I have nothing against the actors currently negotiating or having negotiated deals for the lead roles in the Fantastic Four reboot. In fact, I like what Ive seen of their work. Unfortunately, Im not sold on any of them in the roles for which theyre being announced! Miles Teller as Reed Richards? Dont see it. Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm? Why? Kate Mara as Sue Storm? Uh ... arent she and Johnny supposed to be brother and sister? What unnecessarily complex or foolish, non-source-material explanation will account for the racial difference? Does a popcorn movie like this really need such heavy-handed PC tinkering just because - taking a guess here - Jordan and the director are friends? Especially when such tinkering is totally at odds with the characters as established in the half-century-plus-popular comic? Then, theres Jamie Bell. Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm/The Thing?!? Ya gotta be kiddin! Hey, I liked the cast of the first two Fantastic Four flicks. Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis: very appealing. The movies themselves: okay, they left something to be desired. But they werent without their charms, either. These superhero movie reboots leave me cold. What the heck was wrong with the Sam Raimi/Toby Maguire Spider-Man movies that we needed the Andrew Garfield reboot before - what? - even six years had elapsed? Few dispute the disposability of contemporary pop culture. But this makes a joke of it! In any event, I have no desire to see the new Spider-Man movies, regardless of how good they may be. And I dont believe for a minute that theyre better than the Raimi/Maguire films, which set a high bar for such fare. I wish Id exercised such judgment before seeing the latest Superman reboot. Talk about heavy-handed! Man of Steel almost makes one long for the quaint silliness of the old Superman live-action matinee movie serials of the 1940s! That brings me back to the new Fantastic Four. Many people already are saying they wont go see it. I too cant say Im looking forward to it. And the issue for me and most people has nothing whatsoever to do with racism. Me? Ive just grown weary of movies based on comic-book superheroes in general. I havent ever been much a fan of superhero comics, anyway (though the artwork often appealed to me). Besides that, I and most people just dont see the point at this juncture of messing with such well-established and widely beloved characters as the Fantastic Four. Whether the upcoming move is worth seeing or not, it will be interesting to see how all this plays out.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 07:02:44 +0000
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