I just got back from it and it was one of the worst comic book movies and adaptions I've ever seen. The acting and writing were poor, and even the special effects couldn't make up for the terrible plot. Here's a few things that REALLY bugged me:

1. A space station bombarded by cosmic rays. Yes, I realize this is the F4's original origin, but it just doesn't work in this day and age. They should've used the Ultimate F4's origin, since it incorporates Doom and could have good sequal potential with the N-Zone. The Hulk had to change the origin for it to work, F4 could've done the same.

2. "Dr. Doom," or so he was called in the movie. Because that is NOT Dr. Doom AT ALL. He's a wealthy, American businessman? Dating Sue Storm? From what it sounds like, he's not the genius or sorceror that Doom is AT ALL, nor is he a tenth as clever and diabolical. He's a tad arrogant and vain, but not enough to keep reminding everyone that Reed is smarter than him. He cracks stupid jokes ("Marco polo"?!?!?) and has weird electric powers. Heck, he doesn't even have to lift his hand to shoot them, they just pop out and blow holes through people. And his helmet was just some old thing he had lying around and decided to throw on. It even has ears. And yet he still talks like some jackass instead of having a cool Darth Vader voice that I'd expect. He was a pretty lame threat, seeing as how he didn't do jack squat until the last 10 minutes or so, aside from #### around and whine and be a smartass. What a joke. I'd rather have him have goat legs than this ####.

3. The ending. So let's see... Reed finally makes something that can turn the Thing back, but can't get enough power for it. So here comes Electro in his suit of armor (oh, sorry, that's "Dr. Doom") to trick Thing into changing back to get rid of him. Good trick. Except maybe next time, you might want to blow a hole in him like those other guys instead of just pimp slapping him across the room and saying "one down." And then the Human Torch makes enough heat to destroy the earth(?!?!?), and Invisible Girl makes a force field that can essentially CONTAIN THE SUN! Wow. And then the Thing goes back into the de-powering machine, and gets his powers back... so, essentially, Reed created a machine that can give ANYONE super powers, or at least turn them into a giant rock man. And you don't even need the super power electric juice to make it turn people into super heroes. I guess this amazing machine would explain a lot of origins in comics. "John Doe was looking for a phone booth, but accidently went into Mister Fantastic's super power machine and became Captain Amazing-Man!"

4. "I just got the power to create the heat of the sun... cool, let's go ride bikes." Yeah, at first they paid attention to their new amazing powers, but after the honeymoon of coming back nobody seemed to care. They find out that Johnny can DESTROY THE WORLD, and they just blow it off? Uhhh... if I found out someone had the power to destroy the world by just pushing his powers a little bit further, I'd probably want to get rid of that guy as fast as possible, or at least contain him. A very impulsive and show off guy who can destroy the world... sounds great! Heck, he's more of a threat than "Dr. Doom." And then the Invisible Girl has the power at the end to contain the power of the sun, and just gets a nosebleed? I'd watch out for her too.

Not to mention Sue is dating Victor for two years and he's about the propose to her, and then she just blows it all off for the boyfriend who couldn't commit from two years ago? Forgot the savvy, rich Victor, let's go with the nerdy, workaholic. Thing's characterization was great, but it seems very odd that he'd not want to go back to normal when he has the chance standing right in front of him at the end. Just because some blind girl likes how rocks feel, I'd still want to be normal. The villain's beaten, so he doesn't need to be the Thing anymore. Heck, if a villain came back he could just go back in it and get super powers again, lickity split. They should've and could've easily based the movie off of the first 12 issues of Ultimate Fantastic Four. It just disappoints me even more when they had the chance to make a great movie. With X-Men 3 going through every possible problem imaginable, it doesn't look good for Marvel movies.

I will say that I liked the special effects for the F4's powers, some of Torch's joking around, the Thing's suit, and seeing Jessica Alba in her underwear (so all I have to do to get Jessica Alba to strip is to tell her to turn completely invisible? Hmmm...). But other then that, this movie was garbage. I wished I had just gone and seen Batman Begins again. I'm sure there will be plenty of people who disagree with me, so "flame on."

