#josh trank

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Chronicle (2012, Josh Trank)

31/07/2024

[apexpredatorcom]

some of my favorite parts of the chronicle script ⋆˚⋆୨୧˚

BRAINGINA !!

andrew says acab ^

[s10127470]

Fant4stic: A Fantastic Failure (Part 1)

As I’m sure many of you are aware, this past Valentines Day, Marvel Studios released a poster promoting their upcoming Fantastic Four film, releasing about a year from now in July of 2025.

This has gotten people cautiously interested.....

Keyword: cautiously.

It's no surprise that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been on a major decline since Avengers: Endgame.

Largely due to ridiculous quantity of projects they've been pumping out a year.

Plus that fact that a lot of these projects quality-wise have been either mid or just straight up dog-shit.

This has led to the ongoing trend known as Marvel Fatigue.

Not helping any of this is some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that was revealed over the last few years.

From having their projects being helm by people who have little to no knowledge or care for the characters and the source material they're working it.

And we all know how well that turns out....

To more infamously, overworking and underpaying their VFX artists.

And given some of the shit they've had to animate, they NEED to start getting better pay....

Yes.....what you just saw was a real scene from a Marvel movie.

And just to add salt to the wound, in addition to the declining interest, is that these recent Marvel films have not been performing well financially.

Hell, The Marvels (their latest film) ended up being a box office bomb, only grossing $206 million worldwide against production budget of $274.8 million. Not only that, but it now holds the record for being the lowest grossing film in the franchise's history.

So yeah.....

Although the casting is pretty decent, the inclusion of H.E.R.B.I.E. was quite the surprise, and the 60s aesthetic/vibes are pretty cool, people still have their reservations for this film given the MCU's track record lately.

However, one thing everyone does seem to agree on is that this film can't be any worse than their last cinematic outing.....

The Fantastic Four have had, funnily enough, have had four feature-length adaptations.

The very first film adaptation of Marvel's First Family was the legendary 1994 film from Roger Corman.

Although it was completed and ready to release, it famously never got released (which I'll touch a little more on later).

However, copies of the film have been circulating since May 31st, 1994.

Over a decade later, the Fantastic Four would get their technically second but first true feature-length film in the form of the 2005 film, directed by Tim Story, and released by 20th Century Fox on July 8th, 2005.

This film would also get a sequel just two years later with Rise of the Silver Surfer, directed again by Story and released by Fox on June 15th, 2007.

And finally, after almost a decade away from the big screen, the FF would return with their fourth and until the MCU film releases, latest film, the 2015 film, or more commonly known as Fant4stic, as that's how it was abbreviated...

A Fantastic Nightmare:

In August 2009, Fox would announce that they would be rebooting the Fantastic Four film franchise.

The reason why is because although Rise of the Silver Surfer did fairly well, grossing $301 million worldwide against a $120-130 million budget, the total gross was notably lesser than the first movie, which grossed $333.5 million worldwide.

And although there were plans for a third movie and a spin-off film focusing on The Silver Surfer, Fox feared those films could possibly be money sinks and opted to reboot the film franchise as a whole.

For the next three years, not a whole lot of progress was done with the planned reboot, apart from the hiring of producers and writers and the consideration of actors.

But the production of the film really started rolling in July 2012 when Fox hired Josh Trank, who was fresh off his directorial debut, Chronicle, to direct film.

And accompanying him was Jeremy Slater, who was hired to the screenwriter for the film, alongside X-Men: First Class writers Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller.

And this where everything went to shit....

If any of you even know about Fant4stic, you'd probably know that it has one of the most turbulent production histories in the last decade of filmmaking.

Before we start actually looking into the production itself, first we need to look at the reason why it was even made in the first place.

And this point brings me back to the 1994 film.

Both that and this film were created for the exact same reason: copyright hoarding.

In 1983, the other producer of the 1994 film, Bernd Eichinger met with Fantastic Four co-creator and the Marvel legend himself, Stan Lee, in Los Angeles to explore obtaining an option for a movie based on Marvel's First Family. The option was not available until three years later, when Eichinger's production company Constantin Film obtained it for a price the producer called "not enormous" and which has been estimated to be $250,000.

Eichinger's initial plan was to have the movie be a full-on blockbuster directed by Chris Columbus, complete with a cast full of big name celebrities.

But despite some interest from Warner Bros. Pictures and Columbia Pictures, budget concerns precluded any production, and with the option scheduled to expire on December 31, 1992, Constantin asked Marvel for an extension. With none forthcoming, Eichinger planned to retain his option by producing a low-budget Fantastic Four film. In September 1992, he teamed with B-movie specialist Roger Corman, who agreed to produce the film on a $1 million budget, to be released by his distribution company New Horizons Pictures.

But we all know how that ended....

Essentially, the entire of that movie ended up in a one big legal loop-hole that only benefitted Eichinger, leaving dozen of people's lives played with and their hopes and dreams crushed.

And in the case of Fant4stic, it's essentially a tragic case of history repeating itself.

Fox only produced Fant4stic not because they were genuinely interested in doing another film based on The First Family, they only did it to use it as an excuse to latch onto the film rights.

As when the 2010s rolled out, Fox's time with the Fantastic Four were about to come to an end as eventually, their film rights would've been reverted back to Marvel, and to that extension, The Walt Disney Company.

But if they had made another Fantastic Four project pretty soon, they would be able to extend their time with the film rights.

And from what I've heard, it seems like Fox wanted to get this film rolling as quick possible with the approaching deadline to the rights.

That's probably the reason why they hired Trank out of all people that could've directed this film.

Which for a film like this, you would think that Fox would go with a director that's a bit more experienced since remember: upon his hiring as director for the project, Trank was fresh off his very first directorial film.

Though you're probably wondering what I meant when I said everything went to shit upon Trank's hiring, well....

There have been plenty of cases where the productions of films have been absolute chores for one of two reasons.

The director or producers just being infamously difficult to work with, like David O'Russel or Michael Bay.

The studio constantly meddling in the production, like....basically every film studio to ever exist.

But Fant4stic is one of the rare cases where both the studio and the director made the production a living hell.

Starting off with Fox (as funnily enough, they did the least amount of damage to the production), they were guilty of....

Forcing constant rewrites

Giving Trank a much-lower budget than initially promised

Hiring a prominent special effect expert for the film, then firing him and not telling Trank about it

When production finally wrapped on the film, they were so unhappy with the finished product, that they ordered massive reshoots, including the film climax

Upon finishing the reshoots, they locked Trank out of the editing room and finishing the theatrical cut of film without him

As for Trank.....Hoo boy! Where do I even begin?

He was guilty for......

