Fantastic Four (the most recent film)
Sep. 28th, 2016 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackSo, quite a lot of the changes I liked.
Casting Johnny as black. Good idea. More diversity, a different take on the character. You can definitely say it might be a problem that they cast the most reckless character, who plays into some difficult stereotypes. But hey, progress, lets have *more* diverse characters and they can be more different from each other. OTOH ffs, it's good to show adoptive relationships sometimes, but do you have to pick the one that screams "we were too scared to have inter-racial love interests".
Generally having younger protagonists, starting with Read's scientific ambition at about 12 (?), quite a good idea. I don't know why it was necessary, but at least it means it was a *different* origin story than the last film. And I think it's a good thing that the energy source Read finds is a result of a long struggle, it SHOWS, not just tells, about his scientific drive. And it means there's all the more reason for them to be over their heads when they get back and get cooped by the adults.
Going to another dimension, not "space". Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Simultaneously more exotic, but in many ways more plausible.
Having Victor Von Doom actually be comparatively sympathetic before his transformation. Ok, maybe "anti-social arrogant obnoxious scientist" isn't sympathetic to everyone but it is to me :) Now I say that, I'm worried, is it that the film wants to push "evil scientist" more than "evil businessman" or "evil ruler"? But in isolation, it makes sense. I actually liked the scenes of him and the others before the transformation.
The bad guys are "covert American military base". Well, I find that hard to argue with.
But oh boy, it flubbed a lot of stuff.
So much stuff that should be there is just not there.
Show us people learning to use their powers, and slowly triumphing.
Show us people using their powers, ever, outside a few 10s flashes of action, before the climax. Show us some of the fight scenes they do for the military. Show us effort and eventual success.
Show the important emotional decisions. Read escapes rather than instantly give himself up to Ben's captors. Big surprise. But show him agonising over whether to return. Show Ben agonising over whether to sell his talents to the military, show him becoming more desperate for escape.
Show Victor, say, blaming Read for dropping him.
Give Victor any motivation beyond "I randomly hate earth".
This is why people hated it. None of that stuff is there. None of the FUN stuff is there. It's just randomly one thing after another, mostly talking about exciting things happening off-screen.
Minor nitpicks
I don't think these were major issues, but they happened to really bug me.
This alternative planet seems to have atmospheric pressure. Can we please just pretend your space suit equivalents we can see people's faces in??
So, a teenager builds a machine which can violate conservation of mass. I realise this is not unrealistic, but I found it overwhelmingly depressing that something would be instantly worthy of a nobel prize if he were able to have a serious conversation for five minutes with a competent physicist, is instead automatically dismissed by everyone he knows :(
Introspection
The scene at school, where Read is drawing science notes in his book, and the teacher tells him to concentrate. My brain is wired to respond so much to the authority figure, not the faith in himself. Even though, most likely, intermittently ignoring the school system and doing physics is probably infinitely more useful.
Casting Johnny as black. Good idea. More diversity, a different take on the character. You can definitely say it might be a problem that they cast the most reckless character, who plays into some difficult stereotypes. But hey, progress, lets have *more* diverse characters and they can be more different from each other. OTOH ffs, it's good to show adoptive relationships sometimes, but do you have to pick the one that screams "we were too scared to have inter-racial love interests".
Generally having younger protagonists, starting with Read's scientific ambition at about 12 (?), quite a good idea. I don't know why it was necessary, but at least it means it was a *different* origin story than the last film. And I think it's a good thing that the energy source Read finds is a result of a long struggle, it SHOWS, not just tells, about his scientific drive. And it means there's all the more reason for them to be over their heads when they get back and get cooped by the adults.
Going to another dimension, not "space". Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Simultaneously more exotic, but in many ways more plausible.
Having Victor Von Doom actually be comparatively sympathetic before his transformation. Ok, maybe "anti-social arrogant obnoxious scientist" isn't sympathetic to everyone but it is to me :) Now I say that, I'm worried, is it that the film wants to push "evil scientist" more than "evil businessman" or "evil ruler"? But in isolation, it makes sense. I actually liked the scenes of him and the others before the transformation.
The bad guys are "covert American military base". Well, I find that hard to argue with.
But oh boy, it flubbed a lot of stuff.
So much stuff that should be there is just not there.
Show us people learning to use their powers, and slowly triumphing.
Show us people using their powers, ever, outside a few 10s flashes of action, before the climax. Show us some of the fight scenes they do for the military. Show us effort and eventual success.
Show the important emotional decisions. Read escapes rather than instantly give himself up to Ben's captors. Big surprise. But show him agonising over whether to return. Show Ben agonising over whether to sell his talents to the military, show him becoming more desperate for escape.
Show Victor, say, blaming Read for dropping him.
Give Victor any motivation beyond "I randomly hate earth".
This is why people hated it. None of that stuff is there. None of the FUN stuff is there. It's just randomly one thing after another, mostly talking about exciting things happening off-screen.
Minor nitpicks
I don't think these were major issues, but they happened to really bug me.
This alternative planet seems to have atmospheric pressure. Can we please just pretend your space suit equivalents we can see people's faces in??
So, a teenager builds a machine which can violate conservation of mass. I realise this is not unrealistic, but I found it overwhelmingly depressing that something would be instantly worthy of a nobel prize if he were able to have a serious conversation for five minutes with a competent physicist, is instead automatically dismissed by everyone he knows :(
Introspection
The scene at school, where Read is drawing science notes in his book, and the teacher tells him to concentrate. My brain is wired to respond so much to the authority figure, not the faith in himself. Even though, most likely, intermittently ignoring the school system and doing physics is probably infinitely more useful.
no subject
Date: 2016-09-28 11:21 pm (UTC)Yes, this was such a narratively lazy movie. They didn't seem willing to spend any time developing the characters in a way that would make the ending earned.
no subject
Date: 2016-09-28 11:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-29 12:12 am (UTC)