What To Do About Fantastic Four?

[JKtheMac]

I love how this is talked about, as if Marvel/Disney has the rights to the F4 now.

Yes that is the part I don’t see happening.

Earlier I said I felt things were optimistic, because Fox and Marvel are apparently no longer slugging it out (at least as far as X-Men are concerned). Fox would be more likely to bring the F4 back than marvel. However, they must be pretty wary of the property at the moment, and the terms of their deal are not only hearsay, they are subject to change every time the two companies talk to each other with lawyers present.

The precedent with Spider-Man is irrelevant because Marvel and Sony were never on as bad terms, and their current deal had been talked about for literally years. Nothing of the kind has been leaked to the press about F4.

We do know that Marvel and Fox were at the table talking about X-Men TV, but I would imagine both law teams would have kept the discussions focused on that property only, to avoid any offers that may be regretted later.

[I_Wumbo_You_Wumbo]

I love how this is talked about, as if Marvel/Disney has the rights to the F4 now.

Yeah, I'm not saying it will happen (but hey, people said that about Spidey franchise rights for a long time), I'm just suggesting in a world where it does happen how to address the situation.

[Zero Hunter]

I said in a thread a while back the main thing I would do is keep Doom out of it. Every version of Doom they have done has been bad and to me one of the biggest reason why all the FF movies have stunk. I say make them explorers/scientists who end up getting their powers in the Negative Zone like they did in the last movie, but have them be in the Negative Zone for most of the movie having to figure out how to get home while at the same time dealing with Annihilus and his forces trying to use them to cross over to our world. Use characters like Blastaar and the Psycho-Man as the Generals in Annihilus's army. In the end they get back but have to fight some of forces on Earth before they can seal the portal to the Negative Zone up. The end credit scene would be a shady looking man bribing some govt. workers to get his hands on some of the alien tech left over from the battle to seal the portal and the man (shown to be Diablo who is now Doom's right hand man) saying "My lord will be very pleased with this" and we see the crates being loaded on a plane headed for Latveria.

[JKtheMac]

Well today I sat down and watched the latest F4 movie to get a handle on where we are currently. I know everyone slated it but I figured let's give it a look.

I couldn't keep my eyes open during the climactic action scene. I must have stopped myself from drifting off five times, each time my mind alerted me because I was making up my own images in my head. To sum it up it wasn't that the film was bad, it was just so ridiculously formulaic. Once you get a handle on the premise there are no twists and no surprises. You could just stop it at a third of the way through and tell the story.

The other odd thing is since when was Reed the heart of the F4? Clearly the script writers at some stage totally threw away the comic characters and replaced them with their own ideas for cool characters. If this is what Fox does with the property then I don't understand why they are so keen to keep it. It demonstrates a total lack of understanding.

So reflecting on the idea of making a TV show, all I ask is please don't let Fox do it. No F4 at all would be better than this.

[phantom1592]

Well today I sat down and watched the latest F4 movie to get a handle on where we are currently. I know everyone slated it but I figured let's give it a look.

I couldn't keep my eyes open during the climactic action scene. I must have stopped myself from drifting off five times, each time my mind alerted me because I was making up my own images in my head. To sum it up it wasn't that the film was bad, it was just so ridiculously formulaic. Once you get a handle on the premise there are no twists and no surprises. You could just stop it at a third of the way through and tell the story.

The other odd thing is since when was Reed the heart of the F4? Clearly the script writers at some stage totally threw away the comic characters and replaced them with their own ideas for cool characters. If this is what Fox does with the property then I don't understand why they are so keen to keep it. It demonstrates a total lack of understanding.

So reflecting on the idea of making a TV show, all I ask is please don't let Fox do it. No F4 at all would be better than this.

Agreed all around. I just rented it myself yesterday. I can't say I was disappointed, because I had seen enough to know to avoid it in theaters... but for a rental price?? I enjoyed 'some' of the special effects, especially Reed... but that's about it. the rest bounced between dumb and boring.

My theory on how best to handle the FF in a Marvel setting??

Don't.

They've had three movies around now and even though I enjoyed the first two (not counting a crappy doom), people in general seem to hate it. Therefore I really wouldn't do it again. I think people like the FF more as a concept then as an actual property. So that's how I would use them. Reed Richards is Super scientist #1 in Marvel. I would have him play background in pretty much all the movies. consulting with SHIELD, chatting with Tony, Explaining some far out science to Cap... Thing and Torch would get name dropped through the universe. They're around... but the current movie is about spider-man or Avengers... If things get TOO bad, they're exploring another dimension or something.

Doom would be the big bad. But he'd be done right. Dictator... monarch... with Tech and Armor systems to rival Iron Man. Not some kind of mysterious undefined cosmic power like the FF. he's a genius and his power comes from his own brain.

Then when we get an Infinity War or Secret War mega crossover movie... I would have the FF join in there and show off their stuff. But an individual movie with undoubtedly ANOTHER origin?? Nope. Wouldn't do it.

