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[B-Dubs]

Doom is incredibly hard to write well if you're going for a "serious" villain, because Doom is inherently comedic. He's a dork in a Medieval looking suit of armor that speaks in the third person, owns a vaguely European nation, has a massive ego, and also built an army of robots that look just like him. On top of all that, he's a guy that named himself "Dr. Doom", so having absolutely no self-awareness must be part of his character.

If you were to make more of an action-comedy film for the F4 and have Doom be the villain in the same fashion Loki was, then you could have a great depiction of him, but any attempt to make Doom "serious" will most likely fail miserably.

The FF aren't a grim and gritty, serious type property at all though. Even at their most serious, there's still a sense of levity balancing it out. You can't treat them like Batman and do a Dark Knight, it's more Indiana Jones in space. Trying to do a serious version of the characters just shows that the writers and everyone involved didn't get why the property works.

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

Doom is incredibly hard to write well if you're going for a "serious" villain, because Doom is inherently comedic. He's a dork in a Medieval looking suit of armor that speaks in the third person, owns a vaguely European nation, has a massive ego, and also built an army of robots that look just like him. On top of all that, he's a guy that named himself "Dr. Doom", so having absolutely no self-awareness must be part of his character.

If you were to make more of an action-comedy film for the F4 and have Doom be the villain in the same fashion Loki was, then you could have a great depiction of him, but any attempt to make Doom "serious" will most likely fail miserably.

Keep the stuff that would work in live action, and ditch or modify the stuff that wouldn't.

He doesn't have to refer to himself in the third person

 

[DonasaurusRex]

Doom is incredibly hard to write well if you're going for a "serious" villain, because Doom is inherently comedic. He's a dork in a Medieval looking suit of armor that speaks in the third person, owns a vaguely European nation, has a massive ego, and also built an army of robots that look just like him. On top of all that, he's a guy that named himself "Dr. Doom", so having absolutely no self-awareness must be part of his character.

If you were to make more of an action-comedy film for the F4 and have Doom be the villain in the same fashion Loki was, then you could have a great depiction of him, but any attempt to make Doom "serious" will most likely fail miserably.

if he were powerless and in truth was a fraud yes he would be hard to write for and would be a joke. However ...he actually is capable of the bravado he spouts, that's kind of the whole point, he's the villain that has everything it takes to be the ultimate hero. I think they tried serious doom in this recent FF4. No one wants to see a serious Doom whoever that is, they want to see someone so crazy about his fate, that he saw a small scar as a fully disfigured face and sealed himself within a mask while it was still red hot.

But go ahead and try again if you want, make another failure.

 

[Cuburt]

My take on the FF would be similar to MIB.

I don't mean the premise of MIB exactly, though it definitely is a great film to take notes from, but more terms of how that film tackled the tone. Have the world be normal enough and played straight, but then the cosmic/otherworldly stuff can be more fantasy, fun, and comedic and the characters don't act like the weird stuff is so kooky as it may seem. But also make sure to mix in more serious, emotional, dark, and even scary moments.

I've seen a lot of people mention making it a 60's film, and that may work in terms of setting, but I think in terms of a real world modern adaptation, I think it would work better to skip the sci-fi campiness of an actual 60's film and make it more like a 80's-90's film, which can still work in a modern day setting. I think it would resonate with the audience that would watch it more because you can have some cheese but also a semi-serious movie in there as well. Think Steven Spielberg's family fantasy films of the era.

Also, I think a reason Marvel Studios has been so successful with their heroes where others have failed, isn't just because they stick to the source material, it's because they care about developing them as characters and fleshing out their relationships with others. I haven't seen the latest FF movie but it sounds like that's an area that was sorely neglected, and if the previous movies worked, it was because the characters were better realized, if only marginally so. If you buy into the characters, it's much easier to buy into their world.

 

[Slayven]

People really need to read the Books of Doom

 

[More_Badass]

Said it before, but the best route IMO would be the F4 as explorers and scientists first, "superheroes" second. Exploring other dimensions and the dark distant sections of Cosmic Marvel because they're the only people who can, due to their intellect and abilities

Interstellar with superpowers. Crazy visuals and other worlds. Focus on them as a family unit and how they work together to overcome crazy situations

 

[Daingurse]

People really need to read the Books of Doom

Yep, when I was looking for good stories involving Doom, Books of Doom were constantly mentioned. Fantastic mini series.

 

[JBourne]

I expected it to be horrible and it was somehow even worse than I had anticipated. What a terrible, terrible movie. The last 1/4 was stunningly awful.

 

[DonasaurusRex]

I expected it to be horrible and it was somehow even worse than I had anticipated. What a terrible, terrible movie. The last 1/4 was stunningly awful.

could it be a good episode of MST3K?

 

[JBourne]

could it be a good episode of MST3K?

Easily. It's not bad because it's a shitty handling of the Fantastic Four, it's just an incredibly bad movie that gets bonus points for taking an existing IP and fucking it up in every way possible.

The previous F4 movies were pretty bad, but they were at least a little fun. There's nothing fun here. There isn't a moment in the entire thing that is entertaining. The characters never feel like they are actual people, not even for a second. Not a single line of dialogue felt human.

My girlfriend described it as a first episode to a show no one would watch. It was the first time I convinced her to watch a bad movie with me, and she said it would be the last. That bummed me out, because I can usually enjoy watching a shitty movie. There's nothing enjoyable about Fantastic Four.


Here is the only scene of the entire movie that involves the Fantastic Four doing something together (it's the ending, so SPOILERS). 4:50. More ending spoilers:

Spoiler

Doctor Doom is revealed at about the 1:15 mark. He is disintegrated at 1:39. 24 minutes are dedicated to establishing and defeating the antagonist.

 

[CaviarMeths]

Finally got around to watching it.

It wasn't awful, but it certainly wasn't good either.

First act had some solid foundation. Ran a little long, lacked "character" moments and interactions that F4 should be all about, and had some pretty corny dialogue, but was mostly OK.

The middle act was wholly useless and served no narrative purpose at all. You could cut about 20-30 minutes out of the middle of the movie and nothing would be lost.

That third act though... damn. How unfortunate. Poor, unfinished effects, lack of direction, hammy acting, and nothing made any damn sense at all.

There were some moments of real vision in there. I loved the little horror sequence when they got back from Planet Zero. But those moments were few and far between. Fantastic 4/10 indeed.

More ending spoilers:

Spoiler

Doctor Doom is revealed at about the 1:15 mark. He is disintegrated at 1:39. 24 minutes are dedicated to establishing and defeating the antagonist.

Spoiler

The entire movie including credits is 1:39. Doom dies before the 1:30 mark, so it's actually about 15 minutes of screen time.

 

[RangerBAD]

could it be a good episode of MST3K?

I bet Rifftrax does it.

 

[Rentahamster]

Just saw it. I liked the weird, dark, sciencey stuff, but then the movie gets a little disconnected and tries to go sorta Avengery in the end. Felt awkward.

Meh, I wish I could see what the movie would have been without studio meddling.

 

[Imbarkus]

Just saw it. I liked the weird, dark, sciencey stuff, but then the movie gets a little disconnected and tries to go sorta Avengery in the end. Felt awkward.

Meh, I wish I could see what the movie would have been without studio meddling.

It was called Chronicle. It was good, I liked it.

 

[Toa TAK]

Phillip Glass was wasted on this movie. Even if all he did was do the theme.