Los Cuatro Fantásticos

When HULK hit theaters in 2003, it wasn't long before DVDs of the old Incredible Hulk TV show popped up in an attempt to cash in on the craze. We saw a similar occurrence a year prior when Spider-Man cartoons appeared on DVD to coincide with that hero's big screen debut. Companies leap at the opportunity to ride on the financial coattails of a hot brand.

So the fact that this picture never surfaced on the shelves of Wal-Mart as its featured heroes clobbered the box office in the summer of 2005 says a lot. I guess everyone involved would just rather forget. To be fair, THE FANTASTIC FOUR is not as bad as everyone says. Let me rephrase that. It's not as unentertaining as all of its negative reviews might suggest.

Veteran television actor Alex Hyde-White (no, you don't remember any of his roles) leads the way as Reed Richards, the brilliant scientist who, along with his crew, gains bizarre powers after an outer space mishap. He's left with the ability to stretch and contort his body to outrageous lengths. His future wife, Sue Storm (Rebecca Staab), can suddenly turn invisible, while her brother, Johnny (Jay Underwood), may now ignite himself at will. Then there's poor Ben Grimm (Michael Bailey Smith), the lovable lug whose body morphs into a mass of craggy, orange rock.

Just as the friends are becoming accustomed to all of this, they are called upon to rescue the world from certain chaos. It seems Reed's old colleague Victor von Doom (Joseph Culp) is living up to his name, and that villainous Jeweler (Ian Trigger) isn't exactly helping old ladies cross the street, either. Can our heroes save the day? Of course they can; like any superhero movie, it's just a question of how and when.

What's striking about THE FANTASTIC FOUR is how amateurish it is in virtually every aspect. The dialog is so lame and tired it sounds like it was written by a junior high drama class. The acting is so unpolished it makes a third-rate afternoon soap opera look like Shakespeare. The special effects are surprisingly good considering the minuscule budget, but there are still some positively embarrassing moments. When The Human Torch fully ignites his body, for instance, the entire movie briefly turns into a cartoon. I can just hear that production meeting. "Oh, no one will notice. They'll be too intrigued by the action!" I mean really, a cartoon? At least give me a mannequin on fire held up by a string! Prior to that, the scene in which the foursome come to on earth after their spaceship crashes is pure teens-in-the-backyard fare. The crew simply found a field and lit a vaguely-spaceship-like object on fire. That's the only remnant of such a major disaster?

Of course there wasn't a whole lot to work with in the script. There is a fairly coherent story here, but it's all so simplified. When Reed and Ben decide to go into outer space, they simply drop by the Storms' house and ask if they'd care to join them. Is it really that easy? Don't these sort of things require, oh, I don't know, years of training and expertise? Not in the world of these writers, who seemed to be inspired by the underrated genius on display in FULL HOUSE reruns. But as bad as that may be, nothing can compare to how painfully clichéd Dr. Doom is. He was pulled right out of those awful superhero cartoons from the 1960s, right down to the evil laugh and slamming his clenched fist down on the table to punctuate his remarks. No comic book, least of all Fantastic Four, has ever featured a villain so obscenely one dimensional.

Ultimately, THE FANTASTIC FOUR is saved from being a complete turkey because it's just so damn innocent. You can tell the people involved, as little talent or experience as they had, really tried. They didn't know the final result would be so embarrassing. They were under the impression that this was their big break, that people would flock to the theaters. It bears repeating that they had virtually no money to work with (and I'm sure half of that was eaten up by the cool Thing costume). All things considered, they did well, and for its many flaws, the finished product is a fair amount of fun for comic book fans.

The only way to describe this Roger Corman produced flick, is to compare it to an episode of Power Rangers or VR Troopers, on a $1million budget. It is fast paced and fun, over the top and cheesy, and its short comings are there for everyone to see.