Constantly butting heads with the studio executives

Treating the cast and crew like absolute shit

Not showing up to the set on time

Usually showing up completely hammered

Frequently hiding himself from everyone on set

Constantly getting into fights (verbal and even physical) with the cast and crew

Letting his dogs loose and causing $100,000 worth of damage on the set

Constantly fighting with the screenwriters about what the tone of the film should be like

And writing a now infamous tweet on Twitter just the day before the film's release, only to be instantly deleted the next day

And remember, this was the second film that Trank directed....

I've heard of Hollywood getting to people, but it usually takes a couple of years. But in the case of Trank, it practically happened overnight.

And funnily enough, a lot of this behind-the-scenes drama was revealed to the public even before the movie had an official trailer.

So expectations for this film were not particularly very high....

But now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about the actual movie itself.

The "Story":

Childhood friends Reed Richards and Ben Grimm have worked together on a prototype teleporter since youth, eventually attracting the attention of Professor Franklin Storm, director of the Baxter Foundation, a government-sponsored research institute for young prodigies. Reed is recruited to join them and aid Storm's children, scientist Sue Storm and engineer Johnny Storm, into completing a "Quantum Gate" designed by Storm's protégé Victor Von Doom.

The experiment is successful, and the facility's supervisor, Dr. Allen, plans to send a group from NASA to venture into a parallel dimension known as "Planet Zero". Disappointed at being denied the chance to join the expedition, Reed, Johnny and Victor along with Ben use the Quantum Gate to embark on an unsanctioned voyage to Planet Zero, which they learn is a world filled with otherworldly substances. Victor attempts to touch the green lava-like substance, causing the ground they are standing on to erupt. Reed, Johnny and Ben return to their shuttle just as Sue brings them back to Earth and Victor is seemingly killed after he falls into the collapsing landscape. The Quantum Gate explodes, altering Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben on a genetic level and granting them superhuman abilities beyond their control: Reed can stretch like rubber, Sue can become invisible and generate force fields, Johnny can engulf his entire body in fire and fly, and Ben acquires a rock-like hide which gives him superhuman strength and durability. They are then placed in government custody to be studied and have their abilities tested. Blaming himself for the accident, Reed escapes from the facility and tries to find a cure for their changes.

One year later in 2015, Reed is now a fugitive and has built a suit that helps him control his ability. Hiding in Central America, he is eventually found by the United States military with Sue's help and captured by Ben, who has become a military asset along with Johnny and Sue. Johnny and Sue have been outfitted with specialized suits designed to help them control their abilities. Reed is brought to Area 57, where Dr. Allen conscripts him into rebuilding the Quantum Gate in exchange for giving Reed the resources to find a cure. Arriving in Planet Zero, Dr. Allen's explorers find Victor, who has been fused to his spacesuit and now possesses telekinetic abilities, and bring him back to Earth. Believing that Earth needs to be destroyed to protect his new home world from future invasions, Victor kills the scientists and soldiers in the base, including Dr. Allen and Professor Storm, and returns to Planet Zero using the Quantum Gate, with Ben, Johnny, Reed and Sue in pursuit.

Now dubbing himself "Doom", Victor activates a portal on Planet Zero using the Quantum Gate and begins consuming the landscape of the Earth using a structure he created from the rock formations in Planet Zero. He is confronted by the four and, after a short battle, Ben punches Doom into the portal's energy beam, disintegrating him while Johnny closes the portal. Returning to Earth, the group is rewarded by the US military for their heroics by being given a new base of operations known as "Central City" to study their abilities without government interference. They decide to use their powers to help people and adopt the mantle of the "Fantastic Four".

Yeah, I basically just copied and pasted the premise of this film from Wikipedia.

The reason why is because there really isn't a whole lot to talk about.

The plot is paper thin, and the execution doesn't do it any favors.

In terms of adaptation, this film doesn't really adapt any notable Fantastic Four storylines.

The closest thing to this is that it's a loose adaptation of the first volume/arc of Ultimate Fantastic Four.

You can see this with elements such as.....

The Four themselves being depicted as teenagers/young adults

Reed and Ben being childhood best friends

Franklin Storm actually being a major character whereas in the 616 universe, he's largely irrelevant

The Baxter Building being turned into The Baxter Foundation

The reason for them getting their powers being a teleportation experiment gone wrong

And Doom being involved with the experiment as well and his famous armor being his actual skin instead

However, that's as far as it goes. They don't really bother to adapt the actual story of that arc, which has the team facing off against The Mole Man.

But one of the strangest story choices with this movie is in the case of Planet Zero.

Planet Zero is reportedly suppose to be Fant4stic's version of The Negative Zone.

Why they didn't just call it The Negative Zone, I have no clue.....

But as most of you know, The Negative Zone is famous for being the realm of one of the Fantastic Four's most prominent foes: Annihilus.

And with their version of The Negative Zone, you would think they would probably feature Annihilus in this movie.

But no! He doesn't appear at all nor is he even alluded to. In fact, Planet Zero is depicted as being a lifeless wasteland, with no living organisms in sight.

The Sucky Tone:

In contrast to the previous 3 FF films, this one is far more darker, serious and grounded.

This was because Trank wanted the tone of the movie to be, in his own words, "gritty, serious and as realistic as possible".

And it's safe to that Fox also encouraged this tone as well.

From the early 2000s into the mid-2010s, a good chunk of superhero films relied on taking superheroes and making them darker, gritty and more grounded than they were in their source material and other adaptations.

This can be largely attributed to the X-Men films, which were more serious and grounded than the comics and their other adaptations.

This was done because after the failure of Batman and Robin, comic books movies were briefly seen as cinema poison.

The X-Men films, Daredevil, Elektra, The Dark Knight trilogy, The Amazing Spider-Man duology, and even the first few films of the DC Extended Universe all prided themselves on being more dark, gritter and grounded than their source material and sometimes even predecessors in film.

And while most of these movies are still fondly remembered, I'm gonna have to come out and say this....

I'm not a fan of these films.

Apart from some of these characters just not fitting with a darker and gritty tone, the biggest reason why I don't like these films is because a lot of them reek of this sense of embarrassment and contempt for the source material they're adapting.

Like, some of them are not even being that subtle about it.

I am so glad this was finally made fun of in an actual Marvel project.

And in an age where a lot of producers and directors working on a projects based on long, established properties have been open about either not caring or straight up disliking the properties they're working with, its made many of these films age kinda poorly.

However, there were some superheroes films from the 2000s that didn't fall into this trap.

Undoubtedly the biggest is in the case of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy.

Those films were unabashedly campy, and were obviously made by people who legitimately cared about, understood and loved Spider-Man.

That's why despite of a having a few faults, the films are still talked about in high regards, even after two decades.

And notably more so than the films I just mentioned.

