So Kath and I went to see the latest FF movie the other day.
I liked it. Liked it a lot. Liked it beyond the whole “It’s a lot better than the first effort” vibe. The plot hung together, the actors were far more comfortable inhabiting the skins of their characters, the entire family vibe was pitch perfect. Bottom line, THIS incarnation of Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny actually seemed to like each other…even love each other. In getting that right, it provided a foundation for a quality film that simply wasn’t present in the first go around.
On top of that, we have the Silver Surfer. Understand, I remember when a Surfer movie was being discussed decades ago, back when such an endeavor would have required an actor painted in silver and standing on a board…a less than impressive prospect. No more. Now we have a Surfer who is a combined effort of special effects wizards, Doug Jones, and Laurence Fishburne, and the results are spectacular.
And ultimately? It feels and “reads” like a 1960s Stan and Jack effort.
How many Marvel films can you really say that about? That they feel THAT old school, that you can bring your kids to it with relative impunity? It’s not dark, foreboding, terrifying…it’s the Lee/Kirby FF, right down to such story developments as Doc Doom endeavoring to steal the power of the Silver Surfer.
And yeah, yeah, yeah, Galactus is a cloud. But you know what? Galactus was always presented as a force of nature anyway, so hëll, why not take that to its logical extreme? Personally, I think “Ghostbusters” has forever ruined the concept of some big terrifying entity stomping about New York City anyway.
Definitely worth your time and money.
PAD
• 
In the comics, it’s made very clear that the Surfer only led Galactus to uninhabited planets to feed on.
I’m at work so I don’t have my FF issues at hand, but that’s not how I remember it at all. If that were the case in the comics, the Surfer never would have come to Earth in the first place and the Watcher wouldn’t have tried to hide the Earth with all those boulders and the sky full of fire. I don’t remember the Surfer making any distinction between planets with life and those without life during his first appearance.
There may be some retroactive continuity that I am not aware of but in the early FF issues Alicia turned him around.
I agree with Keith (and echo his *SPOILERS* warning for this paragraph) that the Surfer, as described in the movie, is far from the noble person who gave himself to servitude to save his own planet. Sure, he does that, but it isn’t so much a self-sacrifice as a “spare my people and I’ll help you kill billions of others instead.” Especially onerous and vile behavior given that the Surfer apparently had the power to stop Galactus at any time.
I also thought it ended rather quickly. Not abruptly, but as the movie drew within 20-15 miutes of it’s running time I was thinking to myself that they must be setting up for FF #3. I hadn’t heard anything about this movie and a #3 being planned together like Pirates, but it sure didn’t seem to me that they were going to be able to wrap things up so quickly. The Galactus threat was huge and had a bit of build up. How are they possibly going to get rid of it/him without a major smackdown or (since you don’t beat Galactus with force) some careful plan? Certainly didn’t expect the cosmic snap of the fingers that it ended up being.
At Least in ST:TMP we got a cloud and a payoff when the cloud dissolved by the last act… Tim Story should have looked at V’ger more closely… 🙂
I can see how the ending would have bugged anybody who doesn’t know the original story from FF #48-50. In the movie, the heroes don’t appear to do anything, except stand around and watch the Surfer rebel. In the comic, the heroes still don’t really do anything except watch the Surfer rebel, and fail. Then you get a Deus Ex Uatu with added macguffin, and the story’s over. In the movie, Johnny goes all Super-Skrull to beat Doom. In the comic, Johnny flies through a Kirby photo-montage to retrieve the macguffin. So I was satisfied with the way the movie worked out, but I can see how it might surprise some folks.
As for the Surfer’s criminality, I assumed Norrin’s case was just like in the comic — he sacrificed himself to save his world, but after becoming Cosmic, he was too far removed from intelligent life to see them as anything worth saving. So yeah, Norrin’s guilty of genocide thousands of times over, but he gets out of it either on the “I was brainwashed” clause, or the “Galactus is beyond good and evil” clause. In the comic, Alicia made him see humanity as worthwhile; in the movie, it was Sue, although I honestly expected it to be Alicia.
“I was about to agree with those who see little possible strong villians for a third movie until it clicked: NAMOR”
With a Sub-Mariner movie in the works, I don’t think that will be possible. But you’re right, it would be the next logical step (actually, it would have been the next logical step for FF 2).
