Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer (spoilers)

[DonTadow]

Fantastic Four began showings last night at midnight. What did you think?

 

[DonTadow]

The first hour of this movie was pretty good popcorny comic book stuff. The only parts I hated for this hour was Jennifer "couldn't act herself out of a box but boy does she look good" Alba. Her casting for the Invisible woman is remincent of Halle Berry's casting as Storm. The movies may have not been greenlit without the star power, but their presence is unbelievable (as they are portraying older women) and brings down the believablity of the story. It really makes Reed look like one of those old pervy guys who get young women instead of dating someone on his intellectual level.

But, I chuckled through her bad acting and orgasm like face grunts right up until the last half hour, when th the writers, audience and myself realized that they have no clue has to how to end this movie nor any idea of what galactus is.

First, deux ex machina, the power switching saves the day. Apparently, the human torch is able to absorb everyone's power to beat the goofy acting Dr. Doom (look i got your surf board nah nah). This really seemed silly considering the entire time they explained that they could switch powers, not absorb them. In every scenerio I thought of at least one person would have had to have one of the powers other than Johnny. Then he drained power from a dying Invisible Woman, which given how my strain the power swapping seemed to took would have killed her.

Then there was the galactus cloud and the silver surfer miraclous distruction of galactus. It was a very silly ending.
"What's that, I have a choice. Man, I thought i didnt. Well why didn't I just kill this guy from the beginning instead of wasting my time being his servent. Oh that's right, now i have a choice and it ws inspired by your two minute conversation".

I'm glad I"m not a big marvel fan. I couldn't imagine anyone satisfied with a cloud as the baddest villian in the universe. And then having him destroyed by a person whom only has part of his powers.

 

[horacethegrey]

Um, that's Jessica Alba BTW.

And yes, I do agree that casting her as Sue Storm was one of the biggest mistakes the filmmakers made. :\ Damn it, personally I don't think there's anything wrong with casting star power to help bolster a movie's profile. But good lord, is it too much to ask to cast the right star for a role? Alba is attractive I'll admit (notice I don't use the word hot, as I don't see what the big deal is with her), but her acting is weak and she lacks any real screen presence. My original choice for Sue, the more talented Naomi Watts, would have been a better choice by far.

As for the movie, I've not seen it yet, but your review DonTadow has not raised my hopes for it any. *sighs* It's saddening to see the F4 movies being treated this way. Fantastic Four was the book that put Marvel Comics on the map. If anything it's the Marvel property that should be getting the most care when creating a movie off it. :\

 

[Pozatronic]

Worse Than Spider-Man 3

I never saw the first FF flick, but my friends said it was "enjoyable" (bad in a fun way), so I agreed to go with them to see this one, because it did actually look pretty enjoyable.

ugh.

Alba as Invisible Woman wasn't the only bad casting choice, for my money. That gimp who played Von Doom was awful, and I never did like that Chickles (spelling?) guy. The only actor I enjoyed was whoever that guy playing Johnny was. He was spot on and pretty enjoyable. The Surfer looked pretty good, as did Ga Lak Tus, even though he was just a giant cloud. Surfer's powers seemed a little different that his comic ones; and since when does he have a movie projector on his stomach? I can see how this could have been an "enjoyable" movie, but the writers were kind of hack.

"Like catching a fish in a net!"

ugh.

 

[Tonguez]

The movies may have not been greenlit without the star power, but their presence is unbelievable (as they are portraying older women) and brings down the believablity of the story. It really makes Reed look like one of those old pervy guys who get young women instead of dating someone on his intellectual level..

Reed is older than Sue - even in the comics.

But yeah the movie sounds like fun even if the endings is stoopid

 

[DonTadow]

Reed is older than Sue - even in the comics.

But yeah the movie sounds like fun even if the endings is stoopid[/QUOTE
True, but not that much older. She's an astronaut which makes her at least in her early to mid 30s (the youngest astronaut has been 32). He's probably a half decade older than her.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

True, but not that much older. She's an astronaut which makes her at least in her early to mid 30s (the youngest astronaut has been 32). He's probably a half decade older than her.

The Ultimate Universe Sue might be an astronaut, but the 616 universe Sue wasn't, nor was Johnny. They were just Reed's girlfriend and her brother, whom he snuck onto the rocketship with him.

Sue was still pretty young when Reed was going to Empire State University and he first met them (renting a room from the family, I believe). He was originally supposed to be something like 6-10 years older than she is.

Jessica Alba was horribly cast in the role, though- and from what I've seen of the trailers, her faux-blond hair looks even more unnatural in this movie than the last.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Just got back from seeing it...

Overall, a big improvement over the first. Its fun, doesn't take itself too seriously(just like the FF comics), and has a good sense of humour with some great action. The Silver Surfer was done great, and I hope the rumours of him getting a solo movie turn out to be true.

Yes, him turning around at the last second was kind of odd...but that is what happens in the comics. He's taken Galactus to world after world and its only when he meets the FF that he turns around. Of course, in the comics he gets banished TO Earth, but still. The sudden turn around for him is how it should be.

Power swapping was played for good humour and a nice Super Skrull nod without all the baggage. They did mention it had to do with the same kind of cosmic radiation that gave them their powers, thus giving a not-so-technical explanation for 'why' that drove the other thread on for so long. Wasn't similar in the comics, no, but it is here. As for the power swapping killing Sue...there wasn't any indication that it put a strain on them, just a surprise the first times it happened, so it wouldn't have hurt her at all.

The only two problems are Sue and Galactus. As everyone has said, Jessica Alba is just not Sue Storm. They wrote the character right, she has the perfect attitude to BE Sue, but the actress behind it just plain isn't. The worst part of it all is the nailed the casting for the rest of the FF perfectly.

Galactus...well, he wouldn't have been so annoying if Marvel hadn't had people say multiple times that we'd see more than a cloud. Arguably, we did. There were hints of the classic shape of him here and there, including at the very end with the fire inside in an almost-Galactus form, but its just not the same. Have to admit that it wouldn't be a problem with me if the Ultimate Alliance game hadn't done a realistic looking Galactus so damn well and showed it could be done.

But beyond those two things...its good, quirky FF fun. Yep, its cheesy and really out there with science things...but that's the FF and how they've always been.

 

[Megatron]

oh god i lold

 

[bento]

The Ultimate Universe Sue might be an astronaut, but the 616 universe Sue wasn't, nor was Johnny. They were just Reed's girlfriend and her brother, whom he snuck onto the rocketship with him.

Sue was still pretty young when Reed was going to Empire State University and he first met them (renting a room from the family, I believe). He was originally supposed to be something like 6-10 years older than she is.

Jessica Alba was horribly cast in the role, though- and from what I've seen of the trailers, her faux-blond hair looks even more unnatural in this movie than the last.

I'd suspect in the original Marvel Universe, their ages would be greatly different. In the mid-1960s there were stories that Reed served in WW2 as an agent of the OSS. Ben served as a marine pilot, which is where he learned to fly. After the war they both attended ESU where they roomed and met Von Doom. So Reed was probably born around 1922 and was 39 years old when the FF first took flight.

From what I recall about Sue, the Storm family provided bording to Reed when he attended college, probably for his Masters or PHD, as he lived with Ben in a dormitory during his undergraduate years. I recall she was a young teenager at the time, maybe 15? So if Reed was attending grad school, this would be the early 1950s, so 15 years earlier would place her birth around 1938. That would place Sue about 23 at the time they first took flight.

So their age difference might have been a 16 years difference.