Stuff I’ve Read, Watched, Done – January 2024

Normally, I get to the beginning of a month, and then I try to pull this post together from memory.

This time, I’ve done it a little differently–I tried to keep a record of things that I’d read, watched and done as the month went along. That, combined with the fact that I seemed to have done more than usual, has led this to be a pretty full sort of post.

Entertainment this month has included a bunch of feature films (beyond my normal viewing challenge), which is a category of entertainment that often gets a bit neglected by me. What did I see?

Comic-Con Comic Countdown

So while hanging out in New York over the last little while, my two younger daughters and I got down to Big Apple Con, which was a lot of fun. I wrote about it here.

As is usual for an event like this, I bought a bunch of comics which I have since spent time reading. Here is some commentary on all of it, presented as a countdown. From least to most, how much have I enjoyed everything that I read?

Weekly Geeky Question #39: My Fantastic Four Movie

Every week in 2018, the plan is that my friend Rod is going to ask me some geeky question that will answer in a post. This week is Week #39, we explore a possible direction for Marvel’s first family?

How would I make a “Fantastic Four” movie?

47 Movie Blogs #10 – 8 Film Pet Peeves

Today’s topic is my pet peeves with movie – 8 things that I don’t like in movies, and which I can tend to get on my soapbox about how much they annoy me.

Fantastic Four – My Own Stab At It

Like I said last time, I have one more Fantastic Four-related post in me, and here it is.

Fantastic Four was not a good movie.  I know, it’s a shocking headline, but it’s true.  But how could it have been better?

Of course, lots of reviews and comments have talked about what the problems were.  There’s a lot of talk about studio interference and lack of directorial vision, but for me the critical issue is story.  In so many cases of bad movies, it’s with the story that things fall apart (whoever we blame for that) and that’s true in this case as well.

And so I found myself thinking about how the story could have been improved.  To do so, there are several key issues that needed to be addressed.  First, we needed time for the characters to gel as a team and a family.  Second, we needed the villain(s) to have a clear sense of motivation and purpose.  And finally, we needed a climax that was epic and awesome and thrilling.

So that’s what this post is:  an outline for a Fantastic Four story that I think would have worked better than what we saw.

Waaaait a minute…(one more thing about Fantastic Four)

I know, I know, I was trying to stay positive about Fantastic Four, the recent critically panned and financially unsuccessful adaptation of Marvel’s “first family”, but there was this one thing that struck me when I was watching the film, but forgot about when I was writing about it.  I probably forgot in the face of the overwhelming flood of problems that the last act of the movie had.

Anyway, it was just this – for much of the movie they make a big deal about how environment suits are essential to survive a trip to Planet Zero.  Indeed, that’s Sue Storm’s job with the project.  Everyone who makes the first two visits to this other dimension are well rugged up in special suits.

But in the climactic sequence, the Fantastic Four (as yet unnamed) travel to Planet Zero without any special protection, and hang around, fighting, talking, breathing and whatever else, without any apparent difficulty at all.  No environment suits necessary.  Even if Ben didn’t need them for some reason, surely Reed and Sue still would?

I haven’t noticed anyone else mention it, which means maybe they actually threw out an explanation and I missed it?  Or maybe just another sign of how rushed and not thought through the conclusion of the movie was?

Oh well.  I think I have got one more Fantastic Four post in me, which is an awful lot for a movie that was so forgettable.

Fantastic Four – Really as bad as all that? Um….

Well, I did it.  I went and saw Fantastic Four.  After the reviews started coming out.  After the movie hit single digits on Rotten Tomatoes.  After the move became the superhero film fan’s sacrificial pariah.

My strategy, as I wrote previously, was to try to diminish my expectations so greatly that I couldn’t help but to be pleasantly surprised.

It sort of worked.

Short Lived “Fantastic Four” TV Series from the 60’s

Via another comic book blog, I’ve discovered something sort of extraordinary:  an example of the colossally time wasting labor of love that the internet seems to have been invented for.