I think either the Mole Man or a Negative Zone/Annihilus story would be their best bet for a third movie.
There may be some retroactive continuity that I am not aware of but in the early FF issues Alicia turned him around.
In one of the issues of the ’80s/’90s series (I forget if it was during Steve Engelhart’s run or one of the later ones), there was a story where it occurred to the Surfer, “Hey, why don’t I feel guilty for contributing to the deaths of billions of sapients?” He confronts Galactus with this, who tells him that he adjusted the Surfer’s conscience so he could do his job. The Surfer demands that he undo it, and is promptly overwhelmed by massive, cripping guilt (represented by drowning in an ocean of blood), leading him to admit that Galactus may have had a point after all. So, whatever the original take on it may have been, the current state of continuity is that the Surfer did lead Galactus to inhabited worlds. (Wikipedia says that he originally led him just to uninhabited worlds but as they became harder to find Galactus made the conscience adjustment; I’m not sure if that’s a detail from the story mentioned above, but it would fit.)
*Spoiler Spoiler* blah blah blah
I admit that I could be misremembering the Surfer’s origin story re: leading Galactus to uninhabited worlds, or I could be mixing up various bits of retro history (I’ll have to check later), but it doesn’t alter that fact that in the comics the Surfer couldn’t hurt Galactus and so had no choice but to honor his commitment to be his herald.
Sure, you could argue that even with the ability to destroy Galactus, the Surfer had to honor his pledge, that it would be a violation of his character to against his word, etc. To which I say bullocks. Word or no, Galactus was killing billions upon billions of people and stopping him would have been worth going back on your word.
Also, Brian said: “In the comic, the heroes still don’t really do anything except watch the Surfer rebel, and fail. Then you get a Deus Ex Uatu with added macguffin, and the story’s over.”
Yes, that’s the way the story ends in the comic and, as much as I love that trilogy, let’s be honest, that’s a pretty lame ending. Reed threatens Galactus with a magic button that will destroy everything, and not even a button that he invented. I just think that the filmmakers wrote themselves into the same corner that Stan Lee did back in the day and they should have benefited from Lee’s example.
I was in the same boat as Landry Walker – I had no idea of Galactus’ state in this movie until I read PAD’s write-up here. (The most I recall hearing was that Galactus might not be in the film at all.) And so I totally understand asking if it was a spoiler, and agree with Landry Walker that, since it’s revealed so early in the movie, it’s not a big deal. I don’t quite get the, frankly kind of asinine, backlash from a couple of people for the crime of merely asking a reasonable question…
Posted by Adam at June 20, 2007 05:59 PM
” But Doom, Silver Surfer, and Galactus were the only concepts that’ve come out of the Fantastic Four series popular enough to achieve iconic status. What’s FF.3 going to offer that we’re going to be thrilled about after Galactus? The Mole Man? Annihilus and the Negative Zone? Psycho-Man? The Frightful Four? “
The Inhumans.
Definitely a movies worth of story there.
“Galactus is a cloud.” Yep, by me, that was a spoiler.
It happens, just tar and feather the guy and move on…
I’m pretty certain I saw the shadow helmet too (a phrase I hope never to use again) and I kind of like that you could happily imagine whatever you wanted to inside the cloud…
Not a great movie, but much better than what I half expected. I have been, um, spoiled by recent long movies though, and 93 minutes felt like pretty short change…
Cheers.
Posted by Adam at June 20, 2007 05:59 PM
” But Doom, Silver Surfer, and Galactus were the only concepts that’ve come out of the Fantastic Four series popular enough to achieve iconic status. What’s FF.3 going to offer that we’re going to be thrilled about after Galactus? The Mole Man? Annihilus and the Negative Zone? Psycho-Man? The Frightful Four? “
The Inhumans.
Definitely a movies worth of story there.
“Galactus is a cloud.” Yep, by me, that was a spoiler.
It happens, just tar and feather the guy and move on…
I’m pretty certain I saw the shadow helmet too (a phrase I hope never to use again) and I kind of like that you could happily imagine whatever you wanted to inside the cloud…
Not a great movie, but much better than what I half expected. I have been, um, spoiled by recent long movies though, and 93 minutes felt like pretty short change…
Cheers.
