MrSotoMans EDITORIAL: Fantastic Four, So Far

Hello everyone, before I start this editorial I just wanna say to all of you

For taking the time to read this.

PRE-PRODUCTION

When the movie found it's writer back in 2009, many were wondering what this movie would be like now with all the hope of wondering what a good Fantastic Four movie would look like. Again, this was before of the massive trust of Marvel Studios has of right now, and at the time the beginning of the end of other studios other than Marvel Studios making good comic book movies. When writers Michael Green & Akiva Goldsman joined production, it became some what of a journey of what are they going to do to make us feel like we wanna journey with these characters?

As years went by we were left in shrouded darkness as to what the movie is going to be, all we were granted was the idea of a reboot rather than continuing the past 2 movies that left comic book fans in a sour note and another reason to be negative towards a production company not the producer Avi Arad (don't worry he's on my list). Now just less than 2 years ago, we were greeted with the director Josh Trank whose big hit from FOX the year before in 2011 was Chronicle, an original superhero tale told in the confines of using found footage as a way to tell the story of the movie. Many fans had a glimmer of hope when this happened, some others did not thinking still that this movie was destined to fail. After all, all hope was lost the moment the first movie was released, not to mention the nails in the coffin of the sequel for comic book fans. Personally as a comic book fan I found a lot of it questionable but yet some how in a good way. I see that several writers have actually came in and out of production of the movie, including writers we have never heard of. Maybe it's FOX's way of actually caring about the production, instead of meeting a summer tentpole release. I know everyone cries foul on this, but if this was FOX back in let's say 2008 trying to reboot Fantastic Four, we would of already seen a reboot by 2011 with X-Men First Class. Something tells me though, this isn't the case, especially with the writers starting in 2009 and there was no rush unlike First Class that had several writers every week trying to work out the story of the movie, this production just seems different. Reason why you may feel indifferent is because you are pretty much shrouded in darkness as to what to expect from the movie or have knowledge as to what is to come, that is until of last year in 2013....everything went downhill from there for the secret Fantastic Four fans.

CHOICES OF CAST

First off let's begin where rumors of cast began to circulate. I remember back then in 2013 when Adrian Brody was at one point attatched to play Mr. Fantastic, but that was during the release of Predators which we all know how that came about when seeing him as a viable action movie star. Then something really came in full "Storm", Michael B. Jordan was rumored to play Johnny Storm. Immediately and admittely including myself, was shocked to realize that this idea was horrid. Shamefully it was because of his skin color of course not representing what the comic book character looked like. It was obvious one was white and one was black, many other fans like me couldn't stand this idea. Many others, defended this idea thinking it didn't matter what color the character was, as long as the movie was good or just respected who the character was and to look past the stereotype. As time flew by and the rumor persisted, I realized....who cares. In all honesty, there has been so many changes in every CBM to date. What us fans though seem to skim by when we realize the changes, is the fact that it is a "good movie" rather than making sure that the source material is followed to the tee. It's an illusion to comic book fans that works tremendously, hell it even worked with Iron Man 3 and Iron Man 2, Thor: The Dark World where we accept new characters like Darcy, or movies such as The Dark Knight Rises where Batman out right passes the mantle, but the importance of is to make a "good movie" first rather than figure out what you can do with the source material differently.

To no end I immediately ignored that true fact, and even though the art in comic books is just as precious as the writing in comic books, I felt that it was best just to truly ignore the simple fact that he is black. Come to think of it, it has grown on to me more and more even though many people I discussed this with are pretty much raising eyebrows.

So after that, there was rumors of Miles Teller being cast as Mr. Fantastic. Anybody familar with his work will realize that the actor seems to have the ability to make you laugh, a comedian if you will. As an actor though, and what makes a great actor is that you can range from certain qualities of the movie and not to think of the genre but what character you are playing. For instance 21 & Over, Miles Teller stars in the movie and the moment it begins he is immediately telling jokes but not because the movie or plot demands it, but his character demands to be this eccentric but yet rough no life loser who is just looking for a good time. That is the character, not that the plot demands it but that's how he conveys the character and pretty much nailed it. Then you watch Divergent, he is a totally different character. His character comes across as a bully, but also someone who mainly doesn't care about teaming but but rather use the survival instinct of looking after yourself. Not to mention The Spectacular Now where he want an award as Sundance, that right there I think is enough suffice to being a good actor. Again I never saw his audition so i can not say he is a terrible addition to the movie.







