AG Monday
This week: the Fantastic Four movie.
We’ve seen the new Fantastic Four movie, and this episode contains all of our thoughts on the film, and then some! We discuss how good a movie it is, how good a Fantastic Four movie it is, and how good a comic book movie it is. Will it appeal to both comic book nerds and people who aren’t comics fans? Will this movie help the MCU get back on its feet?
We also have one of the liveliest debates between Tom and Steven in the history of the podcast – so far! Can long-standing franchises avoid getting tied up in ever-multiplying continuity knots? Where should the MCU go next? Listen to find out.
Planet-devouring space gods! Family dynamics! Superhero fatigue! Tomorrowland aesthetics! It’s all here, and more.
There is a non-spoiler section and a spoilerific discussion as well!
Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!
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I think I’ll wait until after I see the movie. And I may wait a few month for it to get to streaming…
Meantime
Q: How many Vorlons does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: The lightbulb has always been changed.
We (my wife, son, and I, along with my brother) saw the movie while on vacation last week, I look forward to listening to your takes on it.
We enjoyed it a lot and it’s definitely among the best MCU films, but we agreed we liked Thunderbolts* just a bit more.
I wanted to like FF a lot more than I did. (Although I didn’t dislike it…)
SPOILERS!
My problem is that it was just determined to be so completely wholesome and shallow. Because the setup presents a great moral dilemma — is the continued existence of the entire planet and all its people less important than the life of a single baby, either pre or post-birth.
And the question is never taken seriously. It’s just a big, fat yes. So obvious that the idea of sacrificing Franklin is never taken seriously by anybody involved. And the terrified people of earth are presented as selfish cowards for suggesting that maybe they should have been consulted before the final decision was made.
Look, I’m not expecting a Fantastic Four movie to rival The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas for moral difficulty. But at least this should have been taken seriously as a possibility and debated , not just immediately refused.
@wr: (Adding to a spoiler comment).
I agree this is a weakness/more than legitimate critique of the film. It would have been possible, in fact, to have the same basic solution to Galactus without the Franklin McGuffin. Maybe I am too forgiving of comic book plots. I did kind of cringe when Galactus said he wanted the baby, but then rolled with it.