Topic: Fantastic 4 and Rise of the Silver Surfer

[Crying Freeman]

Two films I used to catch on TV all the time in my pre teen years. I always liked them, and they were my second D and third superhero films after Spiderman 2(a great one to start with  ). I even watched the short lived Cartoon Network show, which I have on DVD and plab to watch soon. After years of them losing their TV popularity I just left them behind.

Recently, my girlfirend and i saw ads that Disney was showing the 2005 film, so we watched it with some hype, and she was unimpressed. I wouldnt say i was "impressed", but i REALLY enjoyed it! After that, her and I used them as an inside joke, and still do, because of their dumbness. She knows that I've grown a liking to the F4 movies, so she bought them both for me on DVD as an early Xmas gift.

I have to say, I think they're both underrated. They both have issues in the acting and writing department, but they're both fun as hell, and don't take themselves too seriously. I know everyones problem with the first film was how they don't do any crime fighting, but I found that refreshing compared to every other superhero origin story movie. And hey, they were planning on starting a franchise, so it would've been fixed later, which Silver Surfer did.

Silver Surfer still had some writing and CG problems (seriously, the CG in Chronicles of Riddick looks better and that was 3 years prior, maybe budget issues), but the acting as well took a turn down. Ioan Gruffud, who's an excellent actor, does a pretty bad job here. If you watch his latest show, Forever (which was ciminally underrated and canceled too soon  ) and go to this, you'll be shocked how bad some of his delivery is.

Overall, really fun films, and it sucks that around the time Silver Surfer came out, EVERY super hero movie had to take the gritty reboot route. I think if they continued with this series, we would've had a decent amount of really easily watchable and fun films! And it's too bad F4 seems to have gone down the dark reboot itself. I haven't seen it, ive heard what you've heard about it, and I'm not paying $27 for a DVD.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Honestly, in hindsight, I really feel like these were the true Fantastic 4 films (the less we say about this year's reboot, the better). They were fun, light hearted, and didn't spring for Fox's usual grimdark feel from that period that infected X3 and Spiderman 3.

They're campy fun, and some people see that as sign of a bad movie. It's not.

But hey, that's their call.

[Crying Freeman]

Honestly, in hindsight, I really feel like these were the true Fantastic 4 films (the less we say about this year's reboot, the better). They were fun, light hearted, and didn't spring for Fox's usual grimdark feel from that period that infected X3 and Spiderman 3.

They're campy fun, and some people see that as sign of a bad movie. It's not.

But hey, that's their call.

I haven't read the comics, and I won't pretend to like a lot of superhero movie watchers, but yes, campy fun is what comes to mind when I hear fantastic 4. I mean, they are the FANTASTIC 4, not the FML 4. The 1994 films even did it right, not taking itself seriously (that and the Bmovie budget  )

And I know its personal preference like you said, but I hate how a fun movie is considered crap to a lot of people. It's like nobody knows how to enjoy themselves at the movies anymore, one reason US critics hated Spectre, but Bond fan's like myslef really enjoyed it

[X]

I thought the movies were okay too. The only thing that bothered me was how off Dr Doom's origins were. That and he didn't sound like Dr Doom should. The second film was okay as well but the only thing wrong with that one was the silver Surfer. I don't know about anyone else but last time I heard his powers did NOT come from his surf board. Galactus was strange. He wasn't the overly large sentinel-looking humanoid as portrayed in the comics. instead 'it' was a nebulous cloud that coiled around worlds and stripped them of life. It wasn't accurate to the comics but it was interesting at the same time. Other then that the movies were fun to watch. I find that the best part of both those films is the interaction between the Thing and the Human Torch, lol!

If they ever decide to reboot the franchise then hopefully they'll address the aforementioned issues. Scratch that I just saw what they're planning and the only thing I have to say is: Why is every hero being put in black outfits?? They aren't Batman! Jesus Hollywood, grow up and do your research! Everything has to be dark nowadays. Is Hollywood being run by vampires or something?