But back to the film itself, to the Fantastic Four having a dark, gritty and grounded tone.

Most people, myself include, would have to say....

Fantastic Four, while having their dark and serious moments here and there, are some of the most light-hearted characters in Marvel.

Trying to make them dark and gritty just feels incredibly tryhard.

And as for being grounded and realistic.

That's completely antithetical to the Fantastic Four.

They're adventurers and explorers. And many of their adventures have taken place in space, other dimensions, and alternate realties. It's one of the core appeals of the team.

And as you would expect, this tone did not do the film any favors.

Fant4stic is so. Fucking. Boring.

It is deathly serious with no sense of levity or humor to be detected.

The music is bland and generic, the color grading is dull as hell, and the performances....

Dear God....the performances.

I think this actually perfectly segways into the biggest and most important part of this post:

The "Characters":

One of the strongest draws of The Fantastic Four is, well, The Fantastic Four themselves.

All of them are very likable, charming, interesting and endearing in their own way.

And does Fant4stic capture anything that made these characters so great?

Let's start off with Reed first.

Reed in the comics and in just about every other medium is a genius, a polymath to exact.

In fact, he's tied with another one of the main characters I'll be talking about soon as being the smartest person in the Marvel Universe.

But besides being intelligent, Reed is also curious, adventurous, charismatic, level-headed, kind, and most importantly of all, passionate.

Reed is passionate about two things:

-His love for his family

-And his love for science and adventure

And while he can be little over-analytical, a little reserved at times, and have a bit of a one-mind track (so much so that he's been headcanon by just about everyone to be autistic), Reed overall is a very kind, caring and compassionate person.

Hell, he (along with the rest of the four) are some of the most morally righteous people in the Marvel Universe alongside Spider-Man and Captain America.

Now let's look at Fant4astic Reed....

Apart from being intelligent, level-headed and maybe curious, has none of the traits I just listed.

He's not adventurous.

He's not shown to be all that kind.

He has all the charisma of a funeral service.

And worst of all, he's not very passionate.

In the comics, Reed loves science and is always down to learn something new.

But the way Reed approaches science in the movie, it feels more like an obligation rather than something he's actually passionate about.

Next we have Sue.

Sue is pretty much the mother figure of the four.

Warm, caring, kind, mindful and responsible.

But she's also incredibly terrifying.

Sue's the most powerful member of the four and has proven to be a force to be reckon with for anyone who cares to hurt her family, especially her children.

Now let's look at Fant4astic Sue....

Well, how do l put this in the kindest way possible?

Yeah. Apart from being introverted, she's also shown to be incredibly sarcastic.

Like, modern animated adult comedy levels of being sarcastic.

And needlessly so.

Apart from still being responsible, Sue shows none of the traits I just listed.

The only character see isn’t needlessly sarcastic to is her and Johnny’s father, Franklin.

This version of the character is the walking definition of a killjoy.

Next we have her brother Johnny.

Johnny is the little brother of the group, since he’s the youngest.

He’s cocky, brash, hotheaded, a bit of a prankster, and kind of a showoff.

But in spite of that, Johnny is also a very kind and loyal individual.

The dude has been show that he’s willing to die for those he deeply cares for.

Now let’s look at Fant4stic Johnny.

Johnny is really the only character who somewhat resembles his original comic counterpart.

But even then, it still feels somewhat subdued.

Plus he has the same issue as Sue with him being needlessly a dick to people.

Like, Johnny had his dickish moments, but wasn't a massive asshole.

And plus, I should probably address the elephant in the room.

As you could probably tell for yourselves, Johnny here is African-American, making him and Sue adopted siblings.

And this would be the very first (and so far only) iterations of the Storm siblings who weren't blood-related.

And in all honesty, I'm not a fan of it.

Having Johnny and Sue not being biologically-related just feels wrong.

That would be like having Mario and Luigi not being related.

Or Goofy and Max.

Or Dante and Vergil.

Sometimes, you can't alter an important familial relationship.

As for why Johnny was made black while Sue wasn't.

Well....

Apparently, the Storm Family were all gonna be black, including Sue. But the higher-ups were not really onboard with Sue being black (I'm not even gonna try to make sense of that). But they were allowed to make Johnny and Franklin black. So thus, Sue ended up being adopted by the Storms.

And I must ask....

Why?

Why did they want to make the entire Storm family black?

I'm guessing it was to give a new fresh take on the characters.

But that's kind of debatable when we get to a point I'll bring up a little later.

And in terms of casting a black Johnny Storm, I don't think Michael B. Jordan was the best choice.

He just doesn't look like how most people would see Johnny as being black.

I think there's two reasons for that.

The hairstyle. Johnny has usually been depicted as having spiky hair. I think if had Michael those upward locs, then I could see him passing for a black Johnny.

The age of the actor. In fact, this applies to all the actors of the four as well. In the film, the four are said to be teenagers, specifically fresh out of high school age. So basically they would be around 17-18 years old. It's hard to see any of them as being around that age range when the actors who played them were, at the time of the film's release, two of them were 28, one of them was 29, and one of them was 32! Did they really just not bother to look for actors who were like college-aged?

Now we come to Ben.

Ben is undoubtedly most people's favorite member of the Fantastic Four.

While gruff, tough and a tad pessimistic and grumpy due to his circumstances, underneath Ben's rocky exterior beats a heart of gold.

He deeply cares for his friends and family and will go out of his way to protect them no matter what.

Now let's look at Fant4astic Ben.

Ben, being only rivaled by the next character we'll be talking about, is the character who barely resembles his original counterpart the most.

First, there's his appearance. Specifically before he became The Thing.

Out of this already not-good cast, Jaime Bell was probably the most miscasted of them all.

For starters, he just doesn't look like Ben Grimm at all.

Like, take a look at this guy and tell me that he looks remotely like the pre-Thing Ben in the comics.

Basically, Jaime suffers from the same problem that Topher Grace had when he played Venom.

He's too short. Ben, even before becoming The Thing, was usually depicted as being pretty tall, 6'0 to be exact. Jaime is 5'7. The dude is literally no taller than me (and I'm 5'8).

He's way too skinny. Once again, even before becoming The Thing, Ben is usually shown to be a pretty muscular-looking guy. He is canonically a skilled brawler (due to him being part of a street gang during his youth) and played on the football team in high school.

Essentially, even before becoming The Thing, Ben looked like a guy who could and can beat your ass.

This Ben looks like the guy who YOU would be beating the ass of!

Then there's his characterization.

This Ben has none of the traits I just mentioned.

Apart from being kind, he's typically portrayed as being soft-spoken and somewhat meek.

Which just don't fit the character of Ben Grimm at all.

But I think the worst part of his characterization is that he doesn't even have a Brooklyn accent!

