So this is like the third post in a row about a movie I haven’t seen yet.

§ August 10th, 2015 § Filed under fantastic four, movie reviews, self-promotion § 11 Comments

Yeah, I know I’m stretching this thing a bit, adding more fuel to the fire on something studios would rather just vanish into thin air. However, it occurred to me over the weekend that perhaps one should have some measure of pity for the poor guy(s) and/or gal(s) in charge of the official Fantastic Four movie Twitter account:

I’m sure they’re not locked away in a secret bunker somewhere, away from all media…they know the film is critically despised and tanking, but they’re still plugging away, hyping the film and trying to generate interest. And, of course, what else would they be doing? Presumably someone’s being paid to run that account…I mean, I’m guessing, I don’t suppose they’d throw some unpaid intern on there. And right now, that’s probably the last place they’d want an unpaid intern.

So, yeah, you’re not going to see “um…hey, everyone, sorry about the film” tweeted on there anytime soon, though that would be amazing. But if this account hasn’t yet, well…. But still, those folks running the Twitter account have a job to do, and they have to do it as best they’re able, because I’m sure the last thing they want is the studio deciding the reason the film flopped was because the Twitter campaign was insufficiently compelling and pointing their big ol’ stogie-wielding movie mogul fingers at them.

The other issue with running a Twitter account for a less-than-popular movie is that, well, on the Internet everyone gets their say. Sometimes it’s erudite and refined educated folks like all of you fine readers perusing my site, and sometimes it’s just straight-up dummies. I wondered aloud about the temptation of whoever’s in charge of the FF account to click the “Notifications” link and see how everyone’s responding to them. Because, boy howdy, are people responding to them, letting them have it with both barrels. You can pretty much just click on any post there and see the parade of haters venting their keyboard rage, for whatever good that’ll do. But I have to tell you, this particular exchange cracked me up:


So there are defenders for the film, too, presuming that they’re not all Fox employees.

There’s beginning to be some backlash to the backlash, suggesting that maybe we’ve gone from “well, that movie didn’t turn out as planned” to just dogpiling on the dopey film because it’s the fun thing to do. And, yeah, okay, it’s a little fun, and a small heaping of deserved scorn onto a studio once in a while helps remind them that maybe there’s some shit we won’t eat. But thanks to the Internet, any creative product with a social media presence gets hit with waves of anger over anything, sometimes deserved, usually not, and it all just blurs together into one bit ol’ mass of “why are we bothering reaching out to the fans again?” Who knows if the FF people are even paying attention to online reaction. I suspect the box office returns are keeping them occupied.

Anyway, that’s enough of that. I think I’ll hold off further comment ’til I actually see the darned thing, rented from Netflix in three or four months. Like I’ve been saying, the look of the film is very appealing, so I’d at least like to enjoy that aspect of it. And if it’s all that bad, I’ll just throw on my Blu-ray of Frank Miller’s The Spirit and wash that taste out.

• • •

As mentioned last week, I am now contributing to the Trouble with Comics group blog, mostly to the weekly roundtable question discussion thingie. This week’s question is regarding the future of the comic book periodical, and I pitch in with my usual overlong, rambling and nonsensical response.

Plus, here is an overview of what’s been going on over there, and boy, those folks have been busy as all get-out. And there’s plenty more to come!

11 Responses to “So this is like the third post in a row about a movie I haven’t seen yet.”

  • robb says:

    My concern with blockbusts like this is the “baby with the bathwater” effect that sometimes results.
    (as a non-Marvel fan who knows nothing of FF) I too thought this film at least looked promising (particularly the awesome rocky Ben Grimm as opposed to the orange-poop Chiklis version). So now, will studios be less inclined to take creative risks? Johnny Storm was a refreshing deviation. The tone seemed about right… even Doom looked unique.

    It’s like Green Lantern all over again. Totally worthless movie, but certainly not bad performances. And (IMO) really phenomenal concept designs, especially when reimagining some of the goofier aliens as real organisms (thanks to Neville Page). Yup, I even liked the idea to create a CG uniform like a plasma gel construct. If only they had told an interesting GL story, instead of squandering it all on a movie-long origin to one of the most average comic alter-egos ever.

    Just wish we could trust studios to recognise what elements really killed their movies, and not listen to the web haters who tend to despise everything.

  • GE says:

    “Why are we bothering reaching out to the fans again?”

    That’s kind of been my question for years now, though in an admittedly much more cynical and pouty kind of way. If it’s “social” media, then why is it far more frequently (or at least far more visibly) used for *commercial* purposes? (Rhetorical question, I promise.)

    I’m not a big fan of social media for other reasons, but even if I dug it a bunch, the fact that every big corporation has an account and plugs their crap with it would turn me off anyway. It suddenly snaps the whole “corporations are people” debacle into very sharp focus. ‘Cause they’re, y’know, trying to participate in a conversation for *people* (“social” media and all that).

    Funny thing is, I fully agree with robb on the reciprocal scenario: that is, when corporations (like movie studios and other wranglers of creatives) bother to listen to social media to inform their decisions. That’s just as bad as them pumping (let’s pretend there’s a typo with that “u” there) their ads on social media.

