"Flame On!"

I never saw the first Fantastic Four movie, just as I never saw the Daredevil or Electra or Ghost Rider flicks. I haven't really ever been all that impressed with most of Marvel's main heroes or teams (okay, I dig Spider-Man and the X-Men), and the movies based on those properties have been (with the Spider-Man flicks and the first two X-Men flicks aside) pretty damn horrible. Sure, people go to them, but I think we (by which I mean the geeks who dig comics) should demand better comic book movies, not this pappy crap.

That being said, why does Jessica Alba always look like a rather stunned squirrel? I swear, she's got this vacant expression that says, "I could be replaced by CGI all the time instead of most of the time and it would have been a better casting decision."

Seriously, why was this movie made? I didn't think the first one did well enough to warrant a second effort (if you can call it that).

Like I said, I haven't been that impressed with Marvel's offerings of late. Granted, I'm not much of a Marvel fan in generally usually (I do like Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men, and Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men is pretty groovy). My tastes run to DC's Vertigo imprint, mostly (Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Matt Wagner's Sandman Mystery Theatre, Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan, etc.). But even when I go for a superhero comic from one of the Big Two, it's usually a DC title (and usually Batman, for some reason). Maybe I just prefer their style more. Maybe it's the pulp tradition that seems to creep into their work more often. Maybe it's the fact that the angst isn't so teenagery (Marvel's heroes always struck me as kinda whiny).

All of this is by way of saying that I'm really not going to go see the new Fantastic Four movie. I don't think that makes me less of a geek (especially since I've spent most of the evening reading comic books).

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Arcade Fire, "Neon Bible"