[Ultra Magnotron]

You know what I'd like to see? Forget origin stories. I want a film where the Fantastic Four are already established as the amazing heroes they are. They've saved the world a dozen times and have a pretty kick ass reputation. The conflict in this film comes from an experiment Reed Richards began years back. All of the calculations he ran, all of his planning, everything he did to be absolutely sure it would be safe, just couldn't stop the unknown. Reed doesn't know what he doesn't know, and this time his mistake is going to cost the planet a pretty big price. You see this family was always meant to battle cosmic threats; therefore a kind of warp drive (allowing faster than light travel by punching a hole into the fabric of space and time) has unexpectedly cut a hole into the Negative Zone. For a while it was too small and went by unnoticed to anyone in the zone, but repeated uses (you know, gotta save the world and all) have cause it to grow. Someone finally notices. And they mean to invade our entire reality, starting with Earth.

What about Doom? He can be mentioned, perhaps he's planning something in the background. I just feel we should wait to see him. So far Hollywood has screwed him up and maybe if they can jut focus on the Fantastic Four for now, going back to Doom would be done at a time when someone can finally get his character right.

So.. yeah. This would be the film I'd make.

[phantom1592]

You know what I'd like to see? Forget origin stories. I want a film where the Fantastic Four are already established as the amazing heroes they are. They've saved the world a dozen times and have a pretty kick ass reputation. The conflict in this film comes from an experiment Reed Richards began years back. All of the calculations he ran, all of his planning, everything he did to be absolutely sure it would be safe, just couldn't stop the unknown. Reed doesn't know what he doesn't know, and this time his mistake is going to cost the planet a pretty big price. You see this family was always meant to battle cosmic threats; therefore a kind of warp drive (allowing faster than light travel by punching a hole into the fabric of space and time) has unexpectedly cut a hole into the Negative Zone. For a while it was too small and went by unnoticed to anyone in the zone, but repeated uses (you know, gotta save the world and all) have cause it to grow. Someone finally notices. And they mean to invade our entire reality, starting with Earth.

What about Doom? He can be mentioned, perhaps he's planning something in the background. I just feel we should wait to see him. So far Hollywood has screwed him up and maybe if they can jut focus on the Fantastic Four for now, going back to Doom would be done at a time when someone can finally get his character right.

So.. yeah. This would be the film I'd make.

I'd watch that.

Also when they go to space to fix the hole... have them pass a big 'baxer building shaped' satellite... just a little easter egg to their earlier adventures :P

[Ultra Magnotron]

I'd watch that.

Also when they go to space to fix the hole... have them pass a big 'baxer building shaped' satellite... just a little easter egg to their earlier adventures :P

Oh, definitely. Gotta add in easter eggs for past missions. The thing about a film like is that you can always go back and make the prequels... I don't know if anyone would really want to see another origin for the team, but that is always an option. I just think we deserve at least one great FF4 film before going back to that.

...Just my own two cents on an origin story.

[Crimz]

Origins are no longer needed for them. At all. It would be a horrible idea to them again.

Like the idea of them already being active already, but I would like them being famous for being adventurers and discovering things rather than super-heroics. I want to see them saving the world for the first time as the films so far have shown them only fighting Doom. Every. Damn. Time. 4 films with the same damn premise.

I agree with no Doom for at least two films. His origin being the result of the same accident was always cheap, and took away from him and the F4.

[JKtheMac]

His origin being the result of the same accident was always cheap, and took away from him and the F4.

Like I said, the writers clearly don't get the property based on their decisions.

[CaptCleghorn]

If there's a need to introduce the FF into the MCU, the Knights of the Atomic Roundtable might be a good way to do that. Pym, Banner, Stark, Richards, Doom, and Reilly (an open book to be used however) make a good starting point. Reed and Vic don't need to be that active at first, but there would certainly be a huge fanboy (and fan girl) reaction.

[The Negative Zone]

How about a animated series aimed towards older audiences?

[cyberhubbs]

I think a lot of internal issues may have sabotaged the recent FF movie. It's kind of a problem you're beginning to see take hold in comic book films, honestly. Too much interference in the whole creative process because someone controlling the money wants to have input, which in turn helps build their reputation if things pan out well. Same sorta thing with Age of Ultron because execs wanted to set stuff up for later films. Not saying it can't be the fault of the director or his/her staff, of course. Just narrows the blame when things go wrong.

I'm not quite sure how to fix things, though. FF needs more of an extended universe. Can't just be the four of them and Doom. That was part of the problem with the latest film. They introduced the Negative Zone, great, but it was just a desolate wasteland. Not so much yay. Annihilus woulda been a great addition, and maybe have Doom as a sort of anti-hero instead of the Big Bad. Then the FF know they can't trust Annihilus, but aren't so sure about Doom once the smoke clears. It really needed a lot more meat in the second half of the film.

[Zero Hunter]

I think that is the major problem is that they think they HAVE to have Doom in anything FF related be it movie or the comics. Doom showing up in the comics used to be a big deal before writers started using him over and over and over again and making him a permanent cast member, and the movies are the same way in thinking every movie has to have Doom.

[cyberhubbs]

Outside of Galactus, Doom is their biggest villain. Folks, both working for the studio and those buying tickets, may not be patient enough to wait for the movies to build up to his introduction.