If you’re looking for great villian to use for FF 3, how about the Skrulls? Shapeshifting aliens could be an awesome foe to use.
In the comics, it’s made very clear that the Surfer only led Galactus to uninhabited planets to feed on.
As others have pointed out, that’s nottrue of his first appearence. He led galactus quite willingly to Earth.
I think it was later, when they did his origin, that the whole “skipping planets full of life” bit came about.
I think it may also have been established that fertile worlds were more satisfying to his hunger than dead ones. You know, we do have a few big planets in our own solar system that he could have taken with little to no effect on us; I like Saturn lots but I could adjust to life without it. But the Big Purple Goof kept coming back for the third rock around the sun and I guess there must’ve been a reason.
Mr Poole mentions the Inhumans–at the showing I was at two comepletely unrealated groups of comics fans mentioned the Inhumans as their hoped for third movie…it has potential. The vast majority of filmgoers have never heard of ANY of our favorite characters so there is no risk in using even the really obscure ones like Stilt-Man. Except that the idea sucks.
I don’t quite get the, frankly kind of asinine, backlash from a couple of people for the crime of merely asking a reasonable question…
It was perhaps reasonable the first time around. PAD probably shouldn’t have included spoilers on the main page of his site, instead leaving them to the thread itself as he usually does.
But when it’s questioned over and over, and when he’s obviously continuing to read the thread, regardless of the threat of spoilers (because, you know, you do have to read the posts to respond to them), it becomes laughable.
I have a pretty simple policy with this site: if it’s discussing something I haven’t seen or read, even if there may not be spoilers, I don’t take the risk and read the thread.
If Landry didn’t like the fact that Galactus was revealed to him, then it certainly didn’t help for him to open the thread.
Chalk me up as another who liked the movie.
I agree, the ending was a bit “Uhmm…does that make sense?” but really, what else could they do..the Watcher/ultimate Nulifier would have been way too confusing for the movie.
I agree with PAD that the actors were dead on. Grufford, who I’ve always liked, was just what Reed should be, (and the Captain of the football team speech just rocked). And I question any male’s y-chromosome who complains about Jessica Alba.
As for what could they do in #3…Namor sounds like a good choice…if nothing else Wet Jessica Alba = win!:D
Oh someone asked about the holes the Surfer left (wow..twice in a year the Thames gets drained!)
It looked like the Galactus’ tendrils plugged into the holes, so I imagine it’s how he eats planets.
Craig J. Ries: “But when it’s questioned over and over”
Where exactly have I done this? I questioned it ONCE and only ONCE. Past that point, I have primarily responded to those like yourself, who seem to have ignored the actual text of my contributions in favor of some imagined reality.
Here’s my relevant response to you. Feel free to take the time to digest it: “past my initial post I have done nothing but respond to statements specifically directed at me or the topic I chose to introduce.”
What’s particularly amusing about your specious suggestion that I am flogging some form of dying horse here, is that in my second post, I conceded that the spoiler nature of this reveal was mitigated by the explanation that the information in question is shown within the first few minutes of the movie. Let me reiterate this for you as you seem to be having a particularly difficult time grasping this while erroneously painting my actions as “laughable”. I-CONCEDED-THE-POINT. Many, many posts past now. So people like you dragging this topic on while simultaneously suggesting that I am the one to do so is hilarious.
Craig J. Ries: “If Landry didn’t like the fact that Galactus was revealed to him, then it certainly didn’t help for him to open the thread.”
I already covered this: “I’m not reading any post that does not directly relate to the conversation I engaged in.” I never complained about the content of the thread nor have I encountered any forbidden knowledge within the posts. I am capable of selected reading, after all. It’s a pretty basic skill.
Craig J. Ries: “(because, you know, you do have to read the posts to respond to them)”
One does not have to read the entirety of a post to comprehend the subject. Perhaps you are limited in this capacity, but do not make the mistake that everyone else shares your lack of ability.
“In the comics, it’s made very clear that the Surfer only led Galactus to uninhabited planets to feed on.”
If I’m recalling correctly, that was only belatedly. In his introduction, the Surfer didn’t discriminate. It was only when he had his own book that they retconned in the notion that he tried to lead Galactus only to uninhabited worlds…probably precisely TO avoid the hero having billions of deaths on his soul. Except that never made tons of sense to me: I got the impression that Galactus required worlds capable of supporting life in order to survive. On that basis, I’ve no problem going with the original concept.