[Crying Freeman]

I thought the movies were okay too. The only thing that bothered me was how off Dr Doom's origins were. That and he didn't sound like Dr Doom should. The second film was okay as well but the only thing wrong with that one was the silver Surfer. I don't know about anyone else but last time I heard his powers did NOT come from his surf board. Galactus was strange. He wasn't the overly large sentinel-looking humanoid as portrayed in the comics. instead 'it' was a nebulous cloud that coiled around worlds and stripped them of life. It wasn't accurate to the comics but it was interesting at the same time. Other then that the movies were fun to watch. I find that the best part of both those films is the interaction between the Thing and the Human Torch, lol!

If they ever decide to reboot the franchise then hopefully they'll address the aforementioned issues. Scratch that I just saw what they're planning and the only thing I have to say is: Why is every hero being put in black outfits?? They aren't Batman! Jesus Hollywood, grow up and do your research! Everything has to be dark nowadays. Is Hollywood being run by vampires or something?

I assumed Galactus had different stories, maybe a cloud form and a humanoid form, cus I remember in Fairly Odd Parents they spoofed super heros, the main character Timmy turns into GalacTimus (lol) and his fairies were both Silver Surfers, so I assumed the movie and this episode both had some things right about them.

HT and the Thing are one of my favorite things in the films, it was well done. Not overdone or annoying. Dr. Doom was OK, but this is coming from someone who hasn't read the comics, so yeah. I still find something eerie about the general's death in the second one, idk why lol

Also started watching the 90s flash, and so far like it better than the CW series. Plus, bringing in John as Barry's father in the CW show + Mark Hammel returning to CW was awesome!

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I prefer Cloud!Galacticus myself. His humanoid form just looks silly with that hat on him.

[Crying Freeman]

I prefer Cloud!Galacticus myself. His humanoid form just looks silly with that hat on him.

After seeing an image, I can agree 

[darkmanx_429]

I thought Silver Surfer was the coolest part of this movie. I am still wondering like where is the standalone Silver Surfer movie?

But I am kind of hesitant with Fox handling something like that. I think Marvel/Disney at this point is the only company competent not to screw something like that up.

One thing I am happy about so far is Deadpool.

And if they stop trying to turn Xmen into the Jackman/Lawrence show I like the direction they have been going since First Class.

One thing that is really fucking annoying me about Marvel and superhero movies (general) though, can we get some F8cking masks! A also think that part of pushing Black Panther was to counter Deadpool until that point, many of the popular heroes in the movie don't give a crap about concealing their identity or even having masks at all.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

I thought Silver Surfer was the coolest part of this movie. I am still wondering like where is the standalone Silver Surfer movie?

But I am kind of hesitant with Fox handling something like that. I think Marvel/Disney at this point is the only company competent not to screw something like that up.

One thing I am happy about so far is Deadpool.

And if they stop trying to turn Xmen into the Jackman/Lawrence show I like the direction they have been going since First Class.

One thing that is really fucking annoying me about Marvel and superhero movies (general) though, can we get some F8cking masks! A also think that part of pushing Black Panther was to counter Deadpool until that point, many of the popular heroes in the movie don't give a crap about concealing their identity or even having masks at all.

I'm split on masks. On the one hand, they are part of the canon appearance, but on the other, masks hide the actor's face and obscure their expressions which hides a major part of the performance.

I think many of the masks look silly (Wolverine's being an excellent example) but some are fairly iconic, like Spider-Man or Captain America, and those have never failed to appear in Marvel films. The most glaring omission is probably Thor's Helmet, which he wears briefly in the first fil and it pretty much isn't seen again.

Marvel's actually done a pretty good job with including masks.

Fox, on the other hand, has not.

I'm more mad that characters are always referred to by name, rather than superhero identity. They're all on the same radio network, so why not just use the comic identity as a radio callsign? To their credit, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton already do this sometimes: Steve's callsign is "Captain", Nat's is "Black Widow" and Clint's is "Hawkeye" and they do refer to Bruce Banner as "Hulk" when he's changed. And Thor doesn't really have a distinguished secret identity -- he's just Thor all the time. I want it more consistent and across all characters though.

So there you go.