I feel sorry for you. The fact that these little things can ruin a movie for you. I admit there were some plot-holes, but it was still a good movie. But while I disagree with your statements, I accept them as your opinions, except for this:

How the hell can you say the acting was terrible? So Sue was a bit more aggressive, everyone still did great!

The lines seemed very forced and awkward most of the time. Sue being more aggressive didn't bother me (I hardly noticed it).

I don't let little things ruin movies for me, but these weren't little things. They were what the entire movie was made up of.

I precieve things like that as little things. Whatever, you have your views, I have mine.

Well I really enjoyed it.

Seriously, I can't believe that you're complaining that they stuck to their true origin. Whenever it's at all possible, movies ought to stick to the true comic book origins IMO. This is just silly.

Sure, it's a little far-fetched, but not nearly as far fetched as the loony Ultimate Origin you're suggesting (at least space stations do exist- portals to other dimensions are pure science fiction), and the very idea of a guy who catches on fire without being hurt by it is even moreso. People need to expect it to be far-fetched, with these guys, as there's simply no possible way to make it seem believeable like Batman Begins (or even X-men to some degree). The Fantastic Four is pure fantasy, and the space station is one of the least 'fantastic' elements in the movie. Personally I really liked it though, since it gave them that 'cosmic' feel that they should have.

On this one I agree with you. Doom should've been a lot more impressive. I can't see how you would prefer the goat legs though? Essentially this WAS Ult Dr. Doom, just with normal legs and lacking Ult Doom's other wacky powers (like poison breath). Still I'm willing to overlook Doom since they did the four so well.

Well I don't see everyone jumping in line to use it, since it seems it could have any kind of random effect on you. And Reed can't turn you back unless he has a mega-amount of power. But- you're right, I wish that the machine had shorted out after Thing turned back, so he was trapped again and Reed didn't have it (I guess he could build another one though )

It's not like Reed is a government watchdog or anything, who is paranoid about others. Why would he want to 'contain' Johnny- he's a friend, and he's stuck in the same situation. For all he knows, all of their powers might be capable of destroying the world.

Clearly there's a lot more to it than that. Reed is changing his priorities throughout the story, while Doom is a total jerk. Are you honestly suggesting that she'd be better of with Victor? Seriously man.

I do kind of agree, although there is of course the power limitations for the machine. I don't think it's as simple as just stepping back in it. But it is rather odd, and quite a departure from the comics. Made sense in the story of the movie though (Ben realises he needs to be the Thing for the greater good).

Uh! I can't believe you just said that. No wonder I am disagreeing with you overall. Ult F4 had great potential, but it was an enormous departure from the 616 F4. Doom in that was much much worse than the movie one, and the Four were all extremely YOUNG in the story. We don't need more teen superhero movies (we've already got the Spider-man movies and kinda the X-movies for that). When Doom started spewing poison out his mouth, I totally dropped that book and haven't looked back since.

That enough flamage for you? Actually, I did agree with you on a couple of points (Doom, which is fairly major, and the machine, which is quite minor).

I'm a huge Dr. Doom fan (best villain in comics IMO) so seeing him as such a scrub hurt a lot of the movie for me. I realized they weren't going to have the amazing Doom of the comics, but I didn't think they'd make a guy who was more like the Green Goblin from the Spider-Man movie than Doom himself. And while Ultimate Dr. Doom had some bad things about him, he still had a Dr. Doom personality. He just wasn't as much of a huge mastermind, but more of a psycho.

I like 616 F4 as well as Ultimate F4, but the Ultimate series does a good job of modernizing the F4 origin and bringing a good Dr. Doom into the series quickly, which is what the movie could have used. I know lots of people hate it, but the F4's origin is rooted deeply into the Cold War and the space race (imagine someone stealing a spaceship today to fly to meet cosmic rays with your girlfriend, your best friend, and your girlfriends brother). Looking back, they did a fairly good job with using space, but having Doom fund it and be dating Sue just seemed very odd.