In all honesty the cast make the most of what they are given. Alex Hyde White has just the right dryness for the part of Reed Richards, and Rebbeca Staab is quite fitting as Sue Storm. The other characters are less well represented with Dr Doom being the worst offender, over acting as he does through the heavily cheap body armour. The realisation of The Thing and The Human Torch is quite good. The Things full body costume is similar to those used in the Turtles movies, and the Torch is brought to life via some slick animation. Oley Sassone actually gets the best out of the action scenes and coaxes a good atmosphere.

This is a movie worth seeing. It manages to capture a little of the heart of Marvel comics in ways that Captain America(1991) and The Punisher(1989) weren't able to. It is a petty that more money couldn't have been made available because as a representation of the F4 it isn't bad at all. Don't get me wrong, its no Superman The Movie, and this years Fantastic Four movie will rock. But the film is no Plan 9 or Gigli either, and is worth seeing at least once.

I watched this last night and was very disappointed...not because it was awful, but because it was quite good !!

I'd heard the rumours of this film for years and seen priced up bootleg copies at comics fairs and had assumed from its non-release status that it was going to be truly terrible, but taken as a glorified tv-movie I really enjoyed it. For those in the know, it is way better than some previous efforts, the Captain America or Justice League movies for example. The Thing in particular was very well done, and it is worth watching for the "It's Clobbering Time" line alone. Doctor Doom also looks exactly how you would want him to, and the whole film left me with an urge to dig up some reprints of the old Kirby Fantastic 4 comics I'd read as a kid.

I'd say any comic nerds (like me) looking for a fun hour and a half should definitely check this one out... just don't go in expecting spiderman !!

While I am not particularly a fan of superhero films, I decided to see this after I saw the documentary about this picture, "Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman's the Fantastic Four". This film has gained legendary status, as it was completed...yet never officially released in any way. So how did I get to see it? Somehow a bootleg copy escaped and the film has been sold at comic book festivals. There also is currently a copy on YouTube...though if Twentieth Century-Fox wanted to, they could enforce their copyright and have it removed. So far...they've allowed it to stay posted.

Before I get to the review, I want to put this very low budget film in context. While technically speaking it looks like crap compared to superhero films today, back in the early 1990s superhero films were NOT the technical marvels they are today. Part of it is because CGI has grown by leaps and bounds since then. Part of it is that superhero films to that time (with the exception of "Batman" from 1989) looked really cheap and crappy. And, part of it is because the film only cost $1,000,000 to make...a pittance even back then. In this light, it's actually amazing that the film looks as good as it does! But be prepared...some of the special effects are far from being special!!

Here's the story in a nutshell. Some scientists create a space craft but its diamond cluster drive (?) is sabotaged and it causes the ship to crash. Somehow this crash causes the four astronauts to become the Fantastic Four and imbued them with superhero powers. Following this, the baddie who caused the wreck, Dr. Doom, tries his best to kill the Four.

Style-wise, this is much more like a comic book or kids film than the next generation of superhero pictures. It's far less serious and slight. This simply is how most such films at that time were made. Now I am not saying this is a great thing...but it's hard to expect a cheap film to somehow recreate the genre. Overall, it's watchable and entertaining...albeit a bit silly and slight as well. I cut this one a lot of slack for what it is...and I hope you do as well.

By the way, this film was shelved in a deal that gave the rights to the franchise to Twentieth Century-Fox. And, since that studio did NOT want two "Fantastic Four" films, they chose to shelve this cheap Roger Corman film. Incidentally, the Fox film cost about 100 times more...and reviews for that film are generally terrible! So, even if the Corman film isn't great, at least it wasn't that much worse and cost practically nothing!!

I don't know whether this movie was intended to be a comedy or not, but it sure made me laugh. Some of the highlights are: the Things orgasmic breathing when Alicia (who's spent about a minute and 15 seconds with him) tells him she loves him; The "epic" final confrontation between Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Doom; and the good Dr's histrionic line readings behind his welders mask (reminds me of the scene in "Hardware Wars" between Darth Vader and Princess Leia. ("What are you saying? I can't hear you!"). There is a sort of creepy, sex predator quality to Reed and Sue's relationship in the movie, but one detail they got right was the costuming. If you want to do the home version of MST3K, I can't think of a better movie.