“Also, this is supposed to be a Fantastic Four movie, and where the hëll were the FF during the big, climactic battle scene with Galactus? Sitting on the ground with all us “normal folk.””
What would you have preferred? The Cosmic Nullifier? I mean, my respect for Stan is second to none, but if that story was first seeing print now and Reed, with the aid of the Watcher, pulled the Cosmic Nullifier out of his ášš, readers would pillory the story as producing a massive deus ex machina to resolve it.
PAD
I agree (almost)wholeheartedly with PAD. With the exception of Doom, who still sucks, everything in this flick was much closer to the comic’s spirit than FF1. And the handling of Surfer/Galactus was fairly inspired. It would be an overstatement to say that I eagerly crave an FF3 (Inhumans, anyone?), but I certainly no longer cringe at the very thought of it.
Oh, and here’s an idea for anyone who doesn’t want their moviegoing experience ruined by SPOILERS (gawd, how I hate that word!)–see the bloody flick first BEFORE you start reading threads about it…
And I question any male’s y-chromosome who complains about Jessica Alba.
Feel free to question mine, then.
I just don’t “get” the big deal about her. And, every time I start to even remotely understand the appeal, it’s just a fleeting moment, and then it’s gone.
Sure…she’s cute, I guess. But I tend to agree with a comment made by a local talk radio host a few years ago: People only think she’s “hot” because she’s famous. If she were working at the local food court, she wouldn’t be considered as “hot” as she is…she’d just be that cute chick working in the food court.
I liked it more than I thought I would, but I liked the first one, even though it was big dopey, slobbery dog of a movie.
But yeah, this movie felt like an FF movie….them hugging each other at the end was a nice touch and completely in character.
I wished we could’ve seen a “real” Galactus, and I hate McMahon as Dr. Doom….but overall, I was surprised at how much they threw into a little under 90 minutes.
I would LOVE to see the Inhumans in the next one.
SURPRISINGLY good sequel Nuff Said
sorry about the double post still a good film though
However since this Frankie is apparently a reference to an established comics character, I’m going to guess that Frankie Raye and Johnny Storm are not meant to evoke the Frankie and Johnny of the folk song.
Bad guess. You were right about the folk song connection, just not about the timing; John Byrne had the folk song in mind when he created the character of Frankie Raye to be a love interest for Johnny Storm in the comics. 🙂
Once I realized who she was (which I, like others, didn’t do until Johnny called her by her first name), it added a frisson of expectation – was she going to save the Earth by doing the herald deal as Norrin had done for his world and as she did in the comics? Of course, in the comics she got to be a Human Torchette for a while first…
Well…I’m not a FF comic fan. I think in whole collection I have maybe two issues of the book. What I know of them is what I’ve seen when they’ve had a few panels in Spidey titles and such.
That said, I thought the first one was okay and I enjoyed this one, too. Sure, it had flaws (still would love to see the “real” Dr. Doom on screen someday) but it was a nice way to kill an hour and a half – another thing I liked about it after all the overblown 2 to 2 1/2 hour movies lately. Never did get over how freaky Alba looked with the bad wig and blue contacts, tho…
For all those complaining about the Surfer being able to destroy Galactus, and him not doing so before now making him a villain. This was probably in the interest of self-preservation. He knew going up against Galactus would probably kill him and if you’re dead, you can’t someday go back and snuggle with your honey.
Either the Inhumans or the Skrulls would make for a great third movie, but each group has its problems. Inhuman politics are Shakespearean, and couldn’t be properly conveyed in one movie unless there was tons and tons of exposition. Then there are the Inhumans themselves. We would hopefully get Doug Jones as Black Bolt (I am very hard pressed to think of another actor who could do anywhere near as well with a non-verbal role) and most of the others are easy enough, but our Medusa will have to be an utter badass to survive a power that will look silly on the big screen. Medusalith Amaquelin Boltagon is badassery incarnate, and if the Inhumans are given the screen treatment then I want the average moviegoer coming out respecting her. Maximus is problematic; the trick is to find an actor who can convey his utter insanity whilst not taking him completely over-the-top in all the wrong ways. Restraint is very important with him.
