John told me he saw the Fantastic Four trailer and I very casually dismissed it after having seen some of the costumes and make-up (The Thing looks like crap) though I thought the casting was good.

I finally watched the trailer (stupid QuickTime) and it might not be that bad.. maybe it was just brilliant work on the trailer. Not a whole lot of dialogue, I hope they're not stacking the deck

Fantastic Four is Marvel's next bet on a super-hero movie powerhouse, as in Spider-Man rather than Punisher (or Catwoman, though that is from Warner/DC Comics), we can expect splashing action with heavy special effects.

In comic book circles, the Fantastic Four is like the royal family of comics. They embody a more positive a brighter side of super-heroes. No secret identity, large public support and respect, a bit of anti-thesis to X-Men relaly. I think they tweaked the story a bit for the big screen but basically, 4 astronauts got their rocket bombarded by cosmic rays on a mission and they came back with superpowers. The main protagonists are:

- genius scientist Reed Richards and his wife Susan (Sue), aka Mr Fantastic (elasticity) and the Invisible Woman (invisibility, telekinesis)
- Ben Grimm aka The Thing (rock-hard skin, super strength), a bit tormented by his appearance
- Johnny Storm, Susan's hot-headed younger brother aka the Human Torch (flight, generate fire)
- their nemesis is the disfigured and evil Doctor Doom (great name ain't it?) who's got some intellect chops and an armor he built himself

A lot of people are gonna think this bites Pixar's Incredibles but don't get it twisted, the Fantastic Four were created by comics legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the early 60s


Update
Fantastic Four opens July 8, 2005