Fantastic Four: Grade, Review, Discuss, Sequels?...SPOILERS likely

[Leo Walsh]

Meh.

Fuck Josh Trank.

Anyone who'll hire him after this deserves to lose their shirt.

This isn't matter of being or not being able to "do FF correctly " It's a matter of not being able to get your shit together and shoot a movie.

The script is worse than stupid. It's insipid, utterly worthless as a blueprint for a film.


Fox shouldn't have tried to fix this mess, the should have shelved it and taken a loss rather than spending much additional money and inevitably taking a much bigger loss.

 

[Relayer1]

Meh.

Fuck Josh Trank.

Anyone who'll hire him after this deserves to lose their shirt.

This isn't matter of being or not being able to "do FF correctly " It's a matter of not being able to get your shit together and shoot a movie.

The script is worse than stupid. It's insipid, utterly worthless as a blueprint for a film.


Fox shouldn't have tried to fix this mess, the should have shelved it and taken a loss rather than spending much additional money and inevitably taking a much bigger loss.

That is very harsh. And absolutely correct.

If we had seen Trank's original 'vision', there's a damned good chance it would have been worse...

 

[Guy Gardener]

Hmmmm.

(Box office Mojo)

On 3,995 screens, Fox's Fantastic Four should win the weekend, even in the headwinds of withering reviews, with an estimated $45M.

more...

Forecast (August 7 - Aug. 9)
1. Fantastic Four - $45M
2. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - $35M (-37.5%)
3. Shaun the Sheep - $11M
4. Ricki and the Flash - $7M
5. Ant-Man - $6.5M (-49.2%)

How do the deals work with the movie houses? Can either side cut and run or are they both stuck to honour a contract no matter how poorly or well a film does? If the movie did good, I assume that the number of screens would increase, and if the movie did bad that that number would decrease, and consequently that the theatres and the distributors would be in agreement whether to pull or push?

 

[JoeZhang]

That projection is out of date - now more likely to maybe hit $30 million.

As for rest, yes - if it bombs as now though - the number of screens will shrink quickly.

 

[StCoop]

That projection is out of date - now more likely to maybe hit $30 million.

As for rest, yes - if it bombs as now though - the number of screens will shrink quickly.

C- Cinemascore which is a kiss of Box Office death.

While Trank will vanish into obscurity pity Kinberg who will be stuck defending it when he's trying to talk about X-Men or Star Wars.

 

[the G-man]

That projection is out of date - now more likely to maybe hit $30 million.

As for rest, yes - if it bombs as now though - the number of screens will shrink quickly.

Deadline is saying mid to high 20s

 

[Christopher]

Can someone spoil something for me? I gather that, unconscionably, Sue isn't even included on the dimensional jump. So how the heck does she get her powers?

 

[Guy Gardener]

There's a dispersion wave (you know the special effect off by heart) that erupts from the transmat capsules when they reenter the positive universe. 10 feet away, caked in the extradimensional wake of this, Sue gets powers.

 

[Crewman Commander]

Fox shouldn't have tried to fix this mess, the should have shelved it and taken a loss rather than spending much additional money and inevitably taking a much bigger loss.

The burning question on my mind is, why didn't they just shelve it? It seems clear that people in charge had known a disaster was looming for many, many months now. Did the question of rights ownership have anything to do with the decision not to shelve it?

 

[Trek4Ever]

Is it safe to say that not only "we told you so" to those that insisted Fantastic Four would turn out fine,but that the movie is this generation's Batman and Robin?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Fox shouldn't have tried to fix this mess, the should have shelved it and taken a loss rather than spending much additional money and inevitably taking a much bigger loss.

The burning question on my mind is, why didn't they just shelve it? It seems clear that people in charge had known a disaster was looming for many, many months now. Did the question of rights ownership have anything to do with the decision not to shelve it?

Yes?

 

[StCoop]

Did the question of rights ownership have anything to do with the decision not to shelve it?

It's exacty the same as what happened in the 1990's except for costing a couple of hundred million (including marketing) instead of a million.

 

[the G-man]

Can someone spoil something for me? I gather that, unconscionably, Sue isn't even included on the dimensional jump. So how the heck does she get her powers?

Guys explanation, above, is what I've read in reviews.

Which, as you note, is unconscionable. Not only does it negate a large part of the "FF as family" motif, but arguably diminishes Sue's "agency" in the origin even more than in the pre-feminist Lee/Kirby version.

Furthermore, had they simply switched Victor and Sue's places in the teams they could have something that more closely hewed to the comic book origin of both the team and of VonDoom. If Victor had been the one to stay behind, the resulting blast could have disfigured him, caused him to lose his grip on sanity and blame Reed for the accident.

It sounds like this movie is a series of bad storytelling choices, but this might be the worst one.

 

[The Old Mixer]

(Box office Mojo)

On 3,995 screens, Fox's Fantastic Four should win the weekend, even in the headwinds of withering reviews, with an estimated $45M.

Try this one, Guy.

 

[Dream]

That projection is out of date - now more likely to maybe hit $30 million.

As for rest, yes - if it bombs as now though - the number of screens will shrink quickly.

Every movie gets a two week run in theaters no matter how badly they do because of contracts, but after the second week theaters can drop bad performing movies like a hot potato.

 

[The Old Mixer]

An interesting detail in that link I just posted that I hadn't read anywhere previously is that it's rumored that the budget that had been set aside for the 3D conversion was specifically used for the studio's last-minute fixes after Trank was off the project.

 

[JoeZhang]

I was really looking forward to this from the trailers, I thought we were going to get an interesting different take on the FF... oh boy...

I saw this for free, I paid too much - where to start with this terrible terrible film - it is shocking on every level, the reshoots are obvious and I cannot remember the last time I saw a major film that wasn't just terrible but was *incompetent* on every level - from dialogue to acting to well... everything...

Spoiler: specifically spoilery stuff

You have completed fucked up the script *three* minutes in when you decide that "it's clobbering time!" is the catchphrase of Ben's abusive brother

Supergenius Reed doesn't think at any stage to test any of the material they get back for the teleporter to actually work out where it is from? GTFO

Doom is terrible on all levels - the CGI version is just amateurish

I could be misremembering this but I think Ben and Sue do not speak to each other at any point in this film?

Nobody has any powers for the first 45 minutes of the film

There is *one* effective moment around Reed and body horror just after they get their powers

Ben the killer = no

Something I don't think that anyone else has picked up - Johnny suit is what allows him to flame-off?

If we work on the basis this came out because of contractual obligation - Fox have got until 2023 to get it right this time?

 

[davejames]

(Box office Mojo)

On 3,995 screens, Fox's Fantastic Four should win the weekend, even in the headwinds of withering reviews, with an estimated $45M.

Try this one, Guy.

Wow, a $27 million opening weekend for a big budget superhero reboot would definitely NOT be good.

Although honestly I think this movie would have bombed even without the scathing reviews and negative buzz. It looked painfully dull and generic from the start, and there was no sign people were EVER interested in seeing it.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Green Lantern is relieved that somebody else's name will now be synonymous with "superhero box office disaster".

 

[StCoop]

You know who is having a great weekend?

Tim Story.