The big problem with the Skrulls is that unless you go the Super-Skrull route, they lend themselves to a “small” movie. I have no problem with “small” movies, but how many comic book movies are “small”? Spider-Man 3 was intended to be “small,” and look at how that turned out. The Skrulls are shapeshifters whose bodily secretions can result in the infected taking on Skrull traits. Greatness can result from this, but I don’t see any Hollywood execs using this for a superhero movie. That leaves the Super-Skrull route, and as cool as Kl’rt is, he doesn’t top the Surfer in terms of power. Now, the moviemakers could instead drag the FF into the Kree/Skrull War. The FF couldn’t help but look good in that situation, and if the filmmakers were kind enough then the setup would be present for the Avengers to get dragged into the mess sometime down the line.
I think the Inhumans would be cool. I also wouldn’t mind seeing exploration of the Negative Zone. An interdimensional expedition would cover new ground.
PAD
Medusa will have to be an utter badass to survive a power that will look silly on the big screen.
I don’t know…CGI hair could look pretty effective.
The problem is that an Inhumans movie would really need a sense of grandeur-you are right on the money with your “Shakespearean” description–and while Tim Story is showing improvement, I don’t think he is there yet.
Imagine if they could get Brad Bird to do an actual Fantastic 4 film!
Third movie; omnipotent Franklin Richards. Though the story I’m thinking of might have paralleled X-Men 3: We Should Have Waited For Brian Singer a bit too closely.
Ok, ok, already. I cop to the fact that I misremembered the Surfer’s origin re: uninhabited worlds. But it was added retroactively, so it is part of Surfer history/canon. It is part of his character that he only led Galactus to uninhabited worlds until Galactus removed his guilt or inhibitions or whatever. But, and this is a huge “but” in my opinion, the fact that the Surfer, in the movie, had the power all along to destroy Galactus and chose instead to commit genocide over and over again, lessens the character in general and turns him into a willing villain in particular. The fact that he eventually chose to fight/die defying Galactus to save Earth may absolve him from our perspective, it was our butts he saved after all, but doesn’t absolve him on the galactic scale.
John Os said: For all those complaining about the Surfer being able to destroy Galactus, and him not doing so before now making him a villain. This was probably in the interest of self-preservation.”
I will grant that self-preservation is a powerful factor when deciding who will live and die, but it isn’t a justification for genocide. Even once.
Peter asked: “What would you have preferred? The Cosmic Nullifer? I mean, my respect for Stan is second to none, but if that story was first seeing print now and Reed, with the aid of the Watcher, pulled the Cosmic Nullifier out of his ášš, readers would pillory the story as producing a massive deus ex machina to resolve it.”
Of course I wouldn’t want The Ultimate Nullifer and that’s exactly my point. Isn’t using the Surfer to destroy Galactus lickity-split at the end of the movie just a different deus ex machina? I just don’t think it’s that much better. I would think, with multiple months to come up with a story (as opposed to, at best, a week back when Stan wrote the original) that the filmmakers could have come up with something better. And I’m right with you in my respect for Stan Lee.
It’s also been suggested that the Inhumans would be neat to see in the next movie. I agree, but if they are done correctly – and the Surfer in this film suggests that the filmmakers could do it – they’d come across as waaaaaay cooler than the FF, so I wouldn’t expect to see them. The Negative Zone would be great, but I’m still holding out for Mole Man. I’d love to see a bunch of Kirbyesque monsters crawling over New York. And it would give Ben something to hit.
I actually rather enjoyed this one, though I didn’t care much for the first. It was still pretty cheesy, but the Surfer was so cool that he canceled out a lot of it. I just really want to see a Silver Surfer movie now.
For FF 3 I’d love to see Annihilus and the Negative Zone. He’s a powerful villain and I think there is great potential for some stunning visuals there.
I absolutely loved the film. 5 out of 5 stars.
It was nice to see Michael Chiklis in a role so far removed from Vic Mackey (The Shield). All of the actors played their roles to perfection. I can’t wait to get this movie on DVD. Unfortunately FFROTSS will not bring Spiderman 3 dollars home but it will make a respectible kitty for the studio.
