‘The Fantastic Four’ movie — a third time around for Marvel to get it right

The Fantastic Four movie teaser image courtesy of Marvel Studios

There is an upcoming “The Fantastic Four” movie in the works from Marvel Studios. This will be the third time in over 20 years that there will be another attempt to get “Marvel’s First Family” in the movies and get it right this time. For one, rumors are all over, reports are coming in, and then there are the confirmed developments, that accurately will tell what this version of “The Fantastic Four” will be.

There are strong indicators that the setting of this movie “The Fantastic Four” will be in the decade of the early 1960s and not in the present time. And so, this will be decades before the events that have anything to do with the modern-day heroes and villains that everyone knows or is familiar with. at this point.

The teaser-image released by Marvel Studios which features Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) feels right in terms of his casting as the smartest human being in the world.

This has to be said, that historically, “The Fantastic Four” is the most important team of heroes in Marvel. They came before the X-Men and the Avengers.

Many epic battles, world-changing scenarios, and milestones in Marvel Comics began with “The Fantastic Four” because of the cosmic beings that they had battled or crossed paths with. Namely, “Silver Surfer,” “Galactus,” “The Skrulls”, “Kang”, “Thanos”, “Adam Warlock” and “The Watcher,” to mention a few.

Additionally, it was the popularity of “The Fantastic Four” as a comic book that would establish Marvel Comics as a legitimate publishing group for comics and which would likewise ensure their survival for decades to come. The reality is that the late, great Stan Lee and Jack Kirby put everything on the line for The Fantastic Four, and thankfully, it worked out for them.

On a related note, I still remember reading an issue of Wizard magazine as a child during the ’90s, and there was this fascinating column about a little-known, obscure, and low-budget Fantastic Four movie that never got released in cinemas. However, somehow, select footage and photos of it got out and leaked to various comic book communities at the time and Wizard magazine was the first one to write about it.

If it weren’t for that important magazine that was all about comic books, I would have had no idea that as early as in the early ’90s, there was already serious talk about getting a Fantastic Four movie made. But the question was, which movie studio would bankroll it? Because superhero-based movies were not as in-demand as they are right now?

They found one, but the budget was too low to make “The Fantastic Four” movie suitable to be shown in cinemas because the ending result of filming a movie on a very tight budget equalled a film that resembled a B-level Sci-Fi movie with poor special effects. As a result, the said infamous movie became instead a hidden gem or part of Marvel folklore to people at the time because practically no one got to watch it.

Upon reflection, what I saw in that article was that the photos of the actors dressed as The Thing, The Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, and The Invisible Woman were the closest thing to real life as to what they would look like in a live-action movie. Frankly, they look more realistic, life-like, and believable when compared to the past two big-budgeted live-action movies of “The Fantastic Four” that had been made.

The Fantastic Four movie from 1994. Image courtesy of Constantin Film

There are things that CGI and/or special effects cannot beat in an actual person in a comic book accurate costume, makeup, and prosthetics. Plus, that slightly haunting image of Doctor Doom is still very clear in my mind because he looked imposing, menacing, and a real villain to be taken most seriously.

However, decades later, that ill-fated Fantastic Four movie was released on DVD, which I got to watch. It was campy, but it did have a few notable qualities about it that the newer Fantastic Four movies that were made in the 2000s did not have! There was a sincere effort on the part of the actors to do the best they could with the script they had to work with. The storyline was faithful to their comic book origins and the costumes were spot on. And the movie had a lot of heart.

In this year 2024, I hope that this time around, the upcoming Fantastic Four movie from Marvel Studios will do justice to the historical importance of “The Fantastic Four” in Marvel Comics. The moviegoers will have to see with their own two eyes as to why they were called the “First Family of Marvel” in the very first place. And the moviegoers will have to feel it as to why they deserve that moniker as well.

This cannot be another remake or a reboot for the sake of doing one. Absolutely not!

There comes a point that you cannot keep redoing things or trying to rewrite history in the MCU by continually putting out a movie about a specific team that falls short each time because the movie is either boring, too far from its source material, or that the superheroes were portrayed by the wrong actors. Then, it only means you have a problem with the director and/or writers who are unfamiliar with or are not fans of the superheroes they are in charge of recreating in the movies. It can also mean that the actors or some of them are not even familiar with the characters they are portraying, and worst of all, they never even bothered to research their said characters. These are just a couple of various reasons that the movie can flop. I mean, look at what happened with “Madame Web“. Its official trailer was so misleading.

This time–this third time around, mind you–this must be a definitive Fantastic Four movie that will convince everyone that this is a serious movie that should not be overlooked or ignored by anyone. I believe this is the last time that moviegoers–and not only fans of the MCU–will give this Fantastic Four film, one last go!