When I was a kid, I bought the first issue of The Fantastic Four on the news stand. It was 1961 and I was 12 years old. Six years later, while I was at Summer Camp, my Mom threw out all of my comic books while “cleaning” my room while I was gone. Years later, I would show my mother the appreciated prices of the comic books she threw out and say, “Mom, I could have bought you a new house.”
As a result, I have a fondness for The Fantastic Four despite the previous weak movie versions. This newest incarnation of The Fantastic Four features a much younger cast and a new origin story. Reed Richards (played by Miles Teller) discovers a way to “teleport” to another dimension. When Richards, with his friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), and Victor von Doom (Toby Kebbell) actually visit this new dimension, a weird energy transforms them and gives them different powers. Richards becomes elastic, Johnny Storm can fly and throw fireballs, Grimm becomes the rock-hard Thing. And Susan Storm (Kate Mara), also affected by the alien energy, becomes the Invisible Girl. Yes, this is all very strange, but this team of altered teenagers find themselves faced with a threat that could destroy the Earth! If you like this sort of movie, you’ll be entertained. GRADE: B
Our paper gave it one star out of five and panned it. And who are you kidding, you could buy your mother two houses.
George, I can’t get used to new and younger faces as superheroes. They’re not very convincing. I quite liked the original cast of FANTASTIC FOUR.
Prashant, it’s all marketing. MARVEL wants to attract a young audience so they cast younger actors.
No thanks My brother was the Fantastic Four fan in our house and this got awful reviews. I’ll stick with The Avengers and X-Men.
Jeff, you would really enjoy ANT-MAN.
Teenagers?? Sounds like heresy to me!
Dan, it’s part of MARVEL’s strategy to lure young audiences into their Universe.
Marvel has nothing to do with this movie. It’s 20th Century Fox all the way.
This incarnation is based (somewhat) on Marvel’s “Ultimate” universe of characters. Ultimate Marvel was an early 2000’s attempt to make their characters “edgy”. In that incarnation, Reed & the gang are much younger.
tbob, thanks for that clarification. The marketing of the Fantastic Four movie mentions X-MEN, another 20th Century Fox franchise.
Something else we have in common. I bought my FF1 off the news stand, in the Colonial Arcade, Cleveland Ohio. A decade or so later, I traded it to Gary Arlington at the San Francisco Comic Book Co. for 4 or 5 early Carl Barks Donald Ducks. Probably if I’d hung onto it I would have realized a bigger paper profit, but Barks means a lot more to me personally than Stan & Jack, so I’m not complaining. Besides, the whole top dollar comic “investment” scene repulses me. I’ll never pay a fat fee to some white-gloved ex-coin merchant to entomb my comics in a plastic slab!
Art, at least you got those Carl Banks DONALD DUCKS while I only got a clean closet (where I housed my comic collection before the Purge).
Every review I’ve read has given it the thumbs down, a 1 on a scale of 5 or 10, blasted the writing, acting and even the CGI. I figure this is a sure miss.
My mother never threw my stuff away, but over the years those old comics, worthless in the resale market anyway because of hard use, went the way of so much old stuff. I guess it was donated to the Goodwill or Salvation Army, I don’t know. There are a few books I grew up with I’d like to still have but none of the comics, which were mostly Disney and Casper. I bought them off the comics spinner rack in the Alpha Beta supermarket in La Habra, CA. after turning in bottles for the one cent deposit. I was allowed 1 comic per week. I did later buy and read some Fantastic Four comics, and know the origin story, which has been updated here I gather.
Rick, in this new “origin” story alien radiation transforms the teenagers into the Fantastic Four. In the comic, it was “cosmic” rays.
And a rocket, not an alternate dimension.
Rick, you’re right on the money. It was originally a rocket, not an inter-dimensional teleporter.