See the Teaser Trailer for the Fantastic Four Reboot
I’m a big fan of what Marvel has accomplished with their movie properties, but I didn’t enjoy the two Fantastic Four films. And I really wanted to — Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s FF was my favorite comic growing up, and I thrilled to the cosmic adventures of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm as they explored the Negative Zone and uncovered countless ancient mysteries (not to mention giant robots, weird alien races, and noble heralds on surf boards.)
But love of the source material only goes so far, and I don’t think the two films were well cast, or captured the true spirit of the comic. As Matthew David Surridge wisely pointed out in his lengthy look at Stan and Jack’s amazing 104-issue run, “The FF are explorers, not crime-fighters or warriors.” So I was pleased to see that — from what little I can puzzle out from the Teaser trailer released yesterday for the new reboot — the new version seems to focus on the explorer aspect of the team. This is from Marvel’s description:
Fantastic Four, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.
And here’s peek at the trailer itself. See what you think. Worth looking forward to?
Really? How many Hulk reboots do they need? What was wrong with Spiderman the first time? This reboot stuff is too soon and ridiculous. It might be a cool movie but they would be better served to extend the story or have a flash back origin within a new story.
HAS HOLLYWOOD LOST ITS CREATIVITY?
Ape,
They need to keep rebooting Hulk until they get it right.
And what was wrong with Spider-man the first time was that it had grown too expensive… Sam Raimi’s Spider-man 3 cost $258 million to make, and brought in only $336,530,303 domestic box office. The reboots have been cheaper, and thus more profitable. And while I mostly enjoyed Raimi’s Spider-man, I think ignoring the Gwen Stacey storyline was a critical oversight.
First, the Hulk reboot was needed because it was a different company and the first one was aweful. Ed Norton was really good.
When I first heard about the fantastic 4 remake I had hoped the movie rights went to Marvel, I don’t have high hopes for this one.
The spider man remake wasn’t needed but I though they did a much better job capturing the feel of the comics with the newer movies.
By all accounts (including this trailer) this version of the FF is based entirely on Marvel’s ULTIMATE FF comic–which recast the team as teenagers and used the multi-dimensional origin instead of the old-school “cosmic rays” origin. The comic version wasn’t bad–Warren Ellis wrote a lot of it–but it was farther away from the Lee/Kirby version than the FF had been done before–and that was okay because it wasn’t THE FF, it was the ULTIMATE FF. This version, to me, seems calculated (by Fox) to appeal to young demographics–to get the fans of HUNGER GAMES and TWILIGHT interested in the FF. I dont’ think we’ll get a truly Lee/Kirby version until Marvel gets the rights to the FF back from Fox. Will this version be any good? It’s possible–but it ain’t Lee/Kirby, it’s ULTIMATE FF.
Oh, and since it came up in the thread: I found the Raimi SPIDER-MAN far superior to the new revamped version. The new Spidey moves are well-intentioned, but quite redundant. They completely ruined The Lizard (a good man trapped in a monster’s body became just another a-hole villain), and the storylines have been in no way better than Raimi’s. Even Spider-Man 3, which was all over the place, was more interesting.
I guess Hollywood has not lost its creativity in the ways of making a quick million or two.
@John Fultz—I with you on Raimi. He is a storyteller. I think the Ultimate FF is far and away inferior to the Lee/Kirby storyline. I get that they want a wider appeal by way of African American superheroes but they do so at the removal of decades of a storyline already established. Again it begs the question: Has Hollywood lost its creativity? They can’t come up with a new action hero? They can’t create an appealing African American character with a snazzy costume?
Out of years of great stories the only one that has any value is the origin story? What about Thing yearning for his humanity? What about Torch getting over his immaturity? What about the hubris of Mr. Fantastic? Come on!
@John O’Neill—Joss Whedon brought the Hulk to life in the Avengers. It can be done but there is a lot of dead weight in the Hollywood director’s bullpen if you ask me. There are tons of Hulk stories. I fault the director for those scrub Hulk movies.
John — I forgot (if I ever knew) that this one was based on ULTIMATE FF.
I was a HUGE fan of Brian Michael Bendis’ ULTIMATE SPIDER MAN, which returned Peter Parker to his high school roots. Not so much ULTIMATE FF… for me the FF were at their best exploring new realms and dimensions, and that just made more sense with the superscience team of Lee and Kirby, not the super-brainy teens of ULTIMATE FF. Plus, I thought the Lee-Kirby issues were better (although I DID heartily enjoy the MARVEL ZOMBIES spin-offs…)
I’m still waiting for a worthwhile treatment of the Lee-Kirby FF, and I’m bummed this won’t be it. But I won’t pan the new Ultimate FF film without giving it a chance. The trailer looked pretty good, and I still think it could be fun.