Hey, everyone. The Batman/Superman timeline is on the way. But first, I wanted to get some feedback:
A lot of things went wrong with Fox and director Tim Story's first attempt at Marvel's first family. One of the biggest things that killed the film was the lack of story. Rather than using the origin as a springboard into a larger story, the origin instead took up the entire film; five people get superpowers and...then they deal with having superpowers. That's pretty much the gist of it.
With all this talk about the reboot, I wanted to share some stuff I've been thinking about lately. What would it look like if the movie had a thrilling story? More specifically, what would the origin look like? Many fans feel it would be best to skip the origin and hit the ground running with the reboot. But I like to think the origin can be repackaged in such a way that is better and different enough while giving the rest of the plot some momentum. (This outline of course supposes that Marvel gets the rights back so the FF can interact with SHIELD. If not, SHIELD can probably be replaced with generic government types, but who the hell wants to watch that?)
--We open with a re-do on the origin, except this time they're already in space as the Four bounce around their super-advanced shuttle (Reed's design, equipped with Stark technology) while watching a news report about them that gives the audience a quick rundown of the players and the mission (much like the Tony Stark bio from the beginning of Iron Man). This includes learning that Reed and Ben were war buddies along with clips of Reed doing a TED talk, and the way they react to the news report gives us some further insights into their characters.
--Then we get to the cosmic rays, or more likely a tear in space into the Negative Zone near Earth orbit. Either way the Four are there to take a closer look. Some scanning, probing and a few fateful decisions by Reed later and s*** goes crazy. They get a facefull of N-zone rays and blasted back to Earth. Some quick thinking by Ben the ace pilot saves them from skipping off the atmosphere, but landing is out of the question. Ben stays at the helm while the other three get to the escape pods, but because he turns into the Thing, he survives the crash.
--After that white-knuckle thrill ride, the escape pods land in a remote forested area. Reed, Sue and Johnny crawl out of their pods and find out (very quickly) that they've got super powers now. They meet up at the wreckage of the shuttle and discover that Ben survived! Well...sorta. You know how it goes.
--SHIELD shows up with their big guns and jack-booted thugs and rounds them all up. Because Ben's all monster-y he gets locked up in Hulk-chains and separated from the others. In their cell, they have some character-building back-and-forth as they try and grapple with possibly becoming SHIELD lab-rats for the rest of their lives.
--Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a Mole Man monster attacks the city. (Later we'll learn that this is tied to the cosmic thing somehow so it's not just a big contrivance.) Anyway, the TV in their cell (go with it) shows the attack on the news, so Reed Macgyvers up some radio stuff hack SHIELD's frequencies, allowing Reed, Sue and Johnny to catch wind of the whole monster situation as SHIELD forces divert to investigate. Some throwaway lines could indicate that the nearest Avengers are still a long way off. After some heated debate, the three decide they're going to help, but first they have to free Ben.
--They use their new powers to bust out and make their way to Ben's reinforced cell (another cell designed to contain Hulk). They undo his restraints, but Ben's feeling pretty down after staring death in the face and coming out the other side a hideous rock creature. (And now my favorite part.) Sue gets right in Ben's face and delivers this awesome pep talk, telling him he's still Ben Grimm, he's still a hero, he's still their friend, etc. and now it's time to suck it up and kick some ass. So Ben gets to his feet and declares, "It's clobberin' time".
--Before they can get out, Nick Fury corners them with a squad of agents, guns trained on the Four. He politely asks them to return to their cells until they can figure out what happened to them.
REED: Director Fury, I understand you have a situation on the ground. We're here to help.
FURY: 'fraid I can't allow that.
REED: I wasn't asking.
They stare each other down for a beat and we cut to the Four boarding a quinjet as Fury tells them in typical Fury fashion good luck and don't get killed.
--Long story short, they fly in and fight the monster in an extended action scene and emerge victorious, the crowd cheering for them. And now that their faces are on the front page, there's no way SHIELD can just stick them in a hole. Another news report fills us in on anything we missed, top it off with a little montage to transition to the next phase of the story and at approx. the 30-40 minute mark, we're off. The rest of the movie they get the hang of their powers while investigating the monster attack, eventually culminating in a showdown with the Mole Man and his minions. Y'know, classic Marvel. And at the end, we get a killer teaser for Dr. Doom.
How does that sound? Please comment, I'd love to hear your feedback!