Fantastic Four (film)
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- For the unreleased 1994 Fantastic Four film, see The Fantastic Four (film).
| Fantastic Four | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Tim Story |
| Produced by | Avi Arad Bernd Eichinger Chris Columbus Ralph Winter |
| Written by | Comic Book: Stan Lee Jack Kirby Screenplay: Michael France Mark Frost |
| Starring | Ioan Gruffudd Jessica Alba Michael Chiklis Chris Evans Julian McMahon |
| Music by | John Ottman |
| Cinematography | Oliver Wood |
| Editing by | William Hoy |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | July 8, 2005 |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $100,000,000 |
| Followed by | Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer |
| IMDb profile | |
Fantastic Four is a 2005 film based on the Marvel Comics comic Fantastic Four, directed by Tim Story, and released by 20th Century Fox. This is the second live-action Fantastic Four movie to be filmed. The previous attempt, a B-movie produced by Roger Corman, was never officially released.
The film was released in the U.S. and Canada on July 8, 2005. It was the third superhero movie of the year, after Elektra and Batman Begins. Also, a soundtrack was released for the film; see Fantastic 4: The Album.
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[edit] Plot
Brilliant but timid and bankrupt scientist Reed Richards is convinced that all evolution is caused by clouds of cosmic energy. He calculates that Earth is going to pass one of these clouds soon, and together with his partner, the gruff yet gentle pilot Ben Grimm, pleads his MIT classmate, ultra-rich and arrogant Dr. Victor von Doom, CEO of his own enterprise, to allow him access to his space station. Von Doom agrees, but only under the conditions that he has the final say in all the experiments and receives a majority of the profits. They also encounter the calm and rational Susan Storm, Von Doom's right hand and genetic researcher, and her diametrically opposed brother Johnny, the maverick hot-headed playboy pilot. Susan attended MIT with Reed and Victor. She also dated Reed at the time and there still exists some tension between the three. Apparently, Susan left Reed because she wanted him to take action and not only see things in terms of variables.
The quintet travels to space to observe the cosmic energy clouds, but the clouds materialise well ahead of schedule, and all five are engulfed by its vast energies. The astronauts make it home intact, however, they shortly begin to mutate and develop their characteristic powers. Reed is able to stretch like rubber; Sue can turn invisible and create force fields, especially when emotionally troubled; Johnny can produce fire at supernova temperatures, and is able to fly; and Ben transformed into "The Thing", a large, rock-like creature with super strength. Reed, Sue and Ben see them as a curse and Reed and Sue work on a healing chamber while the four room in Reed's high tech Baxter Building loft-turned-laboratory. Only Johnny seems to embrace his powers, which are pyrokinetic in nature, and clashes with Ben, who evidently drew the shortest straw. His disfigurement causes his fiancee to leave him which makes Reed vow to help Ben devolve to his human state, but he later gains another girlfriend in the blind woman Alicia Masters, who recognises his desirability beneath his rocky body.
While Ben broods about his situation on the Brooklyn Bridge, he stops a man about to commit suicide by jumping off. However, Ben's appearance so frightens the would-be jumper that he falls into the bridge's traffic, forcing Ben to jump down to save him by forcefully stopping a truck, inadvertently causing a chain reaction pile up on the bridge. Just as Ben's compatriots looking for him arrive at the bridge, the accident soon escalates as a fire breaks out in the wrecks while an arriving fire truck crashes and almost falls off the bridge, forcing the four to use their powers to prevent disaster. They are successful and the media throngs them and immediately uses Johnny's impromptu group name for themselves, The Fantastic Four. In a similar manner, Johnny later chooses their codenames for them, including the demeaning "Thing" moniker which annoys Ben to no end.
Doom's body is turning into organic metal capable of manipulating energy. After killing one of the board of directors of his company, that had turned on him and his physician with his burgeoning energies, he sees the opportunity to finish off his rival Reed once and for all, blaming him for the recent failure of his company. He tricks Ben into turning on his friends, thinking that they were not working on a cure with due diligence. However, the machine is ready but needs more power. Doom provides the extra power and tricks Ben into using it and becoming normal again, while Doom's own powers increase exponentially. Doom immediately attacks Ben and then renders Reed unconscious and takes him prisoner. After freezing him to prevent him using his powers of distention, Doom fires a heat-seeker missile at Richard's apartment in the Baxter building intending to kill Johnny. Johnny uses his powers to fly away and leads the missile to open water where he ignites a garbage scow to lure the missile away from himself. Susan realizes where Reed is and confronts Doom while Ben decides that he must become The Thing again to battle his new enemy.
Doom and Ben fight until the battle spills onto the street below. The rest of the team joins Ben, sporting their specialised suits made of Unstable Molecules provided by Doom in the original space flight. Together under Reed's direction, the Fantastic Four vanquish their arch enemy with a coordinated attack that seemingly leaves Doom as a statue of inert metal.
In the end, the foursome decide to embrace their roles as superheroes and officially organise as the Fantastic Four with Reed proposing to Sue, and her accepting while Ben, with the help of Alicia, comes to terms with his condition. However, Doom's associate is transporting his employer's supposed dead body back to his homeland of Latveria (the country he ruled in the comics, where he could establish a real power base if he fully revives). Before the movie ends, evidence that Doom is still alive and well is presented.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Ioan Gruffudd | Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic |
| Jessica Alba | Sue Storm / The Invisible Woman |
| Chris Evans | Johnny Storm / The Human Torch |
| Michael Chiklis | Ben Grimm / The Thing |
| Julian McMahon | Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom |
| Hamish Linklater | Leonard |
| Kerry Washington | Alicia Masters |
| Laurie Holden | Debbie McIlvane |
| David Parker | Ernie |
| Kevin McNulty | Jimmy O'Hoolihan |
| Maria Menounos | Sexy Nurse |
| Michael Kopsa | Ned Cecil |
| Stan Lee | Willie Lumpkin |
As in almost all of the previous Marvel Comics-based films, Fantastic Four co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance. He is Willie Lumpkin, the mailman who greets the team on their way to the Baxter Building elevator.
