The latest on Marvel films
- Thread starter CaptainCanada
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I was surprised by Alba's casting. The quintessantial hot young Latina cast as the quintessential blonde-and-blue not-so-young Anglo?
[Lovitz] ACTing![/Lovitz]
Yeah, I never got that.
I don't think Jessica Alba is the quintessential hot young Latino in that I don't think most people really think of her as Latino. She's one of the new wave of "post-racial" celebrities. In fact her rejection of being called Latino is something that has annoyed a lot of Latinos.
The worst thing about Alba playing Sue Storm is that the blonde wigs didn't suit her. She looks much, much better as a brunette. Also, she's not the greatest actress of course.
The worst thing about Alba playing Sue Storm is that the blonde wigs didn't suit her. She looks much, much better as a brunette. Also, she's not the greatest actress of course.
I don't have anything against Jessica Alba or Ioan Gruffyd as actors, I just didn't care for them in Fantastic Four.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
Everyone says that, but I think they were VERY well cast. Jessica was sweet when she needed to be but took Evans's Johnny down HARD when she needed to.
Ioan was the epitome of the good-hearted, somewhat absent-minded and a bit socially inept Reed Richards.
Furthermore, their chemistry together was spot on to the characters...unlike some I could name *cough*McGuire/Durnst*cough*...
See.. i didn't see ANY chemistry at all between them. Alba was cast because she's popular and has a good set of boobs and a nice ass (as evident by how she wore the uniform.. cleavage at its best and the "accident" where she ends up visible and naked). Gruffud because he made a good, younger Richards visually but that was it.. i wasn't convinced by his acting at all.
Chiklis and Evans though.. they had chemistry and were fun to watch and they were the closest to their comicbook characters (which is not always a good thing but here it fit).
The Fantastic Four movies were paint by numbers style movies.. marketing and "demographic research" people telling them who's hot right now and can bring in some of them "nerd" money by completely ignoring what made those comics popular in the first place and cast/write accordingly.
Case in point.. Dr. Doom. There is, i believe, not a single villain in the movies who's background was so totally destroyed with this movie and basically made a mockery of it. Doom in the comics is one of the best villains they have and he's appeared in numerous non-FF comics and he's just plain cool. Here he was a)miscast and b) totally uninteresting (how many times have we seen arrogant CEO types who look down on others and treat women as property and trophies?).
As i saw FF i thought to myself.. "Well.. that's it.. the streak has ended". Until that point Marvel, or rather the studios, had a lucky hand in choosing the production staff of the Marvel movies. Singer basically rebooted the entire genre with his X-Men movies after Batman & Robin sunk it, Raimi gave us excellent two Spiderman movies (the less said about the 3rd the better), Favreau with Iron Man etc..
All had one thing in common.. those responsible got what made the characters tick, they got their core and they built the story around it respecting it and treating it fairly.
Those movies that failed utterly (Elektra, FF) ignored it and paid the price.
I so hope they don't blow the next movies.. it will be easy to do. Cap America could be the walking US clichee with hammy one-liners and a "America Fuck Yeah" attitude and Thor has so many possibilities to be laughed at that chances are that they'll fail too (luckily the first iceberg has been missed.. they won't be using the fake Shakespearean language).
It remains to be seen what comes of it.. i was very sceptical when i heard Downey was chosen as Stark.. though i liked the actor before i just couldn't see him play the role. Then i saw the first picture and was amazed and when i saw him in the movie i was blown away.
I hope that these lightnings do strike twice, thrice or how many times they need to strike.. actors that fit the role perfectly and directors/producers who respect the origin and tell a good story.
If that happens and we get the Avengers movie it could be the blockbuster of the year. I wish them luck.
Well, the problem with Doom is that he's only cool AFTER his initial appearances and his origin. Because his origin and initial appearances suck. Basically he's just some arrogant genius guy who blames Reed for stuff Reed never did, and Doom totally brought on himself. And he keeps trying to kill Reed out of "revenge" for this, when there's no basis except in Doom's insane mind.
Yeah, he had that whole "I rule my own country where I can do anything and since I do a good job ruling it the world has to leave me alone", but til after his first battles with the Four.
So basically, Doom in the movies was destined to suck.
Yeah, he had that whole "I rule my own country where I can do anything and since I do a good job ruling it the world has to leave me alone", but til after his first battles with the Four.
So basically, Doom in the movies was destined to suck.
