Fantastic Four
The Potential Marvel's First Family. World's Greatest Heroes. Stan Lee's answer to the Justice League was a resounding success, and these four characters continue to retain a great deal of respect in the Marvel Universe. They are the only iconic team that covers wide swaths of demographics, with characters to identify with youngsters, women, white collar and blue collar folk. The fantastical nature of their adventures sets their stories apart into the sci-fi realm. Oh, and they have Dr. Doom. How could this go wrong?
What Went Right Well, something went right, because it made it's budget back. You had Johnny Storm as a twenty something super star, and he was not only charming, but funny and generally pretty cool. And while it wasn't everything it could be, they really did have all the characters with their proper powers, all put to good use, more or less. It had a coherent story. It was, in general, serviceable, and honestly, the effects were pretty good.
What Went Wrong Well, lets start with the fact that the movie was already set before the director got in place. Script written, cast shortlisted. They knew based on whatever metrics and focus groups and such what kind of movie they were going to make. They then needed a director who they could boss around, who had no creative pull. Cue Tim Story, alum of great family comedies like Barbershop. Not successful enough to say no to Fox. And we know what happens when we get a director who can't say no to Fox, we get such executive mandated fun like X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: Wolverine Origins, Daredevil and Elektra. Daredevil incidentally has a much better Director's Cut on DVD, but I think we've talked about that before.
But surely, executive want to make money, why would they purposely sabotage their own movies. Well, usually, they aren't. In time-tested genres like Romantic Comedies, Dramas, Thrillers, Kid's Movies, the focus groups and whatever archaic process they have work just fine. Somewhere, however, when it comes to superheroes, even ones not from comic books like Jumper. It's possible that they just have some ego thing clouding their judgment for adaptations, everyone has their vision after all, and what's enjoyable to a 50+ man in the entertainment industry is not necessarily enjoyable to the 30 year old man in the foodservice industry.
Since its not truly possible to tell exactly what they were thinking, we'll let the film speak for itself. Slapstick comedy, again, from a tried and true genre that just doesn't seem to fit, a young strapping lead to carry the movie, the latest hot thing as the female lead. Again, all these things are typically what make another type of movie successful it just doesn't work for the Fantastic Four, because it's more than just a family comedy. And that's probably the crux of why CBMs aren't as awesome as we dream they should be, because the people footing the bill aren't actually interested in the themes of the property.
So after our family comedy casting, with action movie star at the center, and director hiring its no wonder that the science is weak and nearly non-existent, despite being a core function of the team, it simply wasn't core in the film. In fact, the team itself wasn't even that core, as few of them receive any development at all. Besides Johnny, they are simply romantic story arcs, basically.
To all these shenanigans, we add the infamous Dr. Doom, but not quite. What the then-popular Ultimate Comics did to make him more realistic or modern, the movie took it a step further. His Latverian heritage downgraded to a footnote. No longer a king, but now a businessman. Doesn't have the same scale does it?
And perhaps that's what's saddest about The Fantastic Four of 2005, that the scale of the team was taken down to almost nothing. Their personalities, their relationships, their adventures, their usage of their powers. We have something that merely pays lipservice to the things that set these characters apart.
How We Could Have Done Better Well, do everything different! Clearly. But more specifically, it would have been better to get a passionate creator/director that they trust on board from the beginning of pre-production instead of trying to run the FF franchise like they couldn't with Singer's X-Men.
From there, things would have more or less corrected themselves. Instead of trying to ape a generic family comedy, the Director and Producers would have exploited the natural comedy in the premise of the Fantastic Four. You have a very jovial character in Johnny Storm, a sarcastic snarker in Ben Grimm, a cornball in Reed Richards and a 'straight man' in Susan Storm. They regularly come up against ridiculous things, cosmic storms, mole men, world-ending threats. It doesn't take much to give some observational comedy here. No need for living room hijinks, though its hard to imagine an immature character like Johnny not doing such things.
Instead of trying to have a strapping young man (Johnny) serve as the proxy for the entire 20-40 male demographic, split it up. Let Reed represent the intelligent professional, stressed with his deadlines, and under enormous pressure. Let Ben represent the commoner, the hard worker, stuck in a rut he can't get out of. Make it true team movie, where all the characters get development, and not just the coolest one. Even though we like adult Johnny with the others as supporting cast, the movie, as a whole, would be better if it was an ensemble piece. Contrast with X-Men which use Wolverine as the 'main character' in what should be a team movie. Let Johnny be young, the proxy for the kids, the too cool for school jokester, with an arc much like he had in FF:Rise of the Silver Surfer, where he learns that he needs his team members. Susan would have been the heart of the team as usual, as underdeveloped as ever, but at least respectable, and needing an actress with presence and weight to carry her.
Casting, then, would have been completely different. Reed would have skewed older, someone naturally grey, and been more mature like the heroes of Taken and Ocean's Eleven, and less like the heroes of, I dunno King Arthur. Johnny would have skewed young, like Iceman from the X-Men, perhaps even been an unknown. Ben probably would also have skewed younger, and been less a person who already looks like Thing, and more a good guy in a tough spot who turns into someone who is unattractive.
With Reed's character being important beyond his romance with Sue, then his science becomes more than a plot point for the origin, but an integral part of the film, and perhaps even its driving force, since it certainly drives the themes. Silly power-reversing contraptions are laid aside.
For the villain, we have the syndrome of a hero's archnemesis not making for a great origin story, because Doom has his own very different origin. To solve this, the movie tried to give Doom the FF's origin so he could be in the movie without needing an extra 30 minutes of screen time to explain his international origin, separate tech and possible magical abilities. As you well know, it didn't work. A better idea might have been to use a different villain, and cliffhang Dr. Doom's arrival in the post-credits scene. It worked very well for Batman Begins that same year, and it just so happens, in every other Fantastic Four incarnation, Dr. Doom was not the first villain, perhaps just for that reason.
Mole Man isn't the most physically intimidating sort, but he is a monster, in the classical sense. He's disfigured, he hates society, he's misunderstood and he will kill everyone and still be in a place that we can understand emotionally. The ground quaking, opening up and so forth leaves plenty of room for good science and those walking moving earth monsters? Perhaps some new compound animated by the same storm that gave the fantastic four their powers. Heck, Harvey Elder could be one of Reed's contemporaries, another scientist, maybe even a friend. The drama writes itself.
In conclusion, as I said, do everything different, even the things that worked, and I think the movie would be better overall. Director Tim Story got a lot of criticism and a dramatically halted career for this film, but, from what we know, he really didn't have much control here. Now Rise of the Silver Surfer is another story altogether...
Your thoughts? Did you love this movie? Prefer Johnny Storm as an adult? Have it in for Tim Story? Let us know!