Fourth Time Is The Charm

It's hard to overstate the importance of the Fantastic Four in comic book history.  They were Stan Lee's new superhero team, introduced in 1961, helping to create a whole new style of realism (well, relative realism) that would sweep through comics. So with Marvel characters making billions in the movies these days--as well as some good films along the way--why hasn't anyone made a good FF movie yet?

That's what I was thinking as I watched the new documentary Doomed!: The Untold Story Of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four.  It turns out a little over twenty years ago, low-budget impresario Corman helped produce an extremely cheap film version.  The people who worked on it tried their best, but it was never to be released (except on bootleg).  Apparently what happened was Constantin Films, the owner of the copyright, had to make something quick before the rights reverted back.  When Marvel saw (or just heard about) the result they were willing to pay the producers a solid profit to never release it, so it could be done right at a later date. Or something like that.



Next came the 2005 Fantastic Four.  Still pretty bad, but without the excuse of no money.  No one was particularly proud of it, but it did enough business to merit a sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.  This one cost more, grossed less and was even worse.



Time for a third attempt. The reboot, Fantastic Four, is on display in cinemas now.  Catch it soon, it won't be around long.  Fans hate it even more than the 2005 version.  Even more than the 1994 version, in fact.  I'm guessing the planned sequel won't materialize.



So what to do?  Well, aren't there four members of the group?  Why not give it a fourth shot?  Sooner or later something's got to work.