Warren S. Jones III
I actually rather enjoyed this one, though I didn’t care much for the first. It was still pretty cheesy, but the Surfer was so cool that he canceled out a lot of it. I just really want to see a Silver Surfer movie now. And I thought the cloud was fine. As I recall from the Stormbreaker mini a couple years ago, Galactus frequently appears different to different cultures anyway, so I think a massive storm front fits earth pretty well.
For FF 3 I’d love to see Annihilus and the Negative Zone. He’s a powerful villain and I think there is great potential for some stunning visuals there.
FF2 did not feel or read like a Lee/Kirby FF comic to me.
Main problem #1: Dialogue. In the comics, Stan Lee never produced realistic dialogue. And true, sometimes it was corny. But it was heightened, and had a wonderful sense of melodrama and grandeur.
In the film, we get dialogue like this:
Sue: “I’m on fire!”
Reed: “Sue, you’re on fire!”
Sue: “Ya THINK?”
That’s horrible.
The first movie didn’t have very grand dialogue, but it was serviceable action-movie dialogue (and oddly enough, even legendary curmudgeon John Byrne – considered a pretty major FF writer, praised some of the dialogue spoken in the previews of FF 1).
This movie has just one painful line of dialogue after another. When Reed gives his speech about the power of nerds (including the line “I’m engaged to the hottest girl on the planet!”), I think you can safely call a time of death on the film.
Main problem #2: Plot. I don’t agree that it held together at all. There were developments that were unclear. (I get that the Surfer flying by Latveria released a wave of energy that woke up Doctor Doom – that’s sloppy, but I can buy it. But why does a blast that the Surfer shoots specifically meant to HURT Doom instead heal all his scars?)
Even worse: All throughout the movie, Johnny’s condition was explicit – if he touches another member of the FF, he loses his flames but gains the other member’s power. Until the end, when touching all three members allows him not only to get all three powers but also to KEEP his flame. The writers broke their own rules just so Johnny could become the Super-Skrull at the end. That was idiotic.
And honestly – maybe the Ultimate Nullifier is a deus ex machina, but the ending in the film is hardly better. In the first movie, for all its flaws, at least they defeated Doom by combining all four of their powers and acting as a team. In the sequel, Johnny defeats Doom solo, and Surfer defeats Galactus solo. That’s weak.
And as has been argued up-thread, yes, it seems clear that the reason the Surfer never opposed Galactus before now is because he knew that he could only beat Galactus by sacrificing his own life. Fair enough, I guess … until the Surfer’s eyes open at the end of the film. His survival undercuts the whole thing – if he could be Galactus without dying, he should’ve done it ages before he ever even came to Earth. It’s just more sloppy storytelling.
Main problem #3: Characterization. Sue is just too much of a shrew about the wedding. She gets all pìššëd øff because the electronics blackout ruins their wedding, and blames it on their being the Fantastic Four. Except that it had nothing to do with them being the Fantastic Four. The Silver Surfer just happened to fly by during the wedding (which is a contrived coincidence anyhow). Anybody getting married on that day, at that time, would’ve had their day ruined. But Sue uses it as an excuse to bìŧçh at Reed. Dumb.
And Reed – well, I hate to come back to that Nerd Power speech, but c’mon. Reed should be above that kind of petty sh*t. Having the general be a jerk who questions Reed’s masculinity is fine (cliche, but forgivable), but Reed should have ignored it and let his heroic actions be his response.
Oh well. There were still bits I liked. The sequence with the collapsing Ferris wheel was a neat use of Reed’s power (and I also liked the bit with Sue being forced to back off the pier for leverage but using her forcefield to not go toppling into the water – nice touch). Chris Evans’ facial expression when he watched Ben and Alicia kiss was, to me, the funniest moment of the whole movie. The Silver Surfer looked and sounded cool throughout – he was the element of the film that seemed truest to Lee/Kirby to me. Doom on the surfboard in aerial combat with the Four in the Fantasticar was pretty well done (although also silly – how did the other members of the team instantly know how to fly their sections when it separated into three parts?).
Still, by the end of the film, the plot had more holes punched in it than the Earth. (See what I did there?) The first film is definitely better.
