I guess this falls into the "Guilty Pleasures" category. I checked out the original Fantastic Four (2005) again (in preparation for the sequel) and I have to say that I actually really dig it. I know this places me in a category of scorn-deserving fools, but I've just got to be honest about my likes and dislikes regarding comic book movies, damn it!
Let me hasten to add that I totally accept all the critiques viz. the movie's rather obvious shortcomings, including the lame director, the contrived story, "shapely but talentless" Jessica Alba (in octopunk's inimitable language), the generic Eurotrash actor who plays Victor Von Doom (who makes the Casino Royale villain look like Laurence Olivier in comparison) and the basic stupidness of the Brooklyn Bridge sequence.
Nevertheless, here are my FIVE REASONS FANTASTIC FOUR IS A COOL MOVIE:
1) SILLINESS
Let's face it: The Fantastic Four are, well, silly. The whole concept is silly; the characters are silly; the set-up is silly. Go all the way back to the most famous and expensive Marvel comic of all time, Fantastic Four #1, and what do you find? Beloved history, yes, and the template for all Lee/Kirby 1960s collaborations, yes, but also, it must be admitted, a profoundly silly tale. It's all cold-war paranoia and blatant rip-offs of the successful Justice League series and people who say "Bah!" to emphasize the point they're making. Even the name is silly! I mean, they're "fantastic."
But so what! If anything, the 1961 silliness is part of what makes it so great. There are few things in art as appealing as the historical view of the aging masterpiece that was, in its heyday, a groundbreaking quantum leap (and Fantastic Four was certainly that, since it basically spawned the entire Marvel Universe). I'm thinking of the Bauhaus, the DADA movement, Baroque fugues, early music videos; it's all so quaint because it was so cutting edge at an earlier time, and that only enhances the enjoyment to the modern viewer/reader.
The 2005 movie is not afraid of the silliness. With the exception of the turned-around Dr. Doom story, the whole extravaganza is basically reproduced wholesale, "It's clobberin' time" and all. No attempt has been made to coat it all in irony or hipness (as happened with both X-Men and Spider-Man, in effective and subtle ways.) (Those are vastly superior movies, by the way. I mean, I'm not crazy.)
2. THE THING
Michael Chiklis is incredibly good. He basically sells the whole thing. The costume is great. The face is great. I'm a big fan of anything being done (well) in CGI, including Bill Nighy as Davy Jones (where some of the time only the eyes are his, and the rest of the time he's been completely rebuilt by those ultimate badasses at ILM); but the insistence, here, on a real rubber costume works perfectly. You can really see him; you can see the actor underneath; you can see his eyes, and his soulful performance steals the movie.
3. SPECIAL EFFECTS
I'm sorry but the effects in this movie are extremely good. They're better than anything in the first two Spider-Man movies, in which my beloved New York gets, well, a little weird-looking every time Spidey is web-slinging around or fighting. Don't get me wrong; I love that stuff. It's just that it veers off into a strange kind of Sam Raimi nonreality whenever the action starts. By contrast, The Human Torch (who is no less of a special effect than Spidey) looks real, real, real in every shot. So does Reed Richards' stretching (and the aforementioned Thing). Really, all the effects (including the projectiles, the space sequences, and all the ridiculously overdone "computer displays" all over the place) are very, very good.
4. THE CROWDS
One of the best things about the original Fantastic Four was the lack of secret identities. In the paperback collection Origins of Marvel Comics (which was pretty much the coolest object one could possibly own back in fifth grade) Stan Lee explains that he always hated the "secret identity" schtick. While I don't necessarily agree (since I'm not ready to throw away all the groovy Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent-style angst in comics) (and it was only a few months later that Lee and Ditko created arguably the best "secret identity" dilemma in comics when they came up with Spider-Man) it's cool to have a superhero movie in which everyone just knows who they are and we can get down to business and dispense with all the coy lines where they almost give it all away etc. In Fantastic Four Lee's idea is taken to its logical extreme in several sequences in which the FF have big, important conversations and arguments right in front of hundreds of pedestrians, as if the movie's exuberantly flaunting the concept that they don't (and wouldn't) be sneaking around like kids pretending to be spies when there's a legitimate superhero situation to deal with. "Hey, it's Sue Storm! The Invisible Girl!" a guy yells out (while she scopes out her own photo on the cover of People). Excellent.
5. HEART
It's got heart. What can I say? They're not "kidding" or "slumming;" they mean every word they say (even Alba, who can barely talk). When Ben Grimm laments "What have I done?" after turning back into himself, you can legitimately feel his pain. When the crowds go nuts over the four of them, it's well done (see #4 above). When they win, they're so happy! It's all great fun. There is no need to "go dark" (Tim Burton style) in order to make a cynical modern audience buy it. (And that approach worked, by the way; audiences happily took a break from all the "superhero suffering" and the movie made a fortune.) It's comic book fun: sure, it's silly and doesn't hold up under any scrutiny. But they mean it, just like Kirby and Lee did in the early sixties, using manual typewriters and KOH-I-NOR pen nibs to turn India ink into cosmic dreams. Excelsior!
