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Fantastic Four II - Rise of the Silver Surfer

Goose

By Goose
in Film, TV & Radio

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  • 4 weeks later...
CarloOos

CarloOos

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You know what I love about that trailer? They show all the team engaging in epic moments with their powers, Jonny Storm fighting with the Silver Surfer in mid-air, the Thing picking up the London eye, and then...biggest setpiece yet...Mr Fantastic stretching to pick something off his desk!!! Complete with epic music and everything.

That shit's gonna be unreal, yo.

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  • 2 weeks later...
JohnC

JohnC

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Surfer spinoff being planned already. Supposedly being taken in a darker direction than this movie.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...1&cset=true

Requires registration, so here's the article.

Next 'Silver Surfer': Make it gnarly

Fans tend to think a PG 'Fantastic Four' is wimpy. So maybe the silver guy's spinoff will be edgier.

By Jay A. Fernandez, Special to The Times

June 13, 2007

Feeling bullish on the eve of the release of its "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," Fox has already put a feature spinoff into development that will star the enigmatic Surfer, with J. Michael Straczynski currently crafting the screenplay.

Despite lackluster reviews, the first "Fantastic Four" raked in $329 million worldwide, apparently a result of its appeal to younger viewers. So the sequel, which opens Friday with a story by John Turman and Mark Frost and a screenplay by Frost and "Simpsons" writer Don Payne, has skewed its tone even softer. This has resulted in a PG rating, which has provoked a disgusted outcry from fans online who churlishly point out that even Harry Potter is now too gritty for 11-year-olds.

They may have a point, given that this film ostensibly features a Christ-like harbinger of doom like the Surfer and Galactus, a God-like destroyer of worlds whose rep may be a little inflated. Reports from the project's development indicate that the producers kept trying to purge Galactus entirely from early versions of the screenplay.

Well, perhaps the studio has heard the negative static, since it apparently hopes to spin the new Surfer franchise in a darker direction to attract the slightly older demographic of its X-Men films. If so, Straczynski, whose original screenplay "The Changeling" is on director Clint Eastwood's slate, is a logical pick for the Surfer story line.

A longtime writer of television science fiction on "The Twilight Zone" and "Babylon 5," Straczynski has also spent much of the last few years writing for Marvel Comics on properties like "Amazing Spider-Man" and "Thor" (also in development with a Mark Protosevich screenplay and "Layer Cake's" Matthew Vaughn reportedly negotiating to direct). Straczynski recently penned 15 issues of Fantastic Four for Marvel, and the first issue of his "Silver Surfer: Requiem" series just published last month, with three more in the works.

Seems like Straczynski's on the rise too.

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JohnC

JohnC

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I don't believe there are really any spoilers here, just non-specific talk about the movie.

I quite enjoyed that. But I knew almost nothing about the Silver Surfer or Galactus beforehand, so I can't say how they compare to comics. I had seen a moan about news that Galactus would only barely be in it, which is true. But I think he (it?) is in it enough. With something as big and powerful as Galactus, I think more screen time would lessen the impact. What's he going to do? Float idly by the planet for half an hour throwing rocks at chavs?

I liked the Surfer too. Never knew his background so didn't know how his story was going to play out.

I also had the added bonus of seeing the very first screening at a brand new cinema, so everything was fresh and clean and smelling of new. Nice.

Apart from some cheesy jokes, which I can forgive in a movie like this, the only thing I was unimpressed with was the Fantasticar, I believe I saw it called earlier in the thread, although that name wasn't used in the movie. I didn't like what I saw of it in the trailers. I think it just looks a bit crap. And in the movie proper, it wasn't helped by it being covered on Dodge logos, which just seems totally wrong for something Richards was supposed to have built himself.

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Nick R

Nick R

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Apart from some cheesy jokes, which I can forgive in a movie like this, the only thing I was unimpressed with was the Fantasticar, I believe I saw it called earlier in the thread, although that name wasn't used in the movie. I didn't like what I saw of it in the trailers. I think it just looks a bit crap. And in the movie proper, it wasn't helped by it being covered on Dodge logos, which just seems totally wrong for something Richards was supposed to have built himself.

Well, if Doc Brown can build a time machine out of a DeLorean... :)

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JohnC

JohnC

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Well, if Doc Brown can build a time machine out of a DeLorean... :)

But that was an existing car which he modified. This is a totally new and unique creation. And if I was building a flying vehicle, I wouldn't be going to Dodge if I needed help. Maybe Boeing or Lockheed or someone like that. But that wouldn't make as good product placement, eh?