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
For all those people who contend F4 1 & 2 failed, I'd like to point out that they both made ~2.3-2.5x budget, which is a success. They werent' the BEST performing Marvel movies, but solidly in the middle.
I think he was referring to the story, not the financial grosses.
That was probably because Incredibles pretty much beat them to the punch. In fact I think they had too rewrite the first movie due to Incredibles.
Second film, well common audiences don't look too kindly at "Cosmic Horror" type stories.
It's the same reason "Spectacular Spiderman" is a great cartoon but wouldn't work as a movie series: it's too "far out" for audiences for there to be more than one supervillain running around at the same time or for the villains to be more than just random lab accidents and the like (as in, guys who run around in costumes NOT because they're crazy).
Second film, well common audiences don't look too kindly at "Cosmic Horror" type stories.
It's the same reason "Spectacular Spiderman" is a great cartoon but wouldn't work as a movie series: it's too "far out" for audiences for there to be more than one supervillain running around at the same time or for the villains to be more than just random lab accidents and the like (as in, guys who run around in costumes NOT because they're crazy).
darkwing_duck1
Vice Admiral
There wasn't anything wrong with the stories either. The first film was the "origin story", the second a somewhat truncated version of the first Galactus story.
Both I thought were extremely well crafted for their purpose.
Well they were both written by the guy who wrote the Incredibles so... yeah... although Incredibles kinda stole a bit from the Watchmen too, with the whole super-hero registration/banning thing.
The FF movies weren't bad, but they weren't great either. Alba was "okay", and they did an okay job with Reed's character in the second movie, in the second he was Reed Richards Suuuuuper-Genius! we all know and love from the comics. First one, he was brainy but almost in a sorta Hank Pym kinda way, not a Reed Richards way.
Thing and Johnny were pretty much spot on ,but then they were never the most "out there" characters, you need your grumpy strong guy and your immature "hot head" that's got it in his head he's God's gift to women. Done and Done.
Doom... BAH! Doom is not pleased with Faux-Doom! What manner of effrontery was THAT bullshit?! That is not Doom. That is Charmed actor pretending to be Doom. Not Doom! For DOOM IS DOOM! All will bow before Doom motherfuckers!
They completely forgot the totally over the top, yet scary way Doom was Doom! The way he had an ego the size of Galactus and believed he could be a true world leader and would make Richardsss... pay for what ever he did. For Doom cannot be bothered to remember exact reasons. Only that Richards is scum and Doom is DOOM!
The FF movies weren't bad, but they weren't great either. Alba was "okay", and they did an okay job with Reed's character in the second movie, in the second he was Reed Richards Suuuuuper-Genius! we all know and love from the comics. First one, he was brainy but almost in a sorta Hank Pym kinda way, not a Reed Richards way.
Thing and Johnny were pretty much spot on ,but then they were never the most "out there" characters, you need your grumpy strong guy and your immature "hot head" that's got it in his head he's God's gift to women. Done and Done.
Doom... BAH! Doom is not pleased with Faux-Doom! What manner of effrontery was THAT bullshit?! That is not Doom. That is Charmed actor pretending to be Doom. Not Doom! For DOOM IS DOOM! All will bow before Doom motherfuckers!
They completely forgot the totally over the top, yet scary way Doom was Doom! The way he had an ego the size of Galactus and believed he could be a true world leader and would make Richardsss... pay for what ever he did. For Doom cannot be bothered to remember exact reasons. Only that Richards is scum and Doom is DOOM!
No, they weren't. Brad Bird wrote The Incredibles and he had nothing to do with writing the FF movies.
I thought Tim Story had a hand in the Incredibles, or was he the director? I know they shared some part of the creative team with Incredibles... anyway... still I think they really should have hired Stan Lee to do more than just play Willie Lumpkin and "himself". He knew those characters inside and out. But what they did to Doom is unforgivable.
I don't have a problem with the stories themselves.. it's the casting and character changes i have a problem with which directly relates to missed opportunities (Doom) and just unsuitable actors for the roles.
FF2 was a bit better but just because of the Silver Surfer.. that dude was just cool and i liked every scene he was in (and i really liked that they didn't show us a 1000 foot tall guy with a purple horned helmet.. i might have died laughing
).And i was talking about the creative and casting choices of FF and not its box office impact which is never a reliable indicator of the true quality of a movie.
Brad Bird wrote and directed The Incredibles. Tim Story had no part in it.
oh... d'oh never mind then Mind...
