marvel-comics

Fantastic Four: A (mildly spoilery) review!

This weekend, Fox released their latest Marvel comic book adaptation, a reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise. The previous two Fantastic Four films weren’t very well received, and Fox was likely hoping to cash in on the post-Iron Man comics boom to change that perception. If so, it didn’t work out as they’d hoped. What follows is a review of the movie, what went right, what went wrong, and where Fox may go from here.

Overall Impressions

The movie wasn’t terrible. Despite what you might read on Rotten Tomatoes, this wasn’t anywhere near the worst comic book movie I’ve seen; it’s not even the worst comic book movie Fox has ever released. For starters, it’s definitely an improvement on the previous Fantastic Four and Rise of the Silver, not to mention Daredevil and Elektra. Having said that, it doesn’t hold up well at all compared to the Marvel Studios movies, or X-Men franchise. If anything, the movie was disappointingly mediocre. Mediocre, because it’s just kind of there: there’s a story, and it occurs, and there’s people and they get powers and they sort-of use them, but by the end of the film, you feel like they never got around to the interesting part. And disappointing, because it could have been better: it’s obvious that there was a much better movie just begging to be released, but we’ll likely never get to see it. Adding to the disappointment is the fact that the trailer promised so much more: whatever movie that trailer was from, I would have much rather seen that than Fantastic Four.

In the end, it wasn’t a complete waste of time — it wasn’t offensively bad coughcoughGhostRider2coughcough. But I don’t really think there’s much of an audience that’s going to be happy to pay for this movie. If you’re a fan of the Fantastic Four, this movie will anger you, and if you’re a fan of superhero movies, it will disappoint you. (For reference: its the first Marvel movie since before Iron Man that I’m not going to see twice, and that includes Thor 2).

Rating: 2/10 (mostly for the acting and the first act); wait for Netflix.

For the rest of this review, there will be some broad spoilers, so if you’re planning to go see it, you might want to stop and come back later. But since you probably aren’t, you can read on…

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Ant-Man: A (mildly spoilery) review!

From the moment it was announced, Ant-Man was viewed as a bit of a risky move by Marvel. Even for a comic book movie, a guy that gets really small and talks to ants seemed like a bit of a stretch. Could they make it work? Would this be the beginning of the end for Marvel?

Of course not. Marvel doesn’t seem capable of making a genuinely terrible movie, and Ant-Man was far, far away from terrible. Following up on epic adventures like Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel gives us a small, fun, and funny heist movie that more than delivers.

The short version: 9/10, definite watch, and do so in 3-D if possible. One of my favorite MCU movies yet, largely because it’s something different from what we’ve gotten so far. For more details, keep reading.

Note: There will be very minor spoilers here for some elements of the movie; I will try not to give away anything major, but you may want to skip this one until you’ve seen it. If you’re willing to risk it, click on down:

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Salt Lake Comic Con 2014 – Marvel Movies Phase III Panel

The Marvel Movies Phase III Panel at the Salt Lake Comic Con was basically the summation of confirmed reports and rumors surrounding the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Avengers 2: Age of Ultron (May 1, 2015) marks the end of Phase II, and Ant-Man (July 17, 2015) will mark the beginning of phase three. None of the panel members were affiliated with Marvel, instead they were a local collection of fans who scour the internet constantly for new information surrounding the MCU.

Warning: If you consider rumors to be spoilers, then you might want to skip this.

Ant-Man Poster
Ant-Man Poster

Ant-Man

Since Ant-Man will be coming out first it is understandably the movie the panel knew the most about. Ant-Man is being directed by a man who is known for comedies, so the hope it is will have that light playful feel of other Marvel movies.

The anticipated style is that of a detective movie. At the beginning, an old Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), a retired superhero, has his Ant-Man technology stolen. He enlists the help of a thief to recover his lost property and in the process trains Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) to be the new Ant-Man.

The release date of July 17 this coming summer is incredibly aggressive, considering they are still filming the movie right now. Given all the post production that goes into a super hero film, it sounds like a very tight schedule.

Captain America 3

Just as Captain America: The Winter Soldier was something of spy movie, the same director pair has said that Captain America 3 (May 6, 2016) will also have that spy feeling to it. Rumors about supporting characters vary including Hawkeye, Agent 13 (the next door nurse from Winter Soldier), and Black Widow (potential love interest). Few people in the audience thought that Black Widow and Captain America should be a thing. In the comics Captain America has a relationship with Agent 13, but also ultimately has a son with Black Widow.

Here is the line where things go almost full rumor.

Dr. Strange

The only thing known for sure about Dr. Strange is that currently a director known for horror films is slated to make it. Although Joaquin Phoenix appears to be the favorite, there have been some rumors surrounding the idea of Johnny Depp playing Dr. Strange.

Guardians 2 and Avengers 3

Guardians 2 was announced before Guardians of the Galaxy came out. Since both Guardians and the Avengers are dealing with Infinity stones, it is suspected you will see these two ensembles meet in Avengers 3 regarding the Infinity Gauntlet.

Black Panther

Stan Lee has made several statements that support Black Panther will be made, but without any details. When asked by a fan at Salt Lake Comic Con he said this:

Oh, I wish I knew. I love the Black Panther. I know that they’re figuring out how to do the movie. I don’t think it’s scheduled yet, but be patient, because sooner or later the Black Panther will strike.

Marvel has a block of release dates going through 2019 with many of the films untitled. Plenty of room for Thor 3, Black Widow, and others. Someone in the audience asked about Civil War, the rumor on the street is that Disney may do a Pixar animated movie of Civil War.

Highlights from 2013 – 4th Quarter

Meta Suggested:

DVK had some interesting things to share.

He liked both the question and answer to Was the Cantina music deliberately off-tune or just an artifact of cheap production? asked by user17807.

The question How did Jabba become such a powerful crime lord? asked by Beofett.

He also liked the question and answer of Why do the lightsaber moves of Luke Skywalker look so uncoordinated and crude compared to the prequels? asked by vadr

For under appreciated answers he lists Who or what was Tom Bombadil? and Why are there humans in the Star Wars Universe?. These answers came years after the original questions were asked, but merit reading.

Donald McLean suggested Borg Naming Conventions asked by thea-kronborg, in an exploration of how borg pets get their names.

Interesting Stats:

The most up-voted question with the highest voted answer goes to Was the Cantina music deliberately off-tune or just an artifact of cheap production?

The second highest voted question was Why did the Dwarves build Erebor with wide hallways big enough for dragons to fit in? asked by Truffant.

The most viewed question (with a whopping 41367 views at the time of this writing) was Questions on ending of Thor: The Dark World, which is actually two questions rolled into one question asked by Anon.

 

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