I agree with Jason Powell on just about every single point. My only contradiction is extremely minor: “The Silver Surfer just happened to fly by during the wedding (which is a contrived coincidence anyhow).” I thought the Surfer had come specifically to New York (and the Baxter Building) because he sensed he was being tracked. Which is why he destroyed Reed’s machine. Doesn’t excuse anything else, though.
regarding spoilers…
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2005/20051205l.jpg
that is all 🙂
wait wait wait… that was not all.
this too… 🙂
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x12/goatburgler/spoilers.gif
“The problem is that an Inhumans movie would really need a sense of grandeur-you are right on the money with your “Shakespearean” description–and while Tim Story is showing improvement, I don’t think he is there yet.
Imagine if they could get Brad Bird to do an actual Fantastic 4 film!”
How do you go from “Shakespearean” to Brad Bird?
And I agree with Jason on pretty much every point. He covered a lot of my complaints, though not all of them (he didn’t mention the terrible acting from everyone except Chris Evans, for instance). But I don’t even think the Surfer was that cool. The combination of Laurence Fishburne’s voice and the poorly animated mouth movements and facial expressions just made him seem cheesy to me. He felt more like a video game character than a fully fleshed live-action movie character.
I don’t want to be THAT guy, but really, I can’t help but think that people’s standards have really fallen if they think FF 2 is in any way a quality production.
Perhaps you are limited in this capacity, but do not make the mistake that everyone else shares your lack of ability.
Perhaps you should stop reading about how Doom got healed, giant holes were made in earth, etc etc, before you get even more upset about minor things in the film that were spoiled for you, along with your pitiful attempts to insult me.
But if you can read the above without being spoiled in any way shape or form, since you supposedly have that ability, turn yourself into a doctor as a medical miracle.
Craig J. Ries: “But if you can read the above without being spoiled in any way shape or form, since you supposedly have that ability, turn yourself into a doctor as a medical miracle.”
No problem. I got as far as “perhaps you should stop reading about how Doom…”
It’s easy enough to stop reading. I’m sorry you can’t comprehend this. I’m sorry this ability is beyond you.
And by the way, I’m waiting for you to address this blatant lie:
Craig J. Ries: “But when it’s questioned over and over”
Where exactly have I done this, Craig? You keep making these asinine and immature posts without contributing even a small amount of substance to support your falsehood. Go ahead and continue with this desperate ploy. It seems to suit you.
It’s easy enough to stop reading.
Then, by that wonderful logic, it’s easy enough to see that you’re not reading my posts at all. You’re not entirely sure what I’ve said, because you aren’t reading the entire post.
Do you realize how silly you sound? You basically say that while words A, B, C, and D are there, you can pick out A and C.
Yes, you’ve got quite the selective reading going on. As great as it was, it still lead you to spoilers in the first place. How ironic.
Where exactly have I done this, Craig?
By virtue of the fact that you continue to post here, it appears to me that you’re repeating yourself over and over regarding the use of spoilers in PAD’s original post and your complaint about it.
Otherwise, why continue half-reading this thread?
I get that the Surfer flying by Latveria released a wave of energy that woke up Doctor Doom – that’s sloppy, but I can buy it. But why does a blast that the Surfer shoots specifically meant to HURT Doom instead heal all his scars?
For the same reason just touching Johnny altered his powers–Doom is also a cosmic ray empowered being in these movies, so his contact with the surfer can have any effect the writers want. He’s like red kryptonite.
How do you go from “Shakespearean” to Brad Bird?
Iron Giant! The Incredibles! Assuming he can make the leap from animated to live action he’d make an AWESOME director of FF3.
John OS: For all those complaining about the Surfer being able to destroy Galactus, and him not doing so before now making him a villain. This was probably in the interest of self-preservation. He knew going up against Galactus would probably kill him and if you’re dead, you can’t someday go back and snuggle with your honey.
Self-sacrifice is the very nature of being a hero.
To say instead that you don’t want to die is understandable. It won’t make you a hero, but it doesn’t necessarily make you a villain.
But to participate willingly in the murder of billions, to end all of those people’s lives and dreams just so you can have your personal happy ending does make you a villain.
Even moreso, IMHO, if it’s “going up against Galactus would probably kill him” vs the certain deaths of untold billions.
Jason Powell: In the first movie, for all its flaws, at least they defeated Doom by combining all four of their powers and acting as a team. In the sequel, Johnny defeats Doom solo, and Surfer defeats Galactus solo. That’s weak.
