I had the opportunity to watch the 2015 reboot of "Fantastic 4" again. I wanted to ensure that I wasn't just hating it because I was conditioned to hate it. Spoilers follow...
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| Fant4stic |
As I am sure you're aware, this film was panned by fans and critics alike. Just looking at the IMDB page will show you it holds a 4.3 rating and finding the film on Rotten Tomatoes offers a dismal 9%.
But why?
The film hired a director coming off of the very successful Chronicle, a talented cast, fantastic writers, and showcases beloved characters from Marvel. So why is the film so hated?
I rarely go to the theater to see a film. I hate people. I especially hate people at the movies. I often wait until a film is made available at home before I get to see it. This makes it difficult to watch a film without having read reviews and heard spoilers. Needless to say, I went into my first viewing having heard nothing but awful things. I went in...jaded.
After the first watch, I was entertained as I would be by any popcorn action film but I despised the concepts behind the entertainment. I am a Marvel fan. I always have been. I grew up reading the comics so when a film comes out, I judge harshly. I judge it based on the source material. Perhaps we're wrong to do that. I was angry that they changed the origin of their powers. I was mad they changed the race of some of the characters and not because I am racist but because that's not the characters I grew up with and it felt like change for the sake of change. I was mad they made Dr. Doom a sniveling blogger. (Yes, I see the irony in that sentence.) If you're going to make that many changes to the source material, it's no longer an adaptation. Just change the character names and call it the "Freaky Four" and let it stand on it's own. At the end of that first viewing, I concluded this: The movie was a good movie but it was a horrendous Fantastic 4 movie. That's an important distinction that I go into in another post. (NEW WINDOW)
Back to the topic at hand, I re-watched the film this week. I wanted to watch it with an open mind. I wanted to watch it without the hate. After the second viewing, I have come to this conclusion: It's not as bad as you've been told or even as you remember...
Let's remove the knowledge we have about the source material for a moment. Let's remove the memories of the 2005 film and it's 2007 sequel. Join me with fresh eyes and no pre-existing knowledge...
The film is about a young nerd that perfected the design of an inter-dimensional machine. The nerd is hired by a science company that had their own flawed version of the device. The nerd, two siblings that work for the company, the nerd's best friend, and a disgruntled former employee work together to build a functional machine and use it to travel to another dimension. Shit goes bad and the five are gifted with super powers before returning to their own world. They each handle their new powers differently and the government tries to control them. One becomes a villain and the other 4 must work together to stop him.
Sounds like a decent flick, right? Sounds great to me! So where's the problem? Aside from the complete disregard for the source material, the film still has flaws and based upon what I have read, they are all the fault of the studio. They cut about 40 minutes from the final film which leads to some choppy moments. They also demanded some re-shoots to make the film less violent. This leads to some continuity errors in hair color and length of at least two characters. These are the things that bothered me the second time around. It's the equivalent of a restaurant printing a menu with typos. There was a lot of onset tension between the creative team and the producers. That always leads to problems with the final product. I, personally would have loved to see the 40 minute longer, director's version of the film. I don't think any of us would have hated it nearly as much.
Just like the recent Batman V. Superman debacle, studio interference is never a good thing. You probably heard awful things about that movie but the Director's version, which is available, is a much better film.
At the end of the day, the film is a good flick and deserves a second viewing. Just don't watch it expecting a Fantastic 4 movie. Watch it with a cold beer and a bag of popcorn and enjoy the entertainment.
Back to the topic at hand, I re-watched the film this week. I wanted to watch it with an open mind. I wanted to watch it without the hate. After the second viewing, I have come to this conclusion: It's not as bad as you've been told or even as you remember...
Let's remove the knowledge we have about the source material for a moment. Let's remove the memories of the 2005 film and it's 2007 sequel. Join me with fresh eyes and no pre-existing knowledge...
The film is about a young nerd that perfected the design of an inter-dimensional machine. The nerd is hired by a science company that had their own flawed version of the device. The nerd, two siblings that work for the company, the nerd's best friend, and a disgruntled former employee work together to build a functional machine and use it to travel to another dimension. Shit goes bad and the five are gifted with super powers before returning to their own world. They each handle their new powers differently and the government tries to control them. One becomes a villain and the other 4 must work together to stop him.
Sounds like a decent flick, right? Sounds great to me! So where's the problem? Aside from the complete disregard for the source material, the film still has flaws and based upon what I have read, they are all the fault of the studio. They cut about 40 minutes from the final film which leads to some choppy moments. They also demanded some re-shoots to make the film less violent. This leads to some continuity errors in hair color and length of at least two characters. These are the things that bothered me the second time around. It's the equivalent of a restaurant printing a menu with typos. There was a lot of onset tension between the creative team and the producers. That always leads to problems with the final product. I, personally would have loved to see the 40 minute longer, director's version of the film. I don't think any of us would have hated it nearly as much.
Just like the recent Batman V. Superman debacle, studio interference is never a good thing. You probably heard awful things about that movie but the Director's version, which is available, is a much better film.
At the end of the day, the film is a good flick and deserves a second viewing. Just don't watch it expecting a Fantastic 4 movie. Watch it with a cold beer and a bag of popcorn and enjoy the entertainment.
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