Fantastic 4 Trailer Review: or Why the Comic Book "Genre" is Here to Stay

Will people get tired of Superhero movies?

Be ready for what's coming.

What is coming?

The answers...

There are two answers to the question: 1. Yes, of course. Just like people get tired of comedies. 2. There technically isn't a Superhero genre. Superhero/ Comic Book movies are all hybrids.

Most movies in the Superhero/ Comic Book genre are drama/sci-fi hybrids. They follow one character's trial and redemption. Well, with some cool toys thrown in for good measure (See: Iron Man, Batman.) When done right, these have the potential that any other movie has. Other Comic Book movies may be fish-out-of-water/ fantasy films (See: Thor, Man of Steel.) These films have a narrower margin for error. After all, they sort of have to be a one off. Who wants to see Thor be awkward and out of place two movies in a row? Check the box office numbers compared to the other Marvel: Phase Two movies if you're really wondering.

(Marvel Owns You)

But once in a while, the sub-genre of the movie meshes perfectly with what the main character is or does. Iron Man and Sci-fi for example. Or Captain America and political thriller. How much better did that work than Captain America and period-piece? Imagine making a Batman movie that was also a romantic comedy for the flip side of how this dynamic can work.

That brings us to the new Fantastic 4 trailer.

The Fantastic 4 reboot has been billed as a Sci-Fi/Horror movie since the project was announced in correlation with it's director. Contrast this to the Sci-Fi/Comedy hybrid that the first two films tried to pull off.

Forget everything you know about Comic Book movies and the Fantastic 4 in specific. Re-watch the above trailer with the idea that it is a Sci-Fi/Horror film. It feels like The Fly had a baby with Event Horizon. (I'll always work in Goldblum and Sam Neil references when I can. Thank you, Josh Trank.)

Very little is revealed in the trailer, so I can't say whether this will be the perfect meshing of genres that Captain America: The Winter Soldier was, and I can't even say it will be better than the Sci-Fi/Comedy Fantastic 4 films we've already (regrettably) seen. But golly, it sure looks like the Sci-fi and horror parts are going to be laid out in spades. So maybe it will fail the Superhero aspect of things, It could still be a pretty wicked horror film, or a thought provoking sci-fi. Or it could be bad enough that it becomes an unintentional comedy. But if there is even one live wire in the thing, meshing three separate genres could make it a special film.

If Hollywood catches on and starts attempting the Comic Book "genre" in this way, not only will the films not be going anywhere for a while, but we may not have even seen them at their pinnacle.

If the brain trusts at Marvel, Sony, Fox and Warner Brothers sit down and try to mold the world that each character has to reside in inside the larger universe that all the characters share, the movie universes could become as diverse and compelling as their comic book counterparts.

Except for Superman, you can't make a good Superman movie.


ADRIAN FORT is a writer, blogger, and essayist from Kansas City, Missouri. Follow him on twitter @adriananyway. His work has appeared in Existere, decomP magazinE, The Bluest Aye, Bareback Magazine, Gadfly Online, Chrome Baby, The Eunoia Review, Linguistic Erosion, and Smashed Cat Magazine. His Master's Degree is from Lindenwood University. 

The Ant-Man Cometh

So...Marvel, huh? 

Their last movie starred a talking raccoon and a semi-talking tree. You saw it. Both trailers for their next movie use the Pinocchio theme song. You'll see it. The movie after that stars Paul Rudd. It's called Ant-Man. The trailer was terrible. You'll see it.

Admit it, Marvel owns you.

Imagine I told you about a movie that starred the chubby fella from Parks and Rec, the voice of Bradley Cooper, a professional wrestler (not named The Rock,) a mono-quote piece of bark, and a green woman who used to be a blue woman. It takes place on planets you've never heard of. Oh yeah, and it has a soundtrack from, uh, the 70's? Hypothetically, how would you feel about that movie?

Now, how many times did you end up seeing it?

Honestly it would be simpler if I could just get Marvel to take monthly debits from my account. Then, at least, I wouldn't have to feel the shame when the ticket booth guy at the AMC calls me by name and doesn't check the ticket stub before pointing me towards a screen. 

I'm going to see Avengers: Age of Ultron so many times I'll have to fill out a change of address form.

And then there's Ant-Man. Like I said, Paul Rudd, funny title, bad trailer. Sure, can you break a twenty?

If not, I'll take a ticket for today and one for tomorrow too.

You will too and I'll tell you why: This is where it all comes back home. John Campea of AMC Movie Talk on Youtube (which I cannot recommend highly enough) has been asking for months, how do you make it personal again? 

(So, the Fantastic 4, huh?)

It's a great question and a huge conundrum for the comicbook movie genre. Marvel has been making a living off of planet pulverizing peril lately. The X-Men franchise is veering towards Apocalypse. Green Lantern happened. Man of Steel was one pierce-a-character's-eyeball-with-a-needle scene away from being a global torture porn movie. So, how do you reduce the body count and keep the stakes? 

A movie about fathers and daughter.

Genius. It resets the pallet. It keeps the Marvel mood. Also, demographics, man. If you're reading this, you're probably an 18-35 year old male who wears glasses. And you're sweating. And you've got a neck beard. Hey, man, I'm not judging. I'm the one writing it. But Marvel has also done surprisingly well with women in the same age-range (abs.) Boys 3-17 all believe they are Iron Man. And now you have a hero that all little girls can root for and fathers can dress up as for Halloween. And a viable excuse for women 35-50 to use, "Honey, you're so much like that Ant-Man character, maybe he'll pop up in this Thor movie..." when they really just want to see a Marvel movie (abs.)

Basically, in one movie, Marvel is putting a Blitzkrieg on most of the demographics that they don't already own. This makes me wonder if Cumberbatch will be wearing prosthetics to look geriatric for Dr. Strange. Admit it, you'd be intrigued. Maybe Micheal Keaton turns up as one of the Inhumans. 

Looks like the ticket booth guy down at the AMC has a lot of names to learn.   

ADRIAN FORT is a writer, blogger, and essayist from Kansas City, Missouri. Follow him on twitter @adriananyway. His work has appeared in Existere, decomP magazinE, The Bluest Aye, Bareback Magazine, Gadfly Online, Chrome Baby, The Eunoia Review, Linguistic Erosion, and Smashed Cat Magazine. His Master's Degree is from Lindenwood University.