I have actually read things towing both sides of the fence. One source says that the rights were traded for the ability to make Xmen TV shows. Another site says that the TV rights are held by a separate company (sub-division) all together and that such a deal is a logical impossibility. I'll wait till tickets go on sale before I buy either version.
Personally, I do hope that someone somewhere can make a decent FF movie and don't much care who it is. I think that both companies have potential to make good material, just this particular franchise seems to be problematic for some unexplained reason.
Fantastic Four was my favorite Marvel franchise growing up. I'd really like to see it done justice at the movies. The Hulk got two strikes before they finally got him right in the Avengers movies, so maybe "the third time's the charm" for the FF.
What the movie producers can't seem to get is that at its heart, FF is a science fiction. It needs a lot of cool technology and cool outer space and weird cosmic and inter-dimensional stuff to work. It's also critical that the family and friend dynamics be gotten right. As has been said, it would help if they could get Dr. Doom and Galactus right.
I agree that "The Incredibles" understood the Fantastic Four dynamic better than the Fantastic Four movies did. Even the Guardians of the Galaxy movie did a better job than the FF movies in creating a team with good, interesting chemistry and in getting the science fiction vibe right.
Over on the DC side, I think they're having similar problems getting the Green Lantern franchise to work as a movie series, for similar reasons.
Absolutely agree that the latest FF outing really lacked any sort of chemistry between the characters. You really did not care what happened or even who these people were. Further, the story was so very disjointed that, in one scene a character very uncharacteristically (for the comic character) goes off and leaves the others for an unusual length of time (trying not to be spoilerish) and then comes back for apparently no readily obvious reason. Another survives in the un-survivable for longer than, well... was possible, again for no readily apparent reason. Oh, they give 'Reasons' in the movie, but they are hardly coherent in my view and simply (don't laugh) implausible.
They do need to get Doom correct at minimum. He doesn't seem that difficult a character to crack, but both versions thus far just are so far from the mark that it begs the question of why would you leave the character in the hands of someone who doesn't understand him?
Galactus is perhaps a harder animal to get right, but yeah. I don't think it's as tough as they have made it out. And although it might be sacrilegious to say, I think the franchise could do without him at least initially.
But yes, more space and gadgets, better characters and story and more of a sense of family and maybe the movies won't suck as much.
Fantastic Four was my favorite Marvel franchise growing up. I'd really like to see it done justice at the movies. The Hulk got two strikes before they finally got him right in the Avengers movies, so maybe "the third time's the charm" for the FF.
This latest one *was* the third time. The first one was where they got their powers, then "Rise of the Silver Surfer" and now this... thing. And not even the THING.
@LadyRhian - it is easy to miss "Rise of the Silver Surfer". Aside from the fact that they got Galactus definitively wrong, in addition to the debacle that was Doom, it was written pretty poorly and not very well directed. Add in the fact that it was positioned more as a platform for Silver Surfer than it was an actual FF sequel (beware of this DC) and you have the receipt for an all around forgettable movie.
This is true @the_spyder. I was so disappointed in both of them. I didn't even see the new one, as it just looked like a horrible mess. Apparently, I was correct in that assumption. :P
I thought the first half of the new FF movie was decent. If the movie ended there I might have given it a 7/10 (definitely not something that is recommendable but also not something that is terrible).
Its just the second half of the movie that really tanked it.
Though the stupid plot holes like the fact that they could somehow communicate between Earth and the other dimension/world even when the transportation device was turned off did not help.
@elminster - opinions are highly subjective and I respect yours.
For my personal opinion, even the first half of the latest outing was less than what I've come to expect from a Marvel movie (from either company). The premise wasn't terrible, but the execution was something else. Yes, there were huge plot holes and yes the movie was horribly rushed through the various plot points to such a degree that if they had actually took their time and broken it into two, it might have worked. And yes, quite a lot of those plot points made no logical sense such that more appropriate pacing might have actually allowed for something good. With that having been said, yes the story that they intended to tell (seemingly) could have worked, I suppose, but it fell down more times than it succeeded.
What struck me the most was the complete lack of chemistry between the characters and the lack of coherent purpose for them to be who and where they were and why. Even the previous two movies had something of a 'family' feel to the characters which this one lacked. There comes a point in the movie where one character slips away and leaves the rest for a really long time. This made no sense considering who the character was and what their relationship was supposed to be. And them coming back made some sense, but not really for the reasons that they list or in the manner that it happened. (trying to be spoiler light here).
What I'm surprised at is the fact that it made money. I thought for sure it was going to tank. When I saw it in the theatre, maybe 3 days after release, there was only 3 other people in the theatre.
Did it make money? IMDB lists it as a budget of 120,000,000 (estimated) and only grossing a little over 56,000,000. Now admittedly that is before DVD/Blu-ray sales, but still.