Yeah! He doesn't have a Brooklyn accent! Despite it being one of the most famous elements of his character.

I'm the guy who think that a character should have their accent intact if they originally had it.

I'm one of the few people who find it kinda annoying that Black Widow doesn't speak with a Russian accent anymore despite speaking with one all-time in her appearances pre-MCU.

And I'm sure that I'm the only guy on the planet who actually wants Magneto to speak with a German accent.

But Ben not speaking with a Brooklyn accent feels both disgraceful and just plain wrong.

But perhaps the worst thing about this version of Ben is with his trademark catchphrase: It's Clobberin' Time!

In this film, they decided to give the catchphrase an origin.

Because we all know that what's the fans were certainly asking for it....

But anyway, in the Fant4stic continuity, It's Clobberin' Time was what Ben's abusive older brother who regularly beat him, would say right before kicking his ass!

Why?

Why was this added?

Who thought this was a good idea?

It adds nothing to this already nothing story.

Having Ben's catchphrase being the result of abuse from his older brother comes off as both incredibly fucked-up and like the rest of this cursed movie, unnecessarily tryhard.

The people who thought that giving this iconic catchphrase a gritty reason for existing need to get repeatedly smacked in the face.

But like I mentioned before, there's only one other character in the movie that rivals Ben in being the biggest spit in the face to their original counterpart.

But I'm gonna save that for next time.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to end this post right here since I'm pretty close to reaching the media post limit.

So this is gonna be a two-parter.

Wasn't the original intent, but hey, you can't win them all.

But tune in next time where I finish looking at this terrible movie.

And beware....I'm not gonna be very kind.

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Fantastic Four

Rating: PG-13

Director: Josh Trank

Cast: Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson, Joshua Montes, Dan Castellaneta, Owen Judge

Release year: 2015

Genres: science fiction, adventure, action

Blurb: Four young outsiders teleport to a dangerous universe that alters their physical forms in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former-friend-turned-enemy.

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for for April 13th. He's surrounded by family this time.

Here we have him, his twin brother, his older brother Billy Lynch, his oldest brother Tommy Lynch, his sister Sissy Lynch, his dad Elias Lynch (also known was Wally), and his mother, Dolly Lynch (or María de las Dolores).

There's also a younger brother, Baby Lynch, not in the picture (babies are hard to draw).

I was reading an interview with Tom Scioli (the comic book artist) and he talked about his book Godland being a book about a family, with not a lot of room for romance. I haven't finished that series yet, but that's an interesting way to put it, and he says that it was writer Joe Casey's idea - it was an artistic choice that made the book less popular. Although I'm not part of the audience that has any interest in romance, I know some fans are all about it.

So, he moved on to American Barbarian. It's pretty awesome. After that, he started working on Transformers vs GI Joe, and that's really not the type of stuff I'm into. I'm not that into He-Man, either, or Thundarr the Barbarian, but American Barbarian was fun. I still haven't read Transformers vs. GI Joe, maybe it's be good.

The thing is, it seems like some authors, be them comic creators or even movie directors, are creative in their early work, then get stuck making IP adaptations that reduce them to guns for hire, taking orders from the studio, and trying not to offend the fans.

The tyranny of fandom.

I know a lot of people complain about Marvel doing that to creators. You've got horror guys like James Gunn and Sam Raimi, and they're stuck making superhero movies with no gore. What gives? But I kind of think in the case of superhero comics, it's a bit more forgiveable because a lot of pop director nowadays are fans of superhero comics.

Still, I can't really resent people who complain about that.

Just like there's the Oscar carrousel that makes it so people who deserve the Oscar never get it, there's the adaptation carrousel that makes is so adaptations are never any good. In Scioli's case, for instance, you have American Barbarian, which is a great He-Man adaptation - but the actual licensed comics he made aren't as much fun because they're constraining that creative artist to using characters he didn't design, so, what's the point?

And of course, he was free to add a few twists to American Barbarian he wouldn't have been allowed to if it was a licensed comic. Make the main character a bit of a moron, add some gross jokes and postmodern elements...

A clichè example is the Fantastic Four movies. Terrible. But Brad Bird made The Incredibles - the perfect Fantastic Four movie, with different names for the characters. Why did they choose Josh Trank to make that creepy, dark, dull movie in 2015, then? Because he had made a great Akira adaptation a few years earlier, called Chronicle.

There are a lot of other examples. Supreme? Into the Spider-Verse. Kick-Ass? Super. Turok, Son of Stone? Prey. Astro Boy? A. I.

And that happens with a lot of movies, because directors are fans, but the unpleasant realities of copyright law keep them from making the movies they want. So, you've got stuff that's inspired by other stuff, written around the trademakrs, parodies that are better than the original, character interactions that could never happen...

But, the real money's in adaptations. Even if they're not very good. It's a pity, really. And of course, a really big movie has to follow the demands of executives and the audience, more than being a faithful adaptation or a personal vision.

So, if we ever had a movie adaptation of Godland (which is very unlikely anyhow, since it's a cult comic), there'll probably be a romance subplot shoehorned in.

[fabioemme78]

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: Chronicle (2012)

Chronicle (2012)

Rated PG-13 for intense action and violence, thematic material, some language, sexual content and teen drinking

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2024/07/review-chronicle-2012.html>

Score: 3 out of 5

Back when it first came out, Chronicle was heavily marketed and often described as a dark superhero movie, a twist on the Spider-Man mythos that showed what might actually happen if you gave an ordinary, troubled teenage boy superpowers. It's an assertion that many people both then and now have disagreed with and challenged, most notably the film's screenwriter Max Landis, who argued for it more as a modern-day, gender-flipped version of Carrie and said that the only reason anybody considered it a superhero movie was because those were all the rage in 2012, the year it came out when the young Marvel Cinematic Universe was about to release the game-changing superhero team-up The Avengers. Nevertheless, both this film's director Josh Trank and two of its stars, Dane DeHaan and Michael B. Jordan, soon found themselves lined up for superhero movies on the strength of their work here, and watching it again in 2024, while the Carrie allusions are obvious, so too are the stylistic influences from the superhero movies that had flourished since Sissy Spacek burned down her senior prom in split-screen.

Watching it again in 2024, it's also a film that doesn't entirely hold up. The entire found footage angle felt extraneous to the point that it was distracting, and the characters other than the film's three protagonists all felt empty and one-dimensional. Given how short the movie was (only 83 minutes including the credits), it felt like there were a lot of efforts to trim the fat in the editing room that wound up cutting into its muscle and bone. That said, the action and special effects are still quite impressive given the small budget, the three lead actors all do very good work that shows why there was so much hype around them (even if only Jordan's career lived up to the hype in the long run), and when it's focused on its protagonists, especially its main viewpoint character Andrew, its story about a kid getting slowly but surely drunk with power is still a compelling one. It's a movie that, even with its flaws, I'd still recommend to fans of superheroes who want a darker take on the genre that nonetheless isn't as violent as The Boys or Invincible.

