No! No! Baaaaaaad Marvel Comics!

[Mistwell]

I am MUCH more concerned about Galactus appearing as a friggen CLOUD rather than as a giant purple humanoid!

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Movie marketing = careful balancing act between appealing to the fans of the franchise in its original form and attracting new fans who are only going to see the movie.

Example: I could never make myself sit down and read Lord of the Rings. Just couldn't do it. Loved the movies.

Example 2: Only casually read comic books over the years. Have enjoyed the Spider-man movies, the X-men movies, FF, even Daredevil. Couldn't stand Hulk...but, the Hulk-Poodles may have had something to do with that.

Movie makers HAVE to muck with the mythology a bit in order to attract movie-goers. Spider-man shoots web out of his wrists. The die-hard comic purist says, "Hey, that's not how it's supposed to be!" The movie-goer who has seen Spider-man on his kids shoes or backpack or something says, "Well, ok, so he gets bitten by this spider and now can do spider stuff like shoot webs and climb walls. Ok, that makes sense, I guess." The science buff says, "Hey, shouldn't he be shooting those webs out of his butt?"

So...it's a movie. Let it be a movie, not a comic book. Comic book stories, as written, don't make good movies.

 

[LightPhoenix]

And yet again...in the comics, Sue and Johnny have had their powers switched before. It is NOT a slight against the comics to switch them. There IS a precedent for it.

There IS precedent for it, I don't disagree. It is in the scope of SS's powers as well, no question.

However, the whole "herald of galactus" storyline is not where that happened. If they weren't taking on a pretty iconic story, and a pretty big piece of FF mythology, it wouldn't be a big deal. If they weren't making a big push for the SS/Galactus aspect, it wouldn't be a big deal. However, they are, they're representing it as that story. If they feel that the story isn't interesting enough to stand on it's own, they shouldn't be doing it. If they want to make up a random story, like they did with X-Men or Spiderman, that'd be fine. If they want to stay true to the source material, like Batman Begins, that's fine too. However, taking an iconic story and screwing with it just doesn't work.

 

[Crothian]

I'd also be willing to bet that they deal with Galactus in a way really different from the comic book since there were so many elements going on in that storyline they are not including here.

The switching of powers seemed to me to serve as a comical part of the movie.

 

[werk]

BTW I happen to love the first movie, I guess that is why I'm the extended version of it and most likely watching FF4 2 in the theater like 4 times.

Ditto, I didn't see it in theatres, but that's true of me with most movies. Saw it on cable, and at this point I watch it most times I see it on. Please don't badmouth something that you have little to no personal experience, it lowers peoples' respect for your opinion.

Didn't superman have a baby's momma in his last movie? This seems a rather small liberty compared to that.

 

[Henry]

My point is: it's a movie. Don't over-think the origin of the plot, just go enjoy the movie as a movie.

That's pretty much my take on it as well. The movie makers will muck around with the plot and specifics as they want or need to; as long as they capture the feel of the genre and the characters, that's all that matters to me. It's why I wound up liking -- nay, enjoying the first FF movie. They succeeded in capturing the personalities and interactions of the characters I grew up with. First and foremost, the FF is a family, and they managed to make it show through the movie - their squabbles, their learning to live together, their acceptance of one another, and (I gotta say) I enjoyed the showing of the FF as accepted heroes to the general public, as they usually were in the comics.

I remember power-switching in the original comics, and I seem to recall it in some various What-If type stories, too; it's within the genre, and therefore cool to me. Peter Parker may have been bitten by a gene-altered spider, but the core of the character (geek who becomes cool and learns there's responsibilities with it) wasn't tampered with. Gwen Stacy? They really tampered with her, and I disliked that part of Spider-Man 3; but overall, it still didn't mangle the genre too much.

Heck, they REALLY mangled Lord of the Rings, when you get down to it -- but they didn't touch the core of the story, and it's popularity bore that out.

So far, I'm liking what I see about FF2, and hopefully it'll be successful enough for a FF3 - I'm not looking for Doctor Zhivago, just a cool summer movie.

 

[Nightfall]

*five*

Well at least no one is trying to make a "Civil War" movie based on what the Comics did.

Now a Thor movie, THAT would be cool, especially if it was Thor/Hulk throw down.

 

[WayneLigon]

I am MUCH more concerned about Galactus appearing as a friggen CLOUD rather than as a giant purple humanoid!

From IESB - April 21

Today in an interview from IESB.net, Avi Arad laughed at the rumor and said we will see more than a cloud and we "will have enough Galactus to rejoice."

IESB: We talked about it earlier today, the announcement of Laurence Fishburne being the voice of the Silver Surfer, Fox has said that they don’t know if Galactus will even have a voice, can we address the rumor that Galactus is a giant cloud or something like that, is there any truth to those rumors?
Arad: You know, that’s why they call them rumors (laughter), you will see more than a cloud, you will have enough Galactus to rejoice (laughter).

 

[Umbran]

However, taking an iconic story and screwing with it just doesn't work.

To each their own, I suppose. The fact is that there's a long history of retelling stories in altered fashion. Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" became the Laurents/Bernstein/Sondheim musical West Side Story. And other Shakespeare gets mangled all the time.

Arthurian Legend gets mangled. Robin Hood gets twisted and retold. Greek and any other mythology - same thing. Why should comic stories be any different?

Heck, Marvel does it to themselves - certainly, the Ultimate X-Men title are the old iconic stories that have been mucked with to some level or other. Why should the movies be different?

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I am MUCH more concerned about Galactus appearing as a friggen CLOUD rather than as a giant purple humanoid!

This is a screengrab from one of the TV spots they showed(I believe it was the one during the Heroes finale a few weeks back):

There IS precedent for it, I don't disagree. It is in the scope of SS's powers as well, no question.

However, the whole "herald of galactus" storyline is not where that happened. If they weren't taking on a pretty iconic story, and a pretty big piece of FF mythology, it wouldn't be a big deal. If they weren't making a big push for the SS/Galactus aspect, it wouldn't be a big deal. However, they are, they're representing it as that story. If they feel that the story isn't interesting enough to stand on it's own, they shouldn't be doing it. If they want to make up a random story, like they did with X-Men or Spiderman, that'd be fine. If they want to stay true to the source material, like Batman Begins, that's fine too. However, taking an iconic story and screwing with it just doesn't work.

Funny thing is about the trailers is that pretty much every single action scene has the four with their normal powers and not the switched ones. The power switching looks to be played for two reasons: Comedy and a nod to Super Skrull.

Note that Reed DOES say "temporarily switch powers", and the trailers are showing this in the action scenes NOT having the powers switched. In fact, the only action scene with a power switch is actually a combination of powers...Johnny using Thing-style arm with flames over it.

*five*

Well at least no one is trying to make a "Civil War" movie based on what the Comics did.

Now a Thor movie, THAT would be cool, especially if it was Thor/Hulk throw down.

I actually enjoyed Civil War...but I'm a Marvel junkie. Despite all the problems with bringing it to screen(say...most every major Marvel character being involved), it would all be worth it to see Cap beat the snot out of Iron Man.