OK, so I just got home from Fantastic Four. Let's take a moment to give medals for the spate of Marvel comics movie adaptations:
Gold - the Spider-Man and X-Men films
Silver - Daredevil and Hulk
Bronze - Elektra and the Punisher
Just so you know how I'm ranking things.
Fantastic Four is a solid silver. Most of the elements you like are in there, but it's just not quite enough to push it over the top.
Likes:
- Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. These characters were nailed.
- The humour. Unlike the other Marvel movies, there's a certain humour to these characters resulting in some funny moments. (Not "funny because it's so bad" but "funny because it's funny.")
- the design. Reed Richard's lab in the Baxter Building looks wonderfully patched together.
Dislikes:
- Dr. Doom. Far too much like the Green Goblin in Spider-Man.
- Ioan Gruffad and Jessica Alba. They have no romantic chemistry.
- The "blink and you'll miss it" cameo by Ben Mulroney. Luckily, I blinked. But I spotted his name in the end credits.
All in all, 3 nibs. I'll throw together a review, and I"ll put it up tonight with my War of the Worlds and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reviews.
And now, the big DVD news of the day.
The original, 1933 King Kong is FINALLY coming to DVD! A super-duper 2-disc special edition comes out on November 22. They like to tell us that they've been working on this for two years, and the fact that it's coming out so close to Peter Jackson's remake is purely a coincidence.
Speaking of Jackson, the big announcement about the DVD is that Jackson himself has been putting together bonus material. Peter Jackson directed RKO Production 601: The Making of Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World, a massive 2-hour documentary about the original King Kong.
Other bonus features:
- documentary on direction Merriam C. Cooper
- trailers for other Cooper films
- running commentary by stop-motion animation god Ray Harryhausen, only surviving cast member Terry Moore, and special effects guru Ken Ralston.
That's November 22, people! The original King Kong finally comes to DVD!
Also on that day, the 1976 remake of King Kong comes out.
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