Set in the suburbs of Seattle, the film revolves around three teenage boys, the moody loner Andrew Detmer, his more popular cousin Matt Garetty, and Matt's friend Steve Montgomery, who gain telekinetic powers and the ability to fly after discovering a strange artifact buried in the woods. For much of the first half of the film, it leans very much into the power fantasy side of things, as these three boys use their newfound abilities to pull pranks on unsuspecting people, flip up girls' skirts, do dumb Jackass-style stunts, participate in the school's talent show, try to find out more about how they got their powers (a dead end that ultimately turns up more questions than answers when they see that the cops are also snooping around the area), and generally enjoy the newfound freedom that comes with suddenly gaining superpowers. I bought these three as people bound together by their shared gift who reacted to it not with the idealism of Peter Parker, but with the exact amount of maturity you'd expect (i.e. something that they still need to learn through experience). Alex Russell and Michael B. Jordan were both compelling and charismatic as Matt and Steve, the "cool" guys among the trio, but the most interesting by far, and the one the film seems most interested in, is Andrew. An emo kid with the Worst Life Ever, Andrew has few friends other than his cousin Matt, he's raised by an abusive, layabout drunk of a father while his mother is slowly dying of cancer, his neighborhood has drug dealers on his block, and he's started filming his day-to-day life seemingly because he has nothing else to do. Dane DeHaan may have been playing a walking stereotype of teen angst, but he makes the most of the role, first making Andrew feel like a guy who knows he's going nowhere in life and acts accordingly before letting him open up as his powers, and the influence of Matt and Steve, give him a new confidence in life -- before it all falls apart as he finds out the hard way that his powers haven't solved all his problems. By the end, when he's killing drug dealers and ranting about how his mastery of his powers makes him an "apex predator," I felt like I was watching a school shooter. DeHaan was scary as hell in the role, delivering the kind of performance that makes me wish he'd gotten a better movie than The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to play a supervillain in.

It's in the film's structure that it kind of lost me, and much of it ironically comes down to its main hook. To put it simply, most of this movie's problems could've been solved by simply dropping the found footage conceit entirely and making a straightforward, traditionally shot movie. It's a conceit that the movie already strains to adhere to, especially by the end when it has to find a way to justify the manner in which it stages its bombastic fight scenes and dramatic speeches with all the flourish one would expect from the third act of a superhero movie. Despite the title Chronicle, almost none of the film feels like an actual, y'know, chronicle that these people had filmed themselves. Andrew's insistence on having a camera film him at all times in order to record his increasingly bizarre life, his powers letting him move the camera around to places where a human can't film from in order to get a better angle, is already a rather thin explanation, and it takes a turn for the ridiculous when he psychically seizes the camera phones of a bunch of tourists at the Space Needle so he can film his big speech with a bit more cinematic flair. I wonder if this is why the film was as short as it was, that there were originally supposed to be a lot more scenes fleshing out the supporting cast that they couldn't justify from the perspective of this being found footage. As a result, characters come off as either one-note stereotypes, like Andrew's abusive father who exists only to constantly treat his son like dirt and get his comeuppance later on, or one-dimensional ciphers, like Ashley Hinshaw's character Casey, whose only characterization is that she's Matt's on-and-off girlfriend and a vlogger in order to make her a Camera 2 for certain scenes.

If the film really wanted to weave the found footage style into a story that leaned into the dark side of the superhero genre, it could've just as easily done so by focusing more on Casey. Make her a full-blown secondary protagonist and as much a viewpoint character as Andrew, an outsider to the protagonists' lives and friendship who's witnessing the events of the film as an ordinary human, and then have her take center stage in the third act once the mayhem begins. Do what Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice later tried to do, or what Cloverfield successfully did with a giant monster movie, and show how terrifying a big superhero battle would be from the perspective of the civilians on the ground without superpowers. During act three, follow Casey as she and others fight to survive and not get caught in the crossfire of the mother of all street brawls, all while she tries to help her boyfriend out, cutting away occasionally to the combatants themselves as they settle their scores. On that note, more focus on Casey also would've fleshed out Matt as a character thanks to their relationship, and by extension the other people in their lives. After all, Carrie, one of this movie's main inspirations, wasn't told entirely from the perspective of its title character, but also from those of Sue Snell and Chris Hargensen, the popular girls whose actions wind up setting the stage for the tragedy to come. Finally, Casey's scenes, where she doesn't have superpowers that allow her to fly the camera around, would've made a great stylistic contrast with Andrew's, with her half of the film looking and feeling like a grounded, naturalistic found footage film while the other half had Andrew's theatricality.

At least said theatricality afforded the film some very well-done action scenes. Despite a budget of only $15 million, this was a very good-looking film, one of the benefits of the found footage style (and probably the reason why this movie used it) being that the lo-fi feel of the film makes it easier to cover up dodgy special effects. The seams are visible here, and there are quite a few shots where you can tell it's CGI, but the effects are never distractingly bad, and quite a few of them are very impressive, from the boys assembling LEGO sets with their minds to the scenes of them in flight. The shift into action and horror later in the film is also handled very well, as Andrew clashes with street thugs, bullies, the police, and eventually his friends in fights that range from gritty and vicious brawls to the genuinely spectacular. This movie may have felt like it had a few too many scenes cut for its own good, but it is remarkably straightforward about what it's about, never feeling like it's spinning its wheels and always progressing forward.

The Bottom Line

Chronicle needed another pass on its script, either abandoning the found footage angle entirely or finding a better way to make it work than they ultimately went with. That said, as a version of Carrie for the internet age that combines that classic story of teen rage with a superhero motif, it's still a diamond in the rough.

[mydarkapron]

CAPONE, 2020

Josh Trank

[ruleof3bobby]

CAPONE (2020) Grade: F

I can't believe this movie. It's horrible. How did anyone thought this script was a good idea is insane or Josh Trank is just amazing at pitches. Skip it.

[whaddahelk]

Ending this once and for all😑

[wulfhalls]

the vibe of that photoshoot is so good need anya in another 60s project stat

true but also let's be thankful she isn't in that god awful fantastic four reboot 🙏

[junkfoodcinemas]

Chronicle (2012) dir. Josh Trank

[logangarfield]

Films (re)watched in 2023 [5/?]:

Chronicle (2012) dir. Josh Trank

[s10127470]

Fant4stic: A Fantastic Failure (Part 2)

Warning: LowTierGod moments incoming

Hey guys!