Cool. Thanks for that. Did not know. And did you see that they are already listing FF2? Is that happening? I hope that they do a better job than the first one.
Its confirmed as happening. I'm sure when they were negotiating for the first movie they made sure to require the actors to sign up for the second movie as well. That seems to be how these movies go now.
Cool. Thanks for that. Did not know. And did you see that they are already listing FF2? Is that happening? I hope that they do a better job than the first one.
Profit = sequel I guess.
Kinda them same principle as "if it ain't broke don't fix it" but in a bad way.
In most cases, certainly. Unfortunately, it also means that they keep on re-grinding up franchises from the past instead of working on new and good things. More's the shame.
@LadyRhian - it is easy to miss "Rise of the Silver Surfer". Aside from the fact that they got Galactus definitively wrong, in addition to the debacle that was Doom, it was written pretty poorly and not very well directed. Add in the fact that it was positioned more as a platform for Silver Surfer than it was an actual FF sequel (beware of this DC) and you have the receipt for an all around forgettable movie.
I think it was quite an enjoyable light hearted romp.
I kind of think big purple guy with horns on his hat is incredibly dumb for what Galactus is supposed to be, in any medium. As I've said before, I'm not a purist who thinks that anything is wonderful if it was in the comics.
The voice performance for the Silver Surfer was excellent.
@LadyRhian - it is easy to miss "Rise of the Silver Surfer". Aside from the fact that they got Galactus definitively wrong, in addition to the debacle that was Doom, it was written pretty poorly and not very well directed. Add in the fact that it was positioned more as a platform for Silver Surfer than it was an actual FF sequel (beware of this DC) and you have the receipt for an all around forgettable movie.
I think it was quite an enjoyable light hearted romp.
I kind of think big purple guy with horns on his hat is incredibly dumb for what Galactus is supposed to be, in any medium. As I've said before, I'm not a purist who thinks that anything is wonderful if it was in the comics.
The voice performance for the Silver Surfer was excellent.
The voice might of been good, but a Silver Surfer who doesn't monologue continuously is just wrong.
@LadyRhian - it is easy to miss "Rise of the Silver Surfer". Aside from the fact that they got Galactus definitively wrong, in addition to the debacle that was Doom, it was written pretty poorly and not very well directed. Add in the fact that it was positioned more as a platform for Silver Surfer than it was an actual FF sequel (beware of this DC) and you have the receipt for an all around forgettable movie.
I think it was quite an enjoyable light hearted romp.
Couldn't DISagree more. The Doom surfboard scene was too stupid to enjoy the rest of the movie.
I kind of think big purple guy with horns on his hat is incredibly dumb for what Galactus is supposed to be, in any medium. As I've said before, I'm not a purist who thinks that anything is wonderful if it was in the comics.
The voice performance for the Silver Surfer was excellent.
Couldn't Agree more. Big purple guy, much like the octopus squid monster in Watchmen, is too absurd for the live action medium.
We have a Loki with horns on his helmet. People said that was a bridge too far before it happened...
And didn't Wolverine make some comment about not wanting to wear 'yellow and blue jumpsuit'? in the original X-men movie? Some comic things just don't translate well into movies.
Then there's the whole "Marvel standard issue...". I think that if actresses were chosen based on that criteria, the overall quality of the movies would suffer and degenerate into quite a different genre entirely.
While not quite as compelling as Daredevil, I thought it was good! Dark and gritty but with some fun.
My only fear is that they are basically out of source material already... I was expecting them to have more "Mystery of the Week" type episodes where Jessica Jones solves mysteries involving multiple Marvel characters with the main storyline with Purple Man (Killgrave) in the background to slowly build up, but they stuck entirely with the Purple Man story.
It seems they are going into that IGH story for the second season, to explain how Jessica got her powers. That could be really interesting.
I thought it started out very strong, but got a bit thinner at the end. The neighbor characters got less and less interesting and more tedious as the story went on.
I REALLY liked the supporting cast though, and the Trish (Hellcat from the comics) character was really interesting. Also they did a GREAT job casting Simpson (he DID really look like Steve Rogers/Chris Evans). I didn't really like the timing of the Simpson storyline however, as it kinda took time away from developing the Killgrave arc.
Oh yeah... and Luke Cage was AWESOME. Perfect casting really. The first "Sweet Christmas" was also really well done.
My one complaint: so many missed opportunities for cameos! Maybe a phone call between Luke and Iron Fist/Danny Rand would have been nice. Or more importantly: Jeryn Hogarth in court arguing against Matt Murdock/Daredevil. That would have been an ideal nod to the flagship Netflix/Marvel title and an inkling of things to come.
I don't think Iron Fist is active yet; and Hogarth and Murdock are both defence attorneys, so they wouldn't be arguing against each other. Practically, cameos depend on the availability of the appropriate actors.
