I Saw the Same Things in the First Half of FANTASTIC FOUR That I Saw in the First Half of TRANSFORMERS Then They Fell Apart
A Daily SuperHero Editorial.
You've probably seen the reviews for FANTASTIC FOUR and how bad most of them are.. But upon further consideration, there is some good things happening in the first half of the movie. Maybe I didn't express that well enough in my review but there is, although not enough to change my review score.
What is good in the first half is the reboot story is of the kids making scientific discovery and the thrills of believing in the impossible being possible. When done right this is a great theme to have in a movie because not only does it get kids to believe anything they do is possible in real life, but it makes many adults feel like a child again too.
This theme is also similar to why the first half of TRANSFORMERS is perhaps the best part of any other movie in that franchise. Both of these films are at their best when leading up to a discovery. For TRANSFORMERS, it's all pre-Autobot arrival when Sam Witwicky is just a kid buying a car which turns out to be an alien robot. Prior to Bumblebee calling his Autobot leader and friends to Earth, the movie flows and has a great sense of wonder. It's when there is no more mystery to discover when the movie falls apart and is all about robots fighting robots without much human emotion attached to the story. (Robots fighting robots were cool to see, but there wasn't much context beyond that.)
FANTASTIC FOUR is no different because once the kids gain their powers after their inter-dimensional adventure is when the movie falls apart. The emotion is quickly gone and it changes into a very military perspective. The stakes change from exploration, wonder and discovery to 'Let's get those powers for military use" and the character development disappears completely.
In both TRANSFORMERS and FANTASTIC FOUR there is a feeling like they are 2 different movies pieced together to form one. Each of their second halves ruin all the good in their respective first halves so much so it's hard to even appreciate what could have been. In my opinion, these two will forever be remembered as the movies that could have been so much more if they continued their focus on the wonder of discovery.
Maybe FANTASTIC FOUR gets a sequel or maybe it gets shelved by Fox and the movie rights revert back to Marvel Studios. Only time will tell. But at least the TRANSFORMERS franchise is actively trying to make better films with Paramount forming a writers room to develop stronger storytelling and a cohesive movie universe. That's moving in the right direction and gives me some hope for the future of the TRANSFORMERS franchise. But I'm not sure I can say I'm as optimistic for the future of FANTASTIC FOUR right now.
Maybe you agree with this assessment or maybe you don't, but I see two films that had potential in the first half but that potential dropped off too much to recover by the time the credits rolled.
[Image source.]
Maybe FANTASTIC FOUR gets a sequel or maybe it gets shelved by Fox and the movie rights revert back to Marvel Studios. Only time will tell. But at least the TRANSFORMERS franchise is actively trying to make better films with Paramount forming a writers room to develop stronger storytelling and a cohesive movie universe. That's moving in the right direction and gives me some hope for the future of the TRANSFORMERS franchise. But I'm not sure I can say I'm as optimistic for the future of FANTASTIC FOUR right now.
Maybe you agree with this assessment or maybe you don't, but I see two films that had potential in the first half but that potential dropped off too much to recover by the time the credits rolled.
[Image source.]