I personally really like superhero movies. They are cool and almost always worth the watch. As long as they give us a good hero to root for and a great villain, as well as a story has some thought put into it, it isn't super difficult to at least pull off some okay summer entertainment. However, as this film proves, it is easy to make a lousy superhero movie.
The characters were lame and underdeveloped (less than two hours isn't enough to properly develop four main characters and the villain), the one-liners were stupid and often out of place, and the story doesn't seem to be interested in courting an adult audience.
A little bit on the story, five people go into space to test some radiation, all of them are exposed and develop superpowers. One of them, Dr. Victor Von Doom (seriously, could it be any more obvious he's the bad guy) decides to use his powers for evil and the other four team up and stop him. Simple.
My main problem with this film is how it presents itself. Good superhero movies like Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Superman Returns, Iron Man, and X-Men, take themselves seriously and therefore lend some plausibility to the stories they tell. Fantastic Four is insultingly juvenile and doesn't take anything about itself seriously except for a select few things. However, these few plot points are harmed by the overall tone of the film and don't work. How can we take the threat the villain presents when he is so one-dimensional and has such an obvious name? Only younger kids would find him threatening. If this film had chosen to take itself more seriously and develop its characters more and make them more subtle, the film might have worked.
Films like The Dark Knight or Iron Man are type A movies (as in Awesome), films like Daredevil are type B superhero movies (as in Basic), and this film is type C (as is Crud).
Final Thoughts:
Fantastic Four is a fantastic bore.
Now, I've never seen the films. So I really don't feel anything for them one way or the other. But I did want to mention one thing. This isn't a movie where the writers of the script came up with their own superheroes, and those heroes's names. They came from the 60's when everything except underground comics were obvious and cut and dry.
ReplyDeleteIt may be an obvious name, but don't say that that was the reason the film failed. If you're going to make a movie about certain characters, you really ought to keep the characters as cannon as possible. including their names.
Plus, you want to talk about obvious names? How about Spider-man? Or the Human Torch? or Doc Oc? Or Two Face? Pretty much every character's name/codename/superhero name is obvious if you think about it enough.
I was more thinking of Dr. Doom in general. Yes, the name works for a super villain. But I think they should have named Dr. Doom's human persona something a little less comical. The rest of the villain names you mentioned I think work better because the villains don't call themselves those names. Other people call by those names.
ReplyDeleteHis human name is Victor Von Doom. As in, it was the name he was born with. You don't just change his human name because it doesn't sound right. He's already a copywritten character. Two face named himself.
ReplyDelete