#34 Fant4stic (Rage Issues 2 year anniversary)

It's Rage Issues' 2nd year anniversary!!!

And yeah, it’s been a while now, our last rage review was in January and you can blame Marvel for the onslaught of new comics I’ve been picking up and just the fact there’s TV to review. Last year I looked at something that came under an umbrella of things I’d been reviewing – the Avatar franchise had been one of biggest investments to review.

This year, we’re not doing that. This year, we’re looking at a movie so bad, so terrible that Rotten Tomatoes gives it a mere 9% rating. So bad that the director, Josh Trank tweeted out that there was a better version of the film, but the studio messed with his vision.

Sh*t. Yep, we’re back in studio interference territory. (And yes, it's sort of a continuation since I've reviewed the other 2 - see the hub page - link below) As Josh Trank, in a move that will likely kill his career for all time, if the movie didn’t already, tweeted that he had a better version before the studio touched it. Truth? Well, I’ve heard some disturbing stories about his behaviour on-set which indicate otherwise but let’s give the movie a chance. And by that I mean let’s rip this piece of sh*t a new one!

Civil War review

Civil war is arguably the most controversial of the Marvel events and it covers a lot of political themes. In some ways it’s baffling that this is the kind of story they’re adapting into the newest movie. Especially since secret identities have barely been established as a thing yet (outside of the Netflix's Daredevil which isn’t likely to cross into the movies) but given that the movie is adapting the comic, and that there’s supposedly a sequel coming out (because lord knows the idea of a mass brawl between heroes hasn’t been run into the ground by Marvel yet) I decided to get a copy.

Because of the very political nature of this book, it’s often avoided in detail by reviewers, but… I’m going to cover this in as neutral a way as possible. I will not egg on either side for their decisions, so this review may not be as funny as some of my others, my apologies for that

This is neither a Rage review, nor a Guilty Pleasure review. In as many words my opinion of this comic is that it’s ok. I want to break down the story, giving as much detail as possible. In the end, if you haven’t read Civil War, you can make up your own mind which side was right in their actions.

There's also not going to be an overall rating of the comic, I have certain preconceptions that mean it's difficult for me to judge, and since most of my knowledge of Marvel comics does not predate this event, I don't think I'm much qualified to have a final say. What I do know is as of this point Thor was dead and Planet Hulk was happening, so those 2, arguably the two most powerful participants were off the table.

Note: I am only recently a Marvel fan, there will be characters in this that I do not know, so apologies in advance if I get some of their names wrong.

Also, just in case I wasn’t clear: SPOILERS!

#28 - Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer

So, Fantastic 4 may have sucked but it made money so the inevitable sequel came out, and it sucks.

Released in 2007, this film managed only 37% on Rotten tomatoes and made $280m on it’s $130m budget, which is still more than the current movie is likely to make.

So I ask what makes a good comic book adaptation? Comic books characters have decades of history behind them making it quite difficult to come up with an idea that embraces the feel and spirit of the characters whilst also being unique in its own way. The biggest difference between a comic book adaptation and a book adaptation is the fact the story is (to an extent at least) completely original, it just stars the characters from the comic book.

Capturing the tone and feel of the characters is a struggle because the tone and feel of characters have changed over time through retcons and alternate universes. This is why I really didn’t mind the fact they went for the ultimate universe origins for the Fantastic 4 in their latest release, it makes sense to not re-tread old ground and release the same origin, like they did with Spider-man. (Spider-man’s origins in the mainstream and ultimate universe are pretty similar)

I don’t have a full answer for me take the cliff-notes versions of what the characters are like in the comics and craft a good story. The good story with well-paced and balanced action is key to a good superhero movie. Create a good dynamic between the characters and the rest will follow.

So, what goes wrong here? Let’s dive into Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer to find out.

#27 Fantastic 4

Oh boy, what was Marvel like before the cinematic universe, we had the Aang Lee Hulk movie, which sucked, we Spider-man movies which… in my personal opinion, sucked. Then we have the x-men movies produced by Fox. I confess I have not seen them, my love of Marvel started with the Avengers. (Maybe we’ll do a theme month with them, god knows there’s enough of them) so, Fox has a decent-ish record with the X-men, time to reboot the other marvel property they own, the Fantastic 4.

I’ll get to the new one when it comes out on DVD, there’s plenty to go through and to be honest, it’s worse than either of these but… that doesn’t stop them from being bad. Fox had gained the rights to Marvel’s characters in the 1990s and they would retain them as long as they keep making movies about them, the first one was made in 1994, but it was never released. Risking losing the rights back to Marvel, they decided to make another attempt for release in 2005

The film was financially successful, making $330m on its $100m budget, but gained a pretty poor critical response, only rated 27% on rotten tomatoes. This lead to it’s equally sh*tty (although in a very different way) sequel in 2007. But that’s for next week, let’s dig into to Fantastic 4.

I’ll be looking at the extended addition because that’s what I’ve got on my DVD.