4 comments:
Awesome essay, Jordan! While I haven't been a huge fan of this flick I love your passion in defending it. At some point I plan on writing a similar essay about why the first 2 seasons of Miami Vice are near-perfect television. I agree with a lot of what you say about FF although in its entirity I still feel that the package is a bit thin. I think they blew it with Dr. Doom and despite her popularity, I think Alba was just the wrong casting choice. The music montage in the middle of the film reminds me of virtually every 1980s comedy. I completely agree with you about the FX, MUCH better than Spider-Man. One thing about Spider-Man 3 that really disappointed me was the FX regression. I thought Spider-Man 2 improved on the horrible CGI from the original, but in part 3 they again look awful. It's especially unfortunate that the first 15 seconds of the film remind us of this. I would go one step further and say that I liked FF better than Spider-Man 3. Actually I liked Ghost Rider better than Spider-Man 3.
Thanks, man!
I haven't seen Spider-Man 3 yet, but I'm not exactly hearing good things.
I decided to write this late last night while watching, when at a certain point I just got this amazing adrenaline rush like I was nine years old again and went, "It's the Fantastic Four! It's really the Fantastic Four! And they're real, in real Manhattan! Oh, boy!"
I also found this an absolute pleasure to read. However, I cannot in good conscience let it go by without taking some jabs. Regarding the five points:
1) Silliness - The reason I worship the old Republic Serials is the silliness (and naivety) that you referred to here. The old comic certainly had it. However, it is impossible to recapture innocence. Movies that attempt to do so come across pretentious or even condescending (Lucas's handling of Jake Lloyd & Natalie Portman comes to mind, as does the recent Fat Albert movie). I suspect though, that this was not the case with Fantastic Four. I put forth the notion that they were trying to make an X-Men but lacked the talent, vision, actors, story, writers and costume designers to do so.
2) Thing - I agree with everything you say here only I would add that the Thing was the ONLY good aspect of the film. Also, he should have been at least double the size.
3) Special effects are debatable, particularly the Human Torch, whom I thought looked like an above-average video game character.
4) Crowd/Secret Identities - Great point that I'd never considered before.
5) Heart - Who needs'em? "...audiences happily took a break from all the 'superhero suffering' and the movie made a fortune." My theory on why the movie made a fortune is that thousands of people across the country can't wait for a new Tim Allen movie.
Oh, Jordan, you controversial bastard. Let me say again how glad I am you joined our geeky little kaffeeklatsch.
I want to hit your various points, but even as I do so I’m reminded of a taunt I threw at a friend of mine after seeing Wes Craven’s People Under the Stairs: “You didn’t have fun watching the movie, I did, so I win.”
In other words, we can get complex about it, but I think you win.
1. My tendency is to side with Mr. Pants on this one. I don’t know why I remember this specific detail exactly, but I recall seeing the design of the elevators in Victor Doom’s building, all metal and pointy-deco. It made me think they were just kind of winging their comic book vibe. But there’s a fine line between slipshod and silly, and I’d be a colossal hypocrite if I didn't say your read on it was just as valid as mine. Also, see “you win” above.
2. Okay, yes. I would’ve preferred a different (blockier) costume design, but the decision to go costume instead of CG was a good one for character and story. That’s regardless of whether the decision was made for financial reasons or whatever. The Thing trying and failing to pick up his wedding ring was probably the most effective emotional moment of the movie, and the tragedy of the Thing’s transformation is, in my opinion, the dramatic underpinning of the whole FF story from the beginning. (That said, I was pretty irked that Reed was able to reverse that transformation so easily, but that’s another issue.)
3. That sounds right, but I’d have to see it again before enthusiastically agreeing. What I recall were the times they should have used effects but didn’t, my (least) favorite being the fireman that Reed catches falling off the Brooklyn Bridge. They shoot it straight up from under the falling fireman, so Reed’s presumed abdomen stretch (which it must have been because his tweed jacket is still on) is blocked from view. That struck me as a cheap shot. Likewise, when they’re watching themselves on TV we see another shot of them walking around sans powers, when you’d think a different angle of the stretchy fireman catch would be on every channel. But there is no other angle.
Again, I’m just airing my old gripes and Jordan covered the Brooklyn Bridge sequence already. I don’t have a complaint about the FX when they’re there.
4. Yeah, that is great. The whole “Hey! It’s…” gag never wears thin with me. It’s one of my favorite parts of Buckaroo Banzai.
5. Hmmm. This might be a more subjective item like #1, and my personal theory is that FF did well because the summer movies that preceded it that year were actually quite good and had blown away moviegoers’ apathy (remember all that Hollywood whining?). But…oh, sure.
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