[edit] Reaction
The critical reaction was overwhelmingly negative, scoring only a 25% at Rotten Tomatoes, a movie review aggregation website. The movie was criticized for weak storytelling, poor science, and paper-thin characters — especially the bland Doctor Doom, one of the hallmark villains in the Marvel Comics world. In addition, Jessica Alba's performance earned her a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress.
A major disappointment with the movie was the choice of casting, as neither Alba nor Evans have natural blond hair. Evans' hair was cut to make special effects easier but by doing so he loses the look of Johnny. The Storms, while working for Doom, were seen as "anti" Richards and Grimm.
Those who did like the film to some degree often praised Michael Chiklis for faithfully depicting his character's difficult adjustment to his transformation in a moving fashion. Chris Evans' character was considered a refreshing change of pace for modern superhero adaptations of a superhero who immediately takes delight in his powers without a resulting tragedy linked to them. However, many fans derided the producers' decision to place Chiklis in a bodysuit rather than using computer-generated effects or by the very least in a convincing body suit and make-up similar to what was seen in the movie version of the comic book Hellboy. Film critic Roger Ebert put this film at number 10 on his list of the top ten worst films of 2005. MSN ranked it #4 in their list of "worst superhero films".
However, Fantastic Four proved a surprise box office hit on its opening weekend, apparently ending a major prolonged box office slump that was causing concern in the American film industry. As of September 2005, the film has totaled over $330 million worldwide.
[edit] Deleted scenes
Among the deleted scenes included on the December 2005 DVD release:
There are 3 slightly modified penultimate scenes concerning the attack on and subsequent defeat of Doctor Doom - one in which Reed uses his body as a funnel to direct a stream of water at Doom, one in which he doesn't, and one in which Doctor Doom's line "Is that the best you can do, a little heat?" is cut short, having the "..a little heat?" portion removed.
After the release of The Incredibles, the ending of the movie was rewritten because it was thought to be too similar.
There are two different versions of a scene which includes Jessica Alba and Ioan Gruffudd as Sue and Reed respectively. One version (the original) features the pair in the Planetarium, in which they communicate their feelings for each other properly without an argumentative tone. This ends in an inevitable kiss. The second version (used in the theatrical release) features the two outside, looking towards the Statue Of Liberty. Similar lines were used, but it ended where Susan turns invisible before Reed can kiss her. A joke was used during the line "a stronger man": Instead of Reed giving himself a square jaw (as he does in the theatrical release), he makes his skin look like the X-Men's Wolverine. Actor Gruffudd breaks the fourth wall and looks directly at the camera as he does this, suggesting the scene might have been filmed as a joke (similar to a practical joke filmed for the first X-Men film, in which Hugh Jackman, who played Wolverine, dressed up as Spider-Man and ran onto the set in the middle of a scene). [1]
The novelization of the film contained a number of scenes which did not appear in the final cut; most notably a small number of scenes that drastically developed the character of Alicia Masters.
Sky Movies in the UK actually show a different version of the film to the theatrical or DVD releases. Among the changes, are the song playing in the bar scene not skipping when the Thing takes a step, the planitarium scene being reinstated and the masked Doctor Doom's voice changing from his regular voice to having an effect over the speech. Other parts of the film, such as Thing & Doom's underwater fight, are shortened whereas Reed's involvement in stopping Doom is removed.
[edit] Sequel
Its financial success has led to the sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which will debut in theatres in 2007. It will feature The Silver Surfer and Doctor Doom as its central villains. The planet-eating entity Galactus may or may not be featured in the film, as the stars all give conflicting reports on whether or not he will appear.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Fantastic Four movies on Marvel.com
- Official site
- Fantastic Four at the Internet Movie Database
- Fantastic Four Movies hype at the SuperHeroHype!
- Rotten Tomatoes Reviews
- Fantastic Four: Comic Vs. Film
- F4Movies.com
| Fantastic Four | |
|---|---|
| Characters | Mister Fantastic · The Invisible Woman · The Human Torch · The Thing |
| Titles | Main continuity: Fantastic Four · Four · The Thing Other continuities: Ultimate Fantastic Four · Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four · Marvel 1602: Fantastick Four |
| Television | Fantastic Four (1967) · Fantastic Four (1978) · Fantastic Four (1994) · Fantastic Four (2006) · Other appearances |
| Movies | The Fantastic Four (1994) · Fantastic Four (2005) · Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) |
| Related | Locations · Video games |
| Marvel Comics films | ||
|---|---|---|
| Live action | Single films |
Howard the Duck (1986) • The Punisher (1989) • Captain America (1991) • The Fantastic Four (1994) • Man-Thing (2005) • Ghost Rider (2007) |
| Franchises |
Blade: Blade (1998) • Blade II (2002) • Blade: Trinity (2004) |
|
| In development |
Iron Man (2008) • Wolverine (2008) • Magneto (2009) • Luke Cage (TBA) • Namor (TBA) • Ant-Man (TBA) |
|
| Animated | Single films |
The Invincible Iron Man (2007) |
| Franchises |
The Ultimates: Ultimate Avengers (2006) • Ultimate Avengers 2 (2006) |
|
| In development |
Doctor Strange (2007) • Teen Avengers (TBA) |
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