Comments
Personally, I do hope that someone somewhere can make a decent FF movie and don't much care who it is. I think that both companies have potential to make good material, just this particular franchise seems to be problematic for some unexplained reason.
What the movie producers can't seem to get is that at its heart, FF is a science fiction. It needs a lot of cool technology and cool outer space and weird cosmic and inter-dimensional stuff to work. It's also critical that the family and friend dynamics be gotten right. As has been said, it would help if they could get Dr. Doom and Galactus right.
I agree that "The Incredibles" understood the Fantastic Four dynamic better than the Fantastic Four movies did. Even the Guardians of the Galaxy movie did a better job than the FF movies in creating a team with good, interesting chemistry and in getting the science fiction vibe right.
Over on the DC side, I think they're having similar problems getting the Green Lantern franchise to work as a movie series, for similar reasons.
They do need to get Doom correct at minimum. He doesn't seem that difficult a character to crack, but both versions thus far just are so far from the mark that it begs the question of why would you leave the character in the hands of someone who doesn't understand him?
Galactus is perhaps a harder animal to get right, but yeah. I don't think it's as tough as they have made it out. And although it might be sacrilegious to say, I think the franchise could do without him at least initially.
But yes, more space and gadgets, better characters and story and more of a sense of family and maybe the movies won't suck as much.
Its just the second half of the movie that really tanked it.
Though the stupid plot holes like the fact that they could somehow communicate between Earth and the other dimension/world even when the transportation device was turned off did not help.
For my personal opinion, even the first half of the latest outing was less than what I've come to expect from a Marvel movie (from either company). The premise wasn't terrible, but the execution was something else. Yes, there were huge plot holes and yes the movie was horribly rushed through the various plot points to such a degree that if they had actually took their time and broken it into two, it might have worked. And yes, quite a lot of those plot points made no logical sense such that more appropriate pacing might have actually allowed for something good. With that having been said, yes the story that they intended to tell (seemingly) could have worked, I suppose, but it fell down more times than it succeeded.
What struck me the most was the complete lack of chemistry between the characters and the lack of coherent purpose for them to be who and where they were and why. Even the previous two movies had something of a 'family' feel to the characters which this one lacked. There comes a point in the movie where one character slips away and leaves the rest for a really long time. This made no sense considering who the character was and what their relationship was supposed to be. And them coming back made some sense, but not really for the reasons that they list or in the manner that it happened. (trying to be spoiler light here).
Again, in my personal and subjective view.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=fantasticfour15.htm
Kinda them same principle as "if it ain't broke don't fix it" but in a bad way.
1) The ''fish out of water'' humor went overboard, making Thor look like a doofus.
2) Lame villains(except for Loki who is pretty awesome).
3) Cool characters like Sif and the three warriors getting the shaft while Darcy and Selving got more screen time.
4) No Beta-Ray Bill or Balder the Brave.
5) The romantic plot tumor between Jane and Thor.
I kind of think big purple guy with horns on his hat is incredibly dumb for what Galactus is supposed to be, in any medium. As I've said before, I'm not a purist who thinks that anything is wonderful if it was in the comics.
The voice performance for the Silver Surfer was excellent.
Couldn't Agree more. Big purple guy, much like the octopus squid monster in Watchmen, is too absurd for the live action medium.
Then there's the whole "Marvel standard issue...". I think that if actresses were chosen based on that criteria, the overall quality of the movies would suffer and degenerate into quite a different genre entirely.
While not quite as compelling as Daredevil, I thought it was good! Dark and gritty but with some fun.
My only fear is that they are basically out of source material already... I was expecting them to have more "Mystery of the Week" type episodes where Jessica Jones solves mysteries involving multiple Marvel characters with the main storyline with Purple Man (Killgrave) in the background to slowly build up, but they stuck entirely with the Purple Man story.
It seems they are going into that IGH story for the second season, to explain how Jessica got her powers. That could be really interesting.
I thought it started out very strong, but got a bit thinner at the end. The neighbor characters got less and less interesting and more tedious as the story went on.
I REALLY liked the supporting cast though, and the Trish (Hellcat from the comics) character was really interesting. Also they did a GREAT job casting Simpson (he DID really look like Steve Rogers/Chris Evans). I didn't really like the timing of the Simpson storyline however, as it kinda took time away from developing the Killgrave arc.
Oh yeah... and Luke Cage was AWESOME. Perfect casting really. The first "Sweet Christmas" was also really well done.
My one complaint: so many missed opportunities for cameos! Maybe a phone call between Luke and Iron Fist/Danny Rand would have been nice. Or more importantly: Jeryn Hogarth in court arguing against Matt Murdock/Daredevil. That would have been an ideal nod to the flagship Netflix/Marvel title and an inkling of things to come.