The Fantastic Four Trailer Has Come!! ...Did You Notice?

Since the dawn of time, it has been the power of the geek to love without limits and hate with the fire of a thousand suns. To harness this power, studios hire top mathematicians, genius scientists and sneaksy former politicians to crunch numbers and decode ways to manipulate the public so that the pendulum swings toward a favorable outpouring of love screamed across the sparkling internets. Despite the availability of armies of professionals who can accomplish such astounding feats, we still find some movie companies stand fast to their own belief that their movie will experience a glorious box office debut even though all of their marketing, imagery and plot points divulged would suggest....otherwise. Fantastic Four has been one such mythical creature, standing proudly with chest puffed to maximum puffiness as the hordes of geeks rail against it. 

"We are changing the race of Johnny Storm" they shouted and then quickly added "but we are keeping Sue Storm white" ...which was met with mixed grumbles. Marvel changed the race of Nick Fury and that's worked out fine...but you can hardly compare a Sam Jackson casting to..well..anyone else on the planet. Sam Jackson as Moses? Bring it. Sam Jackson as Indiana Jones? Take my money. Then someone spread around some nonsense about Doctor Doom starting out as an Internet Blogger. Well..it's a little lamer than resident of a foreign country plagued by a tyranical monarch, forcing a young man to seize power and dark forces while honing his knowledge of technology as he takes his country's throne. Yea...just a little lamer. Just the other day, we got our first glimpse of the new Fantastic Four uniform (Via Collider); all part of a story deeply rooted in science fiction. Our first thought? Speaker Boy. Mighty, Mighty Speaker Boy. Can I plug an iPod into him?

Now comes the trailer. I'd say expectations are at an all time low. Nowhere to go but up.



Where have I seen this whole vibe before...it was definitely recent.....OH YEA..

I'm also reminded of a movie called X-Men Origins: Wolverine. After watching that film, I remember saying "if it was about a man and his brother who are different from the rest of the world and use their talents and unnaturally long lives to fight man's wars until they have a falling out and must battle each other...well..that movie would have been just fine, wouldn't it?" The problem, for me, is putting these loved properties in the hands of people who think they need to spin it into their own creation. Even X-Men: Days of Future Past is a Frankenstein Monster...something to be winced at by die hard X-Men fans who wondered why they couldn't just stick closer to the stories which, no doubt, have stood the test of time and might even be award winning. There is a middle ground between "The Watchmen" and "Origins: Wolverine" for sure, and Marvel Studios has been striking it more often then not, and the box office numbers agree. After a teaser like this, I'm not prepared to say the creators have totally gone off book and to be honest, I really like the tone, but I hope the entire movie is not what we've seen here...grimaced faces, looks of anguish aplenty and more drama than a Spanish soap opera. That was Chronicle, and we've already done that. More importantly, that was Superman: Man Of Steel, and for me, that was no fun. Superman is not Batman. The X-Men are not The Avengers. The dynamics are different, as is the tone. Fantastic Four can be deeply scifi with mad science constantly run amok and only a dysfunctional "family" with super powers standing by to save us. Let's hope Fox lets some of the original work speak for itself.