I'm back with the awaited second (and final part) of my Fant4stic review!

As I'm sure most you of read the first part noticed, there was one other important character that I didn't get to (largely due to media image/video limits).

And that's none other than the villain of the film himself, Victor.

GOOD LORD, THIS CHARACTER……

But before we talk about him, let's talk about his original counterpart.

Victor is cold, arrogant, petty, relatively calm but can be little theatrical at times, and most importantly of all, has an ego the size of Ego!

Like, he literally wants to the conquer the world just to show that he would be better at running it than everyone else.

The thought is nice and all but….ego much?

He's also incredibly vain and a massive perfectionist.

The reason he wears his trademark mask is because he sees himself as hideous because of a scar he obtained during his university days via an miscalculation, despite the fact that the scar itself isn't even all that bad and Victor himself is actually a pretty handsome man.

Apart from his personality, Victor is also one of the biggest villains in the Marvel Universe.

In addition to his willpower and diplomatic immunity, he is insanely intelligent.

He's literally tied with Reed as being the most intelligent person in the Marvel Universe, which he hates (more on that a little later).

Victor's famous armor also makes him even more of a threat, granting him strength and durability that allows him tank and trade blows with Ben (along with other heavy hitters of the Marvel Universe like Spider-Man and even The Hulk), the ability to project energy in all kinds of ways (from concussive blasts to force fields), and all kinds of special gadgets.

This is made even worse with the fact that he's a skilled combatant, being skilled in the ways of the Tibetan monks and is even a master swordsman.

But the real kicker to his presence as a major threat is that he's a master of the mystic arts, rivaling even the likes of Doctor Strange as being one of the most powerful magic users in the Marvel Universe.

Another major and important aspect of his character is his rivalry with Reed.

Victor hates Reed with a passion, due to them being rivals during their university days.

This was only made even worse due to the accident that scarred Victor's face, which was the result of a miscalculation on his part, which Reed pointed out but Victor ignored.

Victor feels that Reed is always trying to outdo him, and will go drastic, borderline psychopathic lengths to 1-up him.

If I remember correctly, he was once willing to allow the destruction of all reality just to show up Reed.

It's that bad.

Now let's look at Fant4astic Victor.

This version has practically nothing in common with the OG Victor, apart from being arrogant, cold and a little petty.

This Victor is an anti-social, basement-dwelling, nihilistic douchebag with a hard-on for Sue.

I'm not joking. They basically turned Doctor Doom, one of the greatest villains in all comic book and even fictional history, into a Discord moderator!

Or a Redditor. They're kinda interchangeable.

But apart from those traits I just mentioned, he doesn't have any......ANYTHING in common with his original counterpart (or most other iterations of the character in general)!

He doesn't really have an ego, despite his anti-social personality.

He never shown be all that theatrical, because that would actually require showing actual emotion!

Which yeah, I'm going off-tangent here, but let's talk about the acting real quick.

Is acting in this film is genuinely awful, despite the fact that I know DAMN well these people are actually good actors.

Every person in this film talks in such a dry and bland tone.

There's no distinction in how any of them talk!

And my GOD! Could these people look anymore miserable?

It's so apparent that nobody was enjoying acting for this film.

Probably because their characters had nothing that made original counterparts so great.

Top that off with how Trank famously treated literally everyone on set like absolute SHIT.

You can't blame anyone in this film for looking or acting the way they did.

They do not want to be here!

The only time any of these guys show any other emotion besides boredom or silent misery is during the body horror scenes.

Where everyone is screaming and in pain.....

Speaking of which, that was something Trank was really pushing for in this film.

And while the concept doesn't sound too bad on paper, like most of the other stuff in this movie, it ended up coming off as unnecessarily tryhard and edgy.

But back on topic about Victor.

He's not shown to be all that vain.

Nor does he come off as a massive perfectionist.

Because showing actual care, dedication and passion for your work was just clearly too much for this film's direction.

Also, what it is with live-action adaptations forgetting that Victor is literally the ruler of an ENTIRE FUCKING NATION?!

That's a pretty big deal, if you ask me!

But then again, I don't think anyone would want the ruler of a nation to look like.....this:

He's not skilled in magic because that's certainly not "gRoUnDeD aNd ReAlIsTiC".

And there's NO WAY in hell that this version actually knows how fight anyone.

The only powers this Doom has are vaguely telekinetic ones, which he obtains after the incident.

That's literally it.

We don't known if his new skin makes him all that durability.

Nor even that physically strong.

And he doesn't have any sort of special gadgets on him because that would actually be interesting to see.

Which this film can't be bothered to do.

And side-note: Victor's metal look just looks so fucking dumb. In the words of the SmegHead (of Cinematic Excrement fame), he looks like C-P3O had sex with a glowstick....inside a microwave oven.

And although all of this is incredibly bad, perhaps the worst thing about this version of Victor is rivalry with Reed.....or lack thereof.

Yeah!

Despite being one of the most important aspects of Victor, he has no rivalry (or any of sort of relationship) with Reed all at.

Hell, they only interact with each other a handful of times throughout the film.

And this actually perfectly segways into one of the film's greatest flaws: the lack of chemistry between any of the characters.

It's actually hilarious how this film was aiming to be "grounded and realistic as possible", but nobody in this film talks like an actual fucking human being!

They speak like walking cliches (which many of them are) and even A.I.

But even that's an insult to A.I. because I've heard A.I. voices with much more emotion than any of the performances in this film!

Despite being childhood best friends, Reed and Ben never really come off as friends whatsoever.

They feel more like acquaintances who just so happen to have known each other for many years.

It's even worse with Sue and Johnny.

You remember how I mentioned making Sue and Johnny adopted siblings rather than biological ones like in every other iteration was quite debatable?

Well, this is why.

These two don't feel like siblings whatsoever.

And even if they were biologically related, it still wouldn't make much of a difference.

Even worse is Reed and Sue, who have little to no scenes between each other and have the chemistry of water and oil.

And remember. In the comics and most other iterations, these two are married and have children!

But worst of all is the "chemistry" between the Four.

Fun Fact: The entirety of the Four don't share the screen together until the film's climax!

This film undoubtedly misses the main core of the Fantastic Four.

They're suppose to be a family! Even if they're not all related to each other! And no matter what, they would always be by each other's side!

Even the Story films, as flawed as they are, understood that point.

But here, the Four just feel like four random schmucks who barely care about each other.

And I'm guessing because it wasn't "dark, grounded and realistic" enough.

Which yeah, let's talk about that real quick.

The movie's depiction of a dark and gritty style feels like it was written by an angsty teenager who thinks 13 Reasons Why and Rick and Morty are deep, thought-provoking masterpieces and that Devil May Cry would've been better off with this Dante.