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noizu

noizu

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Well, just seen it - it's a huge improvement over the first one, which is a start. Actually I enjoyed it - yeah it's still pretty light in tone for a film with a world-ending threat hanging over it, but the humour is better than in the original (still very broad though) and seeing as the FF's powers are generally a bit more cartoonish than some other comic characters, I think they got a better handle on them this time around. I remember a big criticism of the first one being that The Incredibles did a better job of doing Fantastic Four powers than their own movie did... this one is a lot more inventive with them. Still not as good a film as Incredibles, it has to be said.

Really liked how they handled the Surfer. Yeah, Terminator 2 kind of takes some of the novelty off seeing the Silver Surfer on the big screen, but his movement on the board, the way they managed to give him soulful expressions without giving him normal eyes (was afraid they'd try to do that) and the minimal dialogue all really worked for me. Laurence Fishbourne's voice wasn't too recognisable either, and I quite liked

the way they did his 'powered down' dull state.

Doom's better, still not great. Weird when you think how heavily Darth Vader's design was influenced by Doc Doom's costume, and how impressive he looked onscreen - they just can't seem to get Doom looking as good. Didn't think they should have

healed his scars, he works so much better scarred and masked. I know it was done to show off their star, but still...

Liked that for once it wasn't just the end of the world in America. A decent amount of globetrotting.

Galactus - always going to be a hard one to realise - I thought it was a fair attempt at getting the whole cosmic-danger thing across.

I missed the old tuning-forks though. There's something going on at the end when the Surfer confronts him - I thought I could make out some sort of face but it all moves too quickly to see clearly. A silhouette of the head with the forks, or the square-pupil eyes inside all of that energy stuff would've made me happy. But still, the cosmic-storm thing looked better than i expected

I'd happily watch it again, anyway. Couldn't say the same after the previous one....

And no idea why they plastered Jessica Alba with so much make-up, it's like they forgot there's a good-looking girl under all that stuff

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Beertiger

Beertiger

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I've loved all the superhero flicks up until now. Yes that includes the Hulk! This however was just atrocious. The best thing that can be said about it is that it's well paced and short. It's a shame there's zero substance at all, about the same amount of Galactus too.

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McCoy

McCoy

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Marvel comics, in general, were always for kids.

So, is this film as terrible as suggested?

Nah, I saw it last night and it's a really good film I thought. Unlike Spidey 3 and POTC 3 the length was great and it was just a simple fun popcorn comic book movie that didn't strive for any loftier ideas and goals.

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McCoy

McCoy

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It wasn't Ratner's fault, it was the writing that was the letdown.

Exactly. Ratner came in at the last minute and filmed a very competant action film. The main problem with X3 was the script was not really up to the job and perhaps most of all that FOX would not postpone to fix the problems and were only concerned about beating Superman to the punch line. It would have been better for everyone if Warner and Fox to have co-operated so they could both get Singer to direct rather than trying to one up each other.

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noizu

noizu

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Anyone else see the full-size Surfer models they're using to promote the film? The cinema I saw the film in yesterday had one, it's a lovely piece. I envy the bastard who's got dibs on that one...

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linkster

linkster

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Nah, I saw it last night and it's a really good film I thought. Unlike Spidey 3 and POTC 3 the length was great and it was just a simple fun popcorn comic book movie that didn't strive for any loftier ideas and goals.

That's kinda true. It was hokey in the way a comic book should be, I hated how seriously Spidey movies take themselves. It was however only mildly entertaining, very much a kids movie, with the last gag of whole thing the only time I actually LOLd.

One thing bugged me more than anything though. I used to love the cartoon and I remember how Ben so resented what happened to him. Wouldn't he be a bit more miffed to find he COULD turn back only to have it taken away?

Overall, makes me think of a badly written Day The Earth Stood Still.

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Alky

Alky

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I went to see it friday night, was entertaining for a marvel film although for me CGI was OTT in given areas, won't spoil it for most but even in a comic and science fiction film it can seem stupid sometimes the story line, as many others have said, isn't to long, timing is just right but the end was typical for a sequel also don't you hate it when the yanks always save the day and no other country has anything to do with it in helping, wish they made an indian film where thay saved the day of african film where they went into outer space and saved the world LOL would be entertaining I think.

worth a watch overall just for the cinematic feel, I still think X-men 2 is the best marvel so far, well for me anway.

Dean

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JohnC

JohnC

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don't you hate it when the yanks always save the day and no other country has anything to do with it in helping

It's a Fantastic Four movie. What do you want? An Indian version of the Fantastic Four?

Anyway,

it was really an alien that saved our asses. They just had to persuade him to do it.

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