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For the unreleased 1994 Fantastic Four film, see The Fantastic Four (film) 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 released officially. George Clooney was originally tapped to be Reed Richards, but due to budgetary concerns no negotiations were proposed. Brendan Fraser was also considered for the part of Reed Richards, Paul Walker was rumored to be Johnny Storm, and Tim Robbins was considered for Doctor Doom. The role of Susan Storm was heavily rumored from Rachel McAdams, Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Milian, Kate Bosworth, Scarlett Johansson and Julia Stiles. Wrestling news sites reported professional wrestler Trish Stratus was going to play the role. Michael Chiklis fought to have a "real" Thing rather than a computer-generated imagery character. The Thing's appearance in this film differs from the way the character currently looks in the comic books (most notably with the absence of an exaggerated brow); instead, the suit and make-up was based upon the hero's appearance in the early issues of the comic book. When Michael Chiklis' wife, Michelle (who suffers from claustrophobia), first saw him in his Thing outfit, she suffered a panic attack and had to be escorted off the set. 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. 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.
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 gentle yet gruff pilot Ben Grimm, pleads his MIT classmate, ultra-rich and arrogant Dr. Victor von Doom, CEO of his own enterprise, to let him onto his space station. Von Doom agrees, but only under the conditions that he (1) has the final say in all the experiments and (2) 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 dated Reed at the time and there is obviously 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 zapped by its vast energies. The astronauts make it home intact, but suddenly, they begin to mutate and develop their characteristic powers. Reed, Susan 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, becoming a superstrong, yet unsightly, rock creature. 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 recognizes his desirability beneath his rocky body. Reed has become stretchy and durable, while Sue can become invisible and create force fields, especially when emotionally troubled. 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 simialar manner, Johnny later chooses their codenames for them. Doom is turning into organic metal capable of manipulating energy. After killing one of the board of directors of his company 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 and Doom tricks Ben into using it and becoming normal again. Doom immediately attacks Ben and then renders Reed unconscious and takes him prisoner. After freezing him to prevent him using his stretch powers and torturing him in that state, Doom fires a missile towards Johnny who must use his powers to fly away to lead 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 confront his enemy. Eventually, Ben fights Doom on the street until the rest of the team joins him, sporting their specialized suits invented by Reed and likely based in part on the design of von Doom. 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 organize 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. Reaction The critical reaction was overwhelmingly negative, scoring only a 26% 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, arguably one of the hallmark villains in the Marvel Comics world. In addition, Jessica Alba's performance earned her a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress. Many critics felt that this movie was widely surpassed by both Batman Begins and Sin City (also starring Jessica Alba), two comic book movies that were released in the same period. A major disappointment with the movie was the choice of casting, as neither Alba or 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 while 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 However, Fantastic 4 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 $300 million worldwide. Sequel Its financial success has led to the sequel, , which will debut in theatres in 2007. It will feature The Silver Surfer and Doctor Doom as its central villains. Cast 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 Dr. 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 Dr. 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). 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. See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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