I did not particularly like it either. The Doom stuff did not bother me. But, I had problems with the miscalculation. It was mentioned later. I thought that perhaps Doom would turn out to be the person who sabotaged the mission. But, nothing really came of it. Even if Reed had said, "It was my faulty, Oopsy!!" I would have been fine with that.

I really liked both Johnny and Ben. I was waiting for Ben to call him matchstick but he never did. It was fun to watch their scenes together. The The scenes with Sue and Reed were not always fun to watch. But, Jessica Alba is hot so I managed.

I did not like the machine that allowed Ben to turn back at all. It does not seem like anyone would have hopped back into the machine to turn themselves back into a rock monster.

I did like the scenes with Johnny flying through the city as well. That might have been my favorite part of the movie. It looked great.

The problem is that I thought the movie would be great. I have been waiting with bated breath since I saw the first trailer. I thought it would be the best movie of the year. This anticipation is what I think let me down the most. It was still a decent movie to watch. I do not regret seeing the movie or consider it a waste of money. It just wasn't what I had hoped it would be.

Well, I didn't like the Doom so much, but I'm guessing that they changed him so much so he wouldn't seem like a copy of Syndrome for all the noobs out there.

If Reed could have built a machine to recreate the cosmic cloud, why the heck did they go to space at all?

The part about the movies that I hated the most was that we didn't get a "RRIICCCHHHAAAAAAAARRDDDSSSS!!!!" out of Doom.

But I think it is set up nicely for sequels.

Overall I really liked the movie, though.

BTW, is this Stan's longest movie role yet?

Well, I thought the movie was ok but I think bats was way better and I love the FF4 so that pains me to say that. I didnt like how long it took Doom to be Doom..i mean..he picked up his mask at a store?? I didnt like how they made Reed seem..i dont know..not as smart as he really is. He should of created unstable molecules..not the cloud! That machine..yeah..dumb. I'd of liked it more if Doom tricked Thing into going in there just to get his power, not cure Thing. But...i think it was still pretty good. Thing was played sweet..w/ his depression and what not. Johny was great. The best part was def the end when Reed becomes Reed and leads the team the Fantastic Four really becomes the Fantastic Four. I'm playing too much clix when I think of brilliant tactician as Reed tells Johny to go nova and then tells sue to barrier it, then makes thing give him water...etc etc. I loved that part. I still liked the movie though, even though there were parts i wasnt happy abt. I think the batman movie was better though..ugh..i hate saying that

To Victor Von Doom

From the people of Latveria

Yup, the people of Latveria is a store

Its next door to the Banana Republic.



bah - dum - bum!

Well, I enjoyed the movie, btu I had a lot of problems with it, but not the same problems.

My major beef with the movie is that it was all windup and no pitch. The fight scene with Doom was horribly anticlimatic. Doom was indeed lame in the final battle.

I liked the banter, I liked the origin, I even thought the Doom/Reed/Sue triangle was OK (although I was taken abaxk by it). Sue did say there was no "me and Victor" so I am not even sure they were really dating, or if it was just an attraction thing.

And for all the people who say "why woudl Ben turn back willingly?" Well, that was a major story early in the FF's own mag. Ben decides to revert to the Thing in order to stop some menace, knowing it'll be permanent. I agree they handled it badly. It seemed like a lot of clarifying bits of story got left on the cutting room floor.

I didnt mind the movie at all. It was better than elektra and catwoman but so far below batman begins. I didnt like the rubber suit on thing. when alicia touched his face his hole face moved. not very solid if you ask me.

That wasn't Doom. It was someone who looked a little like Doom and pirated his name, but it wasn't Doom.

That aside, I enjoyed it. It was no Batman Begins or X2 but how many comic moves can really say that? It was fun, exciting and most of the character (RE: Reed, Ben, Johnny) were portrayed very well. Evens and Chiklis absolutely nailed Johnny and Ben. It was 100 times better then Elektra or Hulk and worth seeing.