SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Hello all, I'd like to start my first post with one simple question.....
Anyone remember these guys?
Not the fact that they exist, but what happened in them. I recall that the first one was basically the origin story and that they also had to stop doctor doom from doing.......something, most likely killing them. And then in the second one the silver surfer showed up to help stop Galactus.....I think.
I'm going to level with you here, I haven't watched these movies in forever and have no desire to watch them again (unless its 2 am and it's the only thing on Peachtree TV.) They were both pretty bad and the second one almost made Jessica Alba quit acting.
Luckily though, Fox realized this and recently announced a reboot. Everything we know about the film so far has been compiled here. I have to admit, aside from some strange casting choices (Miles Teller as Reed Richards, really? He was that good in The Spectacular Now? (Note: I reserve the right to change my opinion if I watch said film)) I actually thought this could have potential. Hell they even got the guy who directed Chronicle (which if you haven't yet watch it it's fucking awesome) to helm the film. He made not only a great superpower origin movie (yes I mean superpower instead of superhero, no it's not a spoiler it's in the freaking trailers) it was also a great found footage movie, a genre that had been getting kicked over and over again by a slew of increasingly bad horror films (We're looking at you Paranormal activity 2 onwards.) I could go on and on about Chronicle (and if they make a sequel I will indeed do just that) but I'm more to talk about the fact that Chronicle was a found footage movie and it's relation to the new Fantastic Four (hey I tied it back together!)
According to the Weekly Ketchup, the weekly news article of rottentomatoes.com, the most rotten story of the week (which is at the bottom of the page) was the fact that the Fantastic Four reboot will likely have "found footage elements."
Yep, you read that right, "found footage elements."
......Why?.....Why?!.....WHY?!!
According to the articles, it's because that's what director Josh Trank had in Chronicle. While I'll admit that both movies are about people dealing with new powers, the found footage aspect of it for Chronicle was not only unique, but fit so well into how the movie actually plays out! If you want to have the Fantastic Four be a found footage movie YOU'RE BASICALLY DOING A REMAKE OF CHRONICLE!
And it wouldn't even be a good remake because you'd be missing one of the key elements of Chronicle that made it work so well.
(Spoiler Alert) In Chronicle, the main character films everything before and after he and his two friends gain their powers, which includes telekinesis. A big problem with found footage movies is that one person is either always holding the camera, or it's on a still shot because it's on a table or a tripod or something. The main character spends a lot of time alone which would've meant just a bunch boring still shots. When he was with his friends, for some shots you'd only be able to see one of them talking the entire time, which again is boring.
But guess what? Since the main character had telekinesis, he could make the camera float, thus completely eliminating the need for him to be holding the camera at certain points, and allowing for better shots to happen during emotional scenes.
One of the best examples of it in the film is when two of them are having a serious conversation on a rooftop corner. Imagine only being able to see one half of an emotional conversation, it would completely pull all of the emotion out of the scene. Do you know how they got around it? By having him do this with the camera.
It's an awesome fucking shot that makes sense not only in the film, but also in making the film itself. I think it's pretty fucking clever myself, and even if you don't care about the technical aspects of it it's still just a cool shot and a great scene anyways.
For the superpower aspect of it, NO ONE ON THE FANTASTIC FOUR TEAM HAS TELEKINESIS (as far as I know.) And even if they did, what possible fucking reason would any of them need to be carrying around a camera at all times?! If they get someone else to do it then they're just going to be a one off character that we would be spending most of our time following. And all the battle scenes? they'd turn into Cloverfield style glimpses of the battle while the character holding the camera would have to run from place to place and the whole thing would look like shit.....also like Cloverfield (I really hate Cloverfield.) Hell Chronicle managed to show you the whole final battle (which you can watch the footage of here) while still using cameras in the film itself. There's no fucking way a whole Fantastic Four movie would work like this without either potentially messing with the lore (if you don't count who they cast as Johnny Storm which I think is an awesome choice he was great in Chronicle) or jamming in a bunch of contrived bullshit reasons for them to be surrounded by cameras constantly.
Now, I will say this. There is one silver lining.
They said found footage elements, not that the whole movie is going to be found footage. So there may only be a few found footage style scenes. I can think of only one that could potentially be really awesome.
You can read the whole story here but the short version of how the Fantastic Four gain their powers is that they get launched into space and are exposed to cosmic radiation.
A good found footage style scene of that, by a guy whose already proven he can do the style excellently, would be a (no pun intended) fantastic way to start the film and also get you emotionally involved within just the opening minutes. There is potential for true greatness in a scene like that. To carry the found footage aspect any farther than that would only lead to the kind of problems I mentioned before.
I was really hopeful for the new fantastic four movie. I love the Marvel Movies, and while I don't know Fantastic Four as well as I'd like, this could be the film that leads me to wanting me and others to want to know more about them. If it fails, even with a sequel already announced, (Its mentioned in one of the articles above) a really bad reboot film still could bring the franchise to a complete halt. And after this announcement, I'm still crossing my fingers, but I'm no longer holding my breath.
So there you go, my first post. Sorry it's mostly just text, I'll be formatting how show and tell all this stuff as I go.
Hope you enjoyed it, and I might post more soon.
Good bye, for now.
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