There's just something about the style that just screams pretentious.

Plus, it seems that in terms of realism, they're going off the Mark Millar philosophy of such.

As where life is just a never-ending stream of failure, disappointment, and misery.

And literally every human being is some variation of being a miserable asshole or loser.

Which like.....can we kindly let that mindset fucking die already?

Conclusion:

And it says in the title of this post, Fant4stic was a FANTASTIC FAILURE!

It only grossed $167.9 million worldwide against a production budget of $120 million, essentially making the film a bonafide box office bomb.

And it wasn’t any better with the reception.

Pretty much everyone HATED this film. Critics hated it. Audiences hated it. And you better believe that the FF fans hated it as well.

But the biggest haters of the film, funnily enough, was actually Marvel themselves.

They've understandably and rightfully disowned this film.

They never mention it's existence.

Which is saying something when you remember that they've actually mentioned the existence of this in the past....

The universe of the film itself doesn't even have an official convoluted number like literally every other piece of official Marvel nedia.

Hell, Marvel's hatred for this film is so great that in issue 12 of Jason Aaron's run of The Punisher, there was actually a scene where the actors of the movie literally get violently killed in an fucking explosion!

I've heard of spite, but takes it to a whole new level!

And although Jason claimed that they did survive the explosion. Let's be real, he definitely intended for these guys to get blown to kingdom come.

And you know this film was absolute garbage when even Stan Lee himself didn't cameo.

Yeah! Fant4astic is one of the VERY few films based on a Marvel property pre-passing that didn't feature a cameo from him.

And this isn't gonna be the last time you'll be hearing about Stan in this post.

And in all honesty, you can't blame anyone for the reaction this movie got.

This is movie is just genuinely really terrible.

Apart from the effects (which are decent enough) and the weirdly funny choice of casting Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson) as Reed's teacher, there is not ONE ounce of redeeming worth about this film.

The story is paper thin and ungodly boring.

The acting is incredibly half-assed.

The tone and style is just plain sucks.

And the characters are about as interesting as cardboard on wheat beard.

As an adaptation of the Fantastic Four, this film is an absolute insult and disgrace to the team and their legacy.

And even you look at the project as its own thing (which like, why would you do that for an adaptation of all things?), it's still awful.

Fant4stic is genuinely one of the worst films I've ever had the displeasure of watching.

And among the multitude of superhero films, I wholeheartedly say that it's the worst one of all time (along with being one of the worst overall films in history).

Yes. Worse than Howard the Duck. Worse than Catwoman. Worse than Batman & Robin. And even worse than Morbius and Madame. FUCKING. Web.

At very least, those have a "so-bad, it's-good" kinda feel to them.

Where you can't help but laugh and be charmed at how awful they are.

But Fant4stic? It has nothing. It is nothing.

And the thing that really pisses me off about this film (apart from everything listed above) is just how blatantly....shallow it is.

Fant4stic is one of the most lifeless, soulless and passionless pieces of media I've ever seen in my entire life.

And as an artist, this genuinely makes me upset.

And when you look at the history of the film, it really was.

It was created by a studio who only wanted to make it as an excuse to latch onto rights that they would've needed to sell at some point.

And a director, who as we would find out from various members of the crew, didn't care about the property he was working with and essentially wanted to make his own new movie.

Speaking of which, let's talk about the after effects this film had on the people involved.

20th Century Fox was definitely affected by the film's failure the least.

However, they never made any more FF films after this one.

Especially since they would be officially bought out by you-know-who.

Plus, plans for sequels (yes, they actually believed this piece of shit would actually be successful enough to warrant continuations) were INSTANTLY scrapped.

One of which included a crossover with the X-Men film franchise.

Which continuity of it, your guess is as good as mine's.

Next we have the main stars.

With the exception of Michael B. Jordan, this film seriously wrecked many of their careers, due to how young (though I use that term somewhat loosely) and up-and-coming they were.

It would take them a good while before they really reached stardom.

But the one who was affected by the film's failure the most was none other than Josh Trank himself.

If you look at his filmography, you can see that ever since this film, this hasn't done much.

Ever since Fant4astic, He directed, wrote and edited the 2020 film Capone, which I had only found out the existence of while I was doing research for this post.

From what I've gathered, the film was released to streaming (for obvious reasons) and received mixed reviews.

And apart from minor acting credits in 2021, he's barely done anything in the last decade.

And hasn't done anything in the last three years.

I think it's safe to say that Trank is pretty much a washed-up has-been now.

And honestly, rightfully so.

If you read the first part of this, you'd remember the list I made about how much Trank made the production of Fant4astic an absolute FUCKING nightmare.

Yeah, I know everyone's has already said it, but I'm gonna say it as well.

Trank's behavior was ABSOLUTELY unacceptable.

Just because the studio is making your life a living hell, doesn't mean you have the right to treat everyone around you as your verbal and physical punching bags!

And it's safe to say that the reason Trank has barely done any work since this film is because no major studio wants to work with him.

And remember, all the stuff about Trank's behavior was leaked even before the film even got a trailer.

And I'm sure had to be very shocking, given how new he was to the film industry.

And in all honesty, Trank got what he deserved.

Over the last couple of years, Hollywood has become infamous for stories of directors and producers abusing their cast and crew in all types of ways.

Only to get away with it because of their power.

But thankfully, there are stories of these monsters getting what they deserve.

And I'm glad that this is one of those stories.

And just to show how much of a scumbag Trank truly is, let's go back to Stan Lee.

According to Trank, he claimed that Stan himself actually approved of his dark take on the Fantastic Four.

However, Stan had been quite open about how much he hates this film.

So much so that once again, he refused to cameo in it!

With all that considered, it really makes it seem like that Trank essentially lied through his teeth in order to justify his take on the Fantastic Four, which I think even before the teaser trailer, was already getting major criticism.

And for the last part of this discussion: you remember how I mentioned that Trank made an infamous tweet on Twitter just the day before the film's release, only to get deleted the next day?

Well, this is what he said.

"A year ago I had a fantastic version of this. And it would've recieved great reviews. You’ll probably never see it. That’s reality though."

Trank ended up deleting the tweet as he felt that it came off as an insult to literally everyone else who worked on the film.

And it was.

And apart from that, the tweet also has this sense of ego to it.

From what I've gathered, the final product is pretty close to what Trank envisioned for the film, albeit somewhat mangled thanks to Fox's constant meddling.

And even if Trank didn't have to deal with the meddling, I highly doubt that Fant4stic would've still be any good.

It's like how The Snyder Cut of Justice League is technically better than the theatrical cut of the film, but it's still not a good film.

Snyder fans after reading this:

But overtime, we would actually get to see the original draft of this film.