    The teeming masses of fans are not always (read: very, very rarely) correct about which paths their beloved franchises should take, any more than the meddling executives chasing the latest “trending trends” on social media know anything about what’s best for the characters they’re spending millions to deliver to those masses.

    Yeah, it sounds like a lot of “Get off my lawn” when abbreviated like this to avoid the fourteen-page treatise on the reasons and reasoning, but I’ll cop to that. Still think it was a mistake to let things other than people have social media accounts (not that I see any fully effective way to have prevented it).

  • Brian says:

    “I’m sure they’re not locked away in a secret bunker somewhere, away from all media…they know the film is critically despised and tanking, but they’re still plugging away, hyping the film and trying to generate interest. And, of course, what else would they be doing? Presumably someone’s being paid to run that account…I mean, I’m guessing, I don’t suppose they’d throw some unpaid intern on there. And right now, that’s probably the last place they’d want an unpaid intern.”

    The obvious joke to make is that it’s Blogger von Doom. The Twitter account for Fox’s Fantastic Four is being run by Blogger von Doom – and he wants to trick unsuspecting filmgoers into seeing the movie…

    As someone who bounces between comics blog and political blogs, it’s strangely refreshing to see that it’s not just politics that rile folks up – we’re just apparently a bunch of d!cks. Or, is it possible that one of those Internet flash-crashes have bugged the programming of all the Bots online and all the Trolls who we see everywhere are just automatic poster who have gone bad in the worst possible way?

    Either way, I don’t see yelling at whoever has the job of updated the FF Twitter solves anything (aside from spiking an angry man’s “I told them so!” hormones) – the better way to go about it is to play along with the ‘game’ and start ranting at the “Fantastic Four” in supervillainous hyperbole or something. Turn that anger into something that will be meme-orable.

  • Ray Cornwall says:

    Oooh, it’s such a bad movie. Not “so bad it’s good” movie. It’s a “so bad that many people associated with the movie will have their careers irreparably damaged” movie. It’s horrible as a FF movie, a superhero movie, a Sci-Fi movie, a fiction movie, and a moving-pictures-with-sound movie.

    This is not a “wait for the DVD” or “wait for Netflix” movie. This is a “wait for an unintended hospital stay and hope the drugs they’re giving you for your illness blunt the pain from the movie” movie.

    It’s so bad, I was hitting myself in the forehead during the movie involuntarily. That’s not a healthy action.

  • MrJM says:

    “Okay, Mr. Cornwall — I’ll just mark you down as ‘mostly satisfied’.”

    — MrJM

  • Jon H says:

    GE wrote: “I’m not a big fan of social media for other reasons, but even if I dug it a bunch, the fact that every big corporation has an account and plugs their crap with it would turn me off anyway. It suddenly snaps the whole “corporations are people” debacle into very sharp focus. ‘Cause they’re, y’know, trying to participate in a conversation for *people* (“social” media and all that).”

    Corporate accounts for promotion are hot garbage, but corporate customer service accounts, that actually listen and help, are fantastic. I complained about my Cox internet performance on Twitter, and their account noticed, leading to a direct message conversation, and a service visit where the tech replaced the circa-1980 wire from the pole to our house, significantly improving our signal.

    So much better than calling a number, wading through menus, sitting on hold, and talking to someone working through a script.

  • Andrew Davison says:

    I wonder if all this fuss will actually encourage people to read the comics?

    I know it’s made me want to see the Corman movie, Chronicle again, and this movie, when its a cheap DVD.

  • Earl Allison says:

    I’ve read some people saying the FF aren’t so much superheroes as they get involved in weird science, like the Negative Zone, the Impossible Man, etc.

    And Mister Fantastic is so far removed from his origin, as a 50’s scientist/man of action (since now, the two are almost diametrically opposed), that it is also an issue.

    Talking again about Marvel Cartoons, the second season of the 1994 FF had their origins in the intro (even more truncated than the 1978 version), why not let the next unavoidable reboot just do that? Give us a two or three minute explanation of them getting their powers, and drop us into an adventure.

  • What gets me most about all of this, The Fantastic Four as Lee & Kirby depicted should be the EASIEST of the original Marvel Universe characters to transfer to film. The book was always like a “Cinemascope” film compared to other comics on the stands. The characters were larger than life, their villains were world threatening and the images…. the images just blew you away. But at the core of EVERY story, was that no matter how much they argued and fought each other, they were a family who really cared for each other.

    That my friends, is a summer blockbuster waiting to be seen on the big screen.

    Yet, every film attempt has missed this. Why? Because the makers of these films have made the mistakes that gave us so many lousy superhero films prior to Marvel films Iron Man (and to a lesser extent, FOX’s X-Men) they decided to rewrite, reinvent, recast, redo (hell, anything with re in the beginning) what didn’t need to be changed.

    Could you imagine what Spielberg could have done with the FF?

  • Snark Shark says:

    “Could you imagine what Spielberg could have done with the FF?”

    Given them flashlights?

    *Yes, that was a cheap shot!*