvel’s
epic comic book crossover events. Reed Richards and Sue Storm in Civil War. Reed and Sue’s
son Franklin in Onslaught. Johnny Storm in multiple Spider-Man comics. Etc. Etc. And
while comic book fans were mighty angry to hear that Marvel Comics was discontinuing
the Fantastic Four comic because - supposedly - they didn’t own the film rights, well,
nobody really bothered to buy that last issue either. It came in at number sixty-two for
the month, selling just under forty thousand copies. Maybe Marvel used the whole “first
family” angle to dupe Fox into buying the Fantastic Four film rights in the first place,
as the sale was part of a package deal made when Marvel was in desperate need of cash.
Furthermore, Fox has been reluctant to embrace the family aspects of the Fantastic Four.
While the studio originally considered having Steven Soderbergh direct, with George Clooney
and Charlize Theron starring, they ultimately went the safer route of Barbershop and Taxi’s
Tim Story directing another group of superpowered twenty-somethings - plus TV’s Michael Chiklis.
Fast-forward to today and the Fantastic Four are still very young, although this time that
casting has more merit as the reboot is heavily based on Mark Millar’s Ultimate Fantastic
Four storyline - which also wasn’t a huge seller. Plus interestingly, Millar is Fox’s
chief consultant on their Marvel films, and it looks like (GASP) he recommended his own
material! Chronicle’s Josh Trank was also brought on to give the film that darker edge
which is all the rage these days, yet Trank clashed with Fox to such a degree that the
resulting bad buzz lost him his Star Wars gig... Furthermore, this reboot has had to
deal with some racial tension, as some fans haven’t taken too kindly to Michael B Jordan
being cast as Johnny Storm - which also ties into Star Wars by the way, echoing some anger
over John Boyega being cast as one of that film’s leads. Then it’s important to point
out that there’s also an undercurrent of positivity here, believe it or not, with whispers
that Fox doesn’t seem to realize this is actually a pretty good film. But is “pretty
good” good enough to stand out in an oversaturated marketplace, with characters that were never
that popular to begin with and that have lost the few qualities that made them unique? Perhaps
what’s really at stake here is comic book movies in general, and that the fanboy appetite
for more movies might not match the mainstream appetite?