Why the Fantastic Four Hate?

Much like that time I just knew Jae Millz and Knoc-turn'al were going to be the best things, I have missed the mark with a pop culture phenomenon.

It's not like I haven't gone against popular opinion before.  It's not like I haven't had to stick up for movies before.  But this feels different.  This feels like I'm in an episode of The Twilight Zone... Black Mirror just ain't that good even if Dr. Doom's episode was dope!... sorry, more unpopular opinions.  Anyway, to be plain, I find myself alone in not hating Fantastic Four.

Everyone wanted this movie to fail for some reason.  Well multiple reasons.  There was that awesome argument about keeping characters white... because, and I know you're not racist, but, you just think that an actor shouldn't be allowed to take certain roles because of the colour of his ski... wait a minute... let me look up racist again...

Then everyone got riled up when a character's last name was changed.  Because, as a person who has met at least 17 Von Doom's in my life I want to know what's wrong with a character who grew up in New York in present day keeping the name Von Doom!

Once everyone was finished preying on the changes to the source material (which, admittedly, was happening all over the place) the hate moved on to the guy who brought us Chronicle.  Hating Fox doesn't count.  That got played out once they sewed the mouth up of a character whose name is "the merc with a mouth."

That was all just before the movie came out.  Now that the movie is out, I don't even think people are reviewing this movie based on what's on the screen.  Everyone went into this knowing the whispers of Josh Trank not getting along with the studio, Simon Kinberg or even Matthew Vaughn doing re-writes. This movie wasn't just a bit beat up when it hit the screen, it was DOA.

I'm not here to say this movie is the movie event of the summer and you'd be silly to not go see it.  It is a deeply flawed movie. But, flaw for flaw, is this movie that much more flaw filled than movies that went on to become the 3rd highest grossing film? 

This movie isn't for everyone and there's a good chance that the trailer will let you know if it's the type of movie you'd like to see.  Nope not the current ones with Kanye bumping in them.  I mean the first trailer that felt like Interstellar but with kids and the ribs guy/Carcetti's right hand man.

see what I mean?

If I wanted to be flip, I could say, this movie didn't even spoil all the good parts in the trailer, because almost half of the trailer footage isn't even in the movie.  However, if I may ask a serious question, what was so wrong with this movie?  It wanted to do something new and by the end of it I wanted to see what was next.  Whether or not that was because the movie is too short and was just getting to the actual super hero movie part is irrelevant.  The point is the movie made me want to watch more.

I feel like people went into this movie knowing exactly how they wanted to feel about it and Anyone calling this a cookie cutter superhero movie is wrong.  It is nothing like a superhero film.  Despite what Josh will tell you on Kevin Smith's podcast, it's not even about family.  This movie is about exploration.  It's about what happens when you get more than you bargained for and I liked the departure from the norm even if it did fall a bit short.

If you wanted to see Marvel's first family go up against Dr. Doom, then yeah I can see this being a disappointing movie.  We don't get the Fantastic Four from the comics, granted.  But, who actually wanted that?  Seriously, those comics don't sell.

How off does the criticism of this movie feel to me?  I've seen people complain that the four only get their powers because they essentially take their teleportation device for a joy ride one drunken night.  Why that baffles me is that in the movie that moment is completely earned.  A bunch of TEENAGERS (and maybe an early 20s Latverian) have committed to engineering a device that can take them to another dimension and then are abruptly told that someone else will take over from there and that they will be footnotes.  Yeah I might have a drink too and start getting some crazy ideas. 

Even, in a vacuum, if I told you that two hot heads and a guy who's out to pursue validation from anyone got drunk one night and chose to test out the machine they'd built before it was taken away from them, I don't believe you'd balk at the idea.

My point is, without droning on for much longer, that this movie seems to be unfairly bashed for some reason.  It's like a 6/10 at best.  Not offensive enough to warrant the hate it's currently getting.  I accept that it has awkward pacing after the first act.  I accept that the CGI is bad and the villain was almost nonexistent.  However, I still feel out of the loop.  What sin did this movie commit?  Did everyone just jump at the chance to trash this movie at the first sign of weakness based on the terrible press it got and this amazing tweet.

You know things are bad when the director of the movie can't even wait till the end of opening day to trash the movie.   This just serves to make me feel even more alienated.  How am I the only one who doesn't hate this movie?  What did I miss?

-YG