I watched the first movie again the night before going to #2 and, for all of it’s flaws at least is was the combined efforts of the FF acting as a team that stopped Doom. For FF 2 that was the biggest disappointment for me.
Bill Mulligan: Imagine if they could get Brad Bird to do an actual Fantastic 4 film!
Heh. I thought he’d already done one.
Craig J. Ries: “Then, by that wonderful logic, it’s easy enough to see that you’re not reading my posts at all. You’re not entirely sure what I’ve said, because you aren’t reading the entire post.”
With the exception of one post of yours, I read and addressed all your relevant contributions to our dialog in their entirety. You of course, never even responded to the first post I addressed to you. So cut the hypocrisy and don’t attempt to misdirect when I have clearly taken the time, repeatedly, to address your statements.
Craig J. Ries: “Do you realize how silly you sound? You basically say that while words A, B, C, and D are there, you can pick out A and C.
I’m sorry this practice is so difficult for you to comprehend. But that’s your problem. Not mine. Now if you’ll stop assuming you have the ability to tell me what I am or am not capable of, we can move on.
Craig J. Ries: “Yes, you’ve got quite the selective reading going on. As great as it was, it still lead you to spoilers in the first place. How ironic.
Are you really that incapable of extrapolating the obvious? I already addressed the fact that this blog is typically spoiler free. I was not attempting to read so selectively at that time. Mind you, I’m not now, or have I ever been, complaining about any spoiler. I asked a question, received and accepted an answer. Since that point, teh dialog has been perpetuated by folks like you who want to take snide pot-shots.
Craig J. Ries: “By virtue of the fact that you continue to post here, it appears to me that you’re repeating yourself over and over regarding the use of spoilers in PAD’s original post and your complaint about it.”
Bûllšhìŧ. All I’ve done is respond, and I’ve conceded the original point on numerous occasions now. I’m not complaining about anything being spoiled for me Craig, and I challenge you to substantiate your lies with fact. The previous messages are quite available for your perusal. Prove your repeated lies. Go ahead.
Craig J. Ries: “Otherwise, why continue half-reading this thread?”
I don’t know Craig, something about people saying I’m “whining”, labeling my questions as “complaints”, lying about my actions and based on said lies, describing them as “laughable”, ignoring my responses while talking about me with third parties…
Gee Craig, what possible motivation do I have?
Attack the argument. Not the person behind it. But when you come out with personal insults, don’t expect me to respond to you with civility.
Someone above mentioned Mole Man for part three. He was fun but, honestly, I don’t think his story could top the Silver Surfer.
What would be nice is to use him for a 10 minute opening sequence where his monsters are swarming the city and the F4 are running around to fight them. Heck, you could even have Fin Fang Foom as his main monster, for no reason other than to put good ol’ FFF up on the screen.
And then I’d go with the Inhmans. Negative zone would be great, too, but I’d like to see the romance of Johnny and Crystal. Just to give him something better to do than look hot and crack wise.
And Sue could be pregnant, which would set up Franklin for part four. Then, you could do the Negative Zone here (Annihilus!) with Franklin somehow using his genius to save the day.
Tim Story is the biggest problem of those two. He’s a competent director, but his focus is more on humor and action than drama and epic scale. I’ll continue to check out his films, but I hope they hand the reigns over to someone else for the next entry.
I was disappointed that the threat from Doom was apparently bigger than the big G. I mean, the Surfer took care of Galactus in what, a minute? And why didn’t he just do that after agreeing to be the Herald? Was Sue more important than the woman he (supposedly) loved on his planet (which was not named)?
Now if you’ll stop assuming you have the ability to tell me what I am or am not capable of, we can move on.
Are you really that incapable of extrapolating the obvious?
and this beauty
But when you come out with personal insults, don’t expect me to respond to you with civility.
Pot meet kettle.
I’m done with you.
Man, you’re really grasping at straws here Craig. You quote me pointing out that if you attack me, I’ll respond in kind. But you don’t seem to actually grasp what this means. You label my words as “complaints”, you LIE about my actions, you describe said falsehoods as “amusing”, THEN I respond to you in your own tone and you get huffy and attempt to declare hypocrisy? Hysterical. Go ahead and take your ball home with you. You can’t substantiate your lies anyway, this is the only real out you have. The false pretense that you have some form of high ground.