Then there is the least of the troubles in the casting department where it comes down to Kate Mara & Jaime Bell. Both are great in whatever movie or show they are in. Honestly we can tell from Kate Mara that she can range from being a complete obsessive bitch with a mental disorder or she can be a woman struggling with her career that results in her doing unspeakable acts of adultery that may result in furhtering her career in the dirtiest way possible. That's good enough range for me, rather than having Alba whose acting ability consists of just looking good without any use of blocking in any of The Fantastic Four movies or the only movie I liked her in, Idle Hands. As for Bell, I can see them using him for motion capture. Rather this may seem a bit questionable because of height and the fact thate he doesn't look like he can portray the ever loving blue-eyed Thing, but again it all goes in the acting ability which to me is going to prove a lot to convince me that Chiklis is nothing compared to this Thing, but honestly I feel he can do a good job and obviously wanted to try something different rather than get stereotyped for his roles of being the pretty boy like in Iron Eagle or Jumper.

Then there is Toby Kebbell who I actually should of killed but killed Kimmel instead but I feel it's a win/win situation at this point........anyways I haven't seen anything that Toby Kebbell has done in the past nor have I seen the Rock n Rolla, so speaking on reasoning of him would be sort of just the run of the mill defense that commentators use left and right. Other than all I have is to hope he does a good job and to ensure, TRUST.

 

 

 

BACK TO MARVEL STUDIOS

The one thing everybody wants from this production is the obvious most painstaking reason for great comic book movies, is that any Marvel related production is how comic book movies should be made with great care and for someone who has great knowledge and respect for the characters. If only, which is what many of us forget to realize "if" is such a strong word that because of the idea and that is primarily it, and idea. Would it be great if Marvel did have all their characters back? You have to ask yourself that question everyday and immediately answer yes and honestly I can't argue there because they obviously know what they are doing in terms of making a good comic book movie. Arguably I disliked Thor The Dark World, but I have met people who seem to think it should of won an Oscar. Even though it worries me that the youth of today is that stupid, you can see that the love for these movies is truly there regardless of how your personal opinion reflects the final outcome of each movie.

As for Fantastic Four, that is easily the one movie that gets the most flack because of how far production has come. Honestly though the reasoning for this is because of Michael B. Jordan being cast, and the rest of the cast members not reflecting the look of these characters and to rather ignore the Ultimate universe, which honestly I can't blame cause Ultimate Fantastic Four really wasn't that good after the first arc. Let's get something straight though, we are comic book fans and I understand the important issue of just respecting the source material or above all else getting it right, but what about the respective idea of just making a "good movie"? I mean sure you can argue that Marvel makes good movies by respecting the source material, and one can't argue that but one can argue that FOX is at a different time right at this moment where making a movie now must take in an extreme amount of care, which is what FOX sees in the MCU. So in a way, that's a good thing. Sure we want this movie to fail so the rights can go back to its sole owner or better yet to have it go back so we can see a proper Fantastic Four movie, but in all honesty what is a proper Fantastic Four movie? In comics you got a bunch of interpretations and changes to characters left and right regarding what the movie should convey but then we also have a pretty less detailed description of how we want to see thus said character conveyed more importantly. I mean let us face the facts, we have to think of these movies as we do of these comics. A comic always changes the writer and artist and FOX, Marvel and SONY handle that approach of doing that. Even Fiege does it with changing the writers and artist, pretty soon we are going to get another artist interpretation of Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, all of them will be changed and to just accept it and enjoy what we loved about the movie/comic in the first place.

IN CLOSING

The movie is coming out whether we want it too or not. Whether it reflects the idea of being an utter failure or a successful and different comic book movie is all in the eys of the viewer when you watch the movie come next year and that is "YOU" and that you are entitled to that opinion of what you think. It's obvious we do listen to critics when it comes to making a decision when watching a movie and that's a good thing because we need that guide in many ways to help us decide whether or not this movie reflects your intital outcome, but all we have to do is hope. There is no point in bashing the movie, when in all honesty you don't know if this movie is going to be bad or not. You don't know by the casting decisions of any movie or even the plot which the plot that we know of so far is just of the origin and nothing else concerning plot scenarios or sub-plots or character development in the movie. All you know is what we all know and that is the production time to make this movie with suffcient care, a director, a cast and the idea behind this movie is so obviously put as "REBOOT".



Will this movie be good? I can't comment on that, neither can you if you believe this movie will be horrible simply because of the name brand either. For all we know this could be the surprise hit of 2015 in a cluster[frick] year of movies like Star Wars & Avengers 2 and even Ant-Man where Disney does rule that year with a green thumb, but all we can hope for any movie if we love them so much is to hope for the best. Sure I want Marvel to take these characters back, but in the end it makes no point as long as the movie is good enough or even looks good enough to make me want to buy a ticket opening day. I say we just wait it and see and just chill out on the comments for the simple fact, we don't know anything. What I know, is what you know and in the result of being shrouded in darkness from this production I believe is what is best for any big summer tentpole movie, including this.

THANK YOU FOR READING, GIVE A "THUMBS UP", NOW EXCUSE ME