And believe or not.....

It was actually good.

Like, REALLY good.

But the thing is....this wasn't from Trank.

It was actually from Jeremy Slater, one of the writers on the film.

This draft was FAR more faithful adaptation of the Fantastic Four.

In general, the Fantastic Four would have used their powers in more varied ways and would utilize a greater degree of teamwork.

Franklin Storm was not present in the script.

Ben and Reed teleported objects into another dimension, which would have later been found in the Negative Zone.

Ben's status as the team's muscle was also established in more detail - essentially having the character serve as Reed's bodyguard - as a way to justify his involvement in the expedition.

Victor would have secretly stolen Reed's research to give to Latverian spies.

Sue and Johnny were originally both going to stay behind and use the Baxter Building's technology to help Reed, Ben, and Victor explore the Negative Zone. The expedition would have involved a portal instead of a teleporter.

When the characters teleported into the Negative Zone, they would have found themselves inside a ruined otherworldly city with alien corpses strewn about. They would have found Galactus there (appearing as he does in the comics), who would have seemingly killed Victor with Dark Matter. Galactus would have fired the Dark Matter into the portal that Ben and Reed were using just as they escaped, affecting the two of them alongside Johnny and Sue. A Body Horror sequence similar to the one in the final film (though most likely not nearly as edgy and tryhard) would have played out, with a noted addition of there being a scene where Sue's skin disappeared and her muscles were visible.

A time skip of four years would have been implemented. While Ben still would have been used as a military weapon and Reed would still have been a fugitive, Johnny was going to have been a television star and Sue would have used her powers to help people suffering from cancer (and search for a cure for Ben's condition). During his time in hiding, Reed would have built H.E.R.B.I.E. as his own robot companion, alongside the Fantasti-Car. Ben also would have come to terms with his status as a monstrous-looking being.

Latveria's government would have completed their own version of the portal using the knowledge that Victor stole. Victor would have come out of the portal as Doctor Doom, killing the military and government leaders singlehandedly and quickly conquering Latveria.

Doctor Doom would then send shock troopers armed with futuristic weapons after Reed, who would escape with H.E.R.B.I.E. and the Fantasti-Car to warn his friends in New York.

Harvey Elder (who was planned to be in the movie) created artificial life (The Moloids) at the Baxter Building that Sue would have feared would be weaponized. Her fears are proven correct when Doom's shock troopers arrive and activate the Dark Matter on one of the Moloids, transforming the creature into Giganto. The Moloid formula would have spilled onto Harvey Elder and he would have become The Mole Man, who would've served as the villain for a potential sequel.

The team then would have met in New York to battle Giganto together, officially making them the Fantastic Four. After defeating the monster, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing, and Human Torch would travel to Latveria to battle Doctor Doom and his army of shock troopers.

Doctor Doom would have been revealed to be a composite character with traits of The Silver Surfer, while Galactus would similarly have been a composite character with traits of Annihilus. After serving as Galactus's herald for four years, Doctor Doom decides that it would be better to destroy him and save the Earth by building the Ultimate Nullifier.

The Fantastic Four would have discovered that the Doctor Doom they face was actually a Doombot in a manner of speaking - Victor Von Doom is physically tied within the Negative Zone. The Fantastic Four ultimately defeat Doctor Doom's copy on Earth and trap Doctor Doom in the Negative Zone. The Fantastic Four warn the government of the threat of Galactus, continuing Doctor Doom's work on the Ultimate Nullifier in a way that does not threaten the rest of the world.

The Fantastic Four make the Baxter Building their base of operations and sow the seeds of the Future Foundation by bringing in child prodigies and teen geniuses from around the world to solve the world's problems.

As for why this draft wasn't used, there were two reasons....

Fox believed that this version of the film would've costed them more money than they initially had planned to used. It seems like they were trying to keep the budget of this as low as they could in order to make any sort of financial returns worth it. We all know how that went....

As I mentioned in the pervious post, it clashed with Frank's vision for the film, who 1) Had little familiarity with the Fantastic Four, and 2) wanted to make a film that, as I mentioned before, was "dArK, gRoUnDeD, aNd ReAlIsTiC."

And after reading all this, I'm sure many of you are going....

Like dude.

We were SO close to greatness.

This easily could've been the best Fantastic Four ever made and the first good one since the Roger Corman film!

This draft really felt like it was made by someone who actually understood and cared about the Fantastic Four.

But unfortunately, it was made for a studio that was kinda being cheap and were kinda rushing it for pretty scummy reasons, and worse of all, a director who couldn't fucking cooperate and wanted everything to be his way.

In the end, Fant4stic serves as a example of the worst kind of inception a film can have.

Not one from the passion of a director/creator.

Nor the curiosity and willing to experiment from a studio.

This movie was only made for one reason only: copyright hoarding.

And between this and the Roger Corman film (which I was mentioned in the last post was also made for the same reason as well), I don't know which one had the more tragic and scummy outcome.

The Roger Corman film never even got to release and resulted in the lives of literary everyone involved to be played with.

But at the very least, I think the cast and crew of that were treated well during the film's production.

Contrast that to Fant4stic, where the cast and crew of that film literally went through hell having to deal with Fox's constant meddling and Trank's constant douchebaggery.

And despite Fox having high hopes for the film, it ended up bombing hard and being reviewed bombed into oblivion.

And while people are cautiously interested in the MCU film.

With that caution becoming even greater after a recent announcement involving a particular casting choice.

I think we all agree that at least it'll NEVER stoop as low as this film.

[traincat]

On a scale of 56 to 348, how bitter would you be if the MCU F4 movie is the first to break the curse while also having THAT casting for Johnny?

The Curse of the Fantastic Four manifests in mysterious ways. For all we know a director's dog will do $100k worth of damage to a rental property during filming. Again. (Josh Trank.)

I don't... really care that much lol I think the Curse of the Fantastic Four films is like, a funny way to frame the inherent problems in adapting the F4 for film specifically, like balancing four main characters, a historic lack of interest in the Four from the greater fandom, the Doom Equation, fandom's preconceived notions about Reed and Johnny, etc. But also it's an MCU movie. There's a good chance it will do well. Or it will do terribly! And then do very well in streaming numbers on Disney+. It's hard to say. Also while I'm not thrilled about Quinn's casting, I could end up being pleasantly surprised with the writing + character direction. I'm not feeling overly positive about it but I'm not feeling overly negative at the moment either. That could change! I am really interested to see if it IS a '60s piece like everyone is now thinking because I think there's a lot of interesting things you could do with Johnny with a '60s to present day story. (They most relate to the character's history of queer subtext so I don't think those would actually like, be done by the MCU. But it is fun to speculate on what could be done.)