So, I went and saw the FF movie Friday night. I liked it, but there are several notable flaws that make it not as strong as it could have been.
Things I liked:
Johnny Storm. The actor was spot on, and some of the best characterizations and acting from the other characters came when they were arguing with Johnny. That, and he's the Amazing Anti-Angst. He's the gleeful little boy who has just found out that he really /is/ as special as he always thought he was. No angst about his powers, no concerns, just "Wow! Look at what I can do!" I wish they would have made him a little less, ah, dumb, but hey.
Ben Grimm. The second most interesting character, and the MegaAngst particle to Johnny's Anti-Angst. Ben played excellently off of /everyone/. He even had chemistry (not sexual) with Victor von Doom.
The lines. There are a lot of really great lines, and I can't think of one that really fell flat, like Storm's 'toad struck by lightning' in X-Men. Much of the dialogue was fun, and the dramatic bits only occassionally slipped over into melodrama.
Things that fell short:
Victor von Doom. If you're a comic-Doom enthusiast, you will probably hate this movie. His motivations start out strong (Serious Reed Envy) but then things just weird. He doesn't really have any chemistry with Sue Storm (of course, she doesn't really have any chemistry with /anyone/ except Johnny (again, not sexual)), so the whole idea of being bitter over losing her to Reed is just odd.
The plot. This, sadly, hurts Victor more than any other character. The plot is rather silly. It starts out okay. An old rival, Reed Richards, falls down on hard times, and despite his greater brillance, has to come to Victor for funding for his latest project. Victor greatly enjoys having him over a barrel, but agrees to fund the mission. They all go up, and get zapped by cosmic rays that give them Cool Powers. I'm with the writers (aside from Victor jonesing stoically on Sue) up to here. But then...the accident injures all five of them, but doesn't /kill/ anyone. It doesn't endanger civilians, it was a complete no-fault accident (the closest thing to an Act of God you can have), and for a time period, everyone seemed to have been recovering perfectly normally. No lawsuits, no noticible outrage.
...and yet, Victor's multi-billion dollar business suddenly "can't give your stock away" as fallout from the incident. 200 people /die/ every day, in America, due to work-related accidents, but I can't think of any company that has ever been ruined by the (apparently, at the time) minor injuries of four contracted workers and its CEO on a highly-dangerous experiment. It makes absolutely no sense.
Sadly, it highlights one of the main flaws of the movie: Victor von Doom got lost on his way to Spiderman 3. His characterization and subplots are entirely ripped off from a mix of the Green Goblin and Doc Octopus, and the idea of him getting superpowers unfortunately detracts from the idea of a supervillain who fights with his brain (and LEGIONS OF DOOMBOTS). Sadly, the great Doctor Doom doesn't really show any indication of brainpower that would put him in Reed Richards' league throughout the whole movie. Even his political acumen is lacking, since, despite having apparently built up a multi-billion dollar company from the ground up, all he can do in the face of mean bankers and falling stock prices is sputter helplessly and worry about keeping a one-inch scar out of photographs.
Things I liked:
Johnny Storm. The actor was spot on, and some of the best characterizations and acting from the other characters came when they were arguing with Johnny. That, and he's the Amazing Anti-Angst. He's the gleeful little boy who has just found out that he really /is/ as special as he always thought he was. No angst about his powers, no concerns, just "Wow! Look at what I can do!" I wish they would have made him a little less, ah, dumb, but hey.
Ben Grimm. The second most interesting character, and the MegaAngst particle to Johnny's Anti-Angst. Ben played excellently off of /everyone/. He even had chemistry (not sexual) with Victor von Doom.
The lines. There are a lot of really great lines, and I can't think of one that really fell flat, like Storm's 'toad struck by lightning' in X-Men. Much of the dialogue was fun, and the dramatic bits only occassionally slipped over into melodrama.
Things that fell short:
Victor von Doom. If you're a comic-Doom enthusiast, you will probably hate this movie. His motivations start out strong (Serious Reed Envy) but then things just weird. He doesn't really have any chemistry with Sue Storm (of course, she doesn't really have any chemistry with /anyone/ except Johnny (again, not sexual)), so the whole idea of being bitter over losing her to Reed is just odd.
The plot. This, sadly, hurts Victor more than any other character. The plot is rather silly. It starts out okay. An old rival, Reed Richards, falls down on hard times, and despite his greater brillance, has to come to Victor for funding for his latest project. Victor greatly enjoys having him over a barrel, but agrees to fund the mission. They all go up, and get zapped by cosmic rays that give them Cool Powers. I'm with the writers (aside from Victor jonesing stoically on Sue) up to here. But then...the accident injures all five of them, but doesn't /kill/ anyone. It doesn't endanger civilians, it was a complete no-fault accident (the closest thing to an Act of God you can have), and for a time period, everyone seemed to have been recovering perfectly normally. No lawsuits, no noticible outrage.
...and yet, Victor's multi-billion dollar business suddenly "can't give your stock away" as fallout from the incident. 200 people /die/ every day, in America, due to work-related accidents, but I can't think of any company that has ever been ruined by the (apparently, at the time) minor injuries of four contracted workers and its CEO on a highly-dangerous experiment. It makes absolutely no sense.
Sadly, it highlights one of the main flaws of the movie: Victor von Doom got lost on his way to Spiderman 3. His characterization and subplots are entirely ripped off from a mix of the Green Goblin and Doc Octopus, and the idea of him getting superpowers unfortunately detracts from the idea of a supervillain who fights with his brain (and LEGIONS OF DOOMBOTS). Sadly, the great Doctor Doom doesn't really show any indication of brainpower that would put him in Reed Richards' league throughout the whole movie. Even his political acumen is lacking, since, despite having apparently built up a multi-billion dollar company from the ground up, all he can do in the face of mean bankers and falling stock prices is sputter helplessly and worry about keeping a one-inch scar out of photographs.
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I demand DOOMBOTS!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject