ToM
12-13-2005, 12:27 PM
The sequel to Fantastic Four now, to me anyway, seems even more in the bag given the way the cast has spoken about it in the press, and on the audio commentary track for the DVD. Months ago, Alba said that she *knew* what the first fifteen minutes of the sequel were going to be, and that it was really cool (it involves the wedding of Reed and Sue). That the actress would *know* the details of the first fifteen minutes just suggests to me real forward thinking on the part of the filmakers.
Now, of course, every director comes up with "some" concept or other for a "possible" sequel. So, alone, these comments didn't impress upon me too greatly at the time. But combined with remarks made by *all* of the cast on the commentary track, I'm taking more notice of them.
There were the obligatory references to a sequel that go along like, "Oh, well, the first one was so much of a learning curve, the second one will be so much easier." It really struck me when Alba said as sort of a response to Gruffudd's remark, " The second one will be *so* much better." Then she pauses and rethinks, saying, "The first one was great, but the second one will be so much greater."
Later still, Alba comments on the role of Kerry Washington, saying , "She's going to be in so much more of the second one *because* they're making her into, they're having her be one of the puh..."
Chiklis: "Aaaah!! Aack!"
Alba: "Puh..."
Chicklis: Aack!
Alba: "Puh, surprises. I was just saying that she's going to be one of the surprises. That it'll be a surprise that she's in so much of the movie! There's nothing wrong with saying that!"
Chicklis: "Oh, okay, for a *second* I was afraid you were going to give one of the secrets away."
Well, rather obviously is she was about to give something away, and it had to do with Alicia Masters, and it started with "Puh", it's pretty obviously to do with the Puppet Master. As in, she's going to be one of the puppets, maybe?
To make it even *more* obvious that what Alba "didn't give away" (to what Gruffudd called "a secret no more" ) she *instantly jumps from that last breath to saying, "I'm really excited about the Fantasticar!" And Chiklis is as well. Alba asks who they think Fox will have building it. So,whatever Alba was going to say prior, it *was* to do with story details for a sequel, and was recognized as such by both Chiklis and Gruffudd *instantly* as being such. To me, this implies, if a mere syllable could have them recognizing what she's about to say, that they *all* at some point heard the story concept for a sequel.
So, if they already have "secrets" in store for audiences, things about the second one they don't want given away in terms of story, if the first fifteen minutes are actually in one way or another part of that? That seems a pretty pre-formed concept. And it suggests a complete expectation on the part of the actors that they're shooting a sequel. To them, it's a given. And if so much of the story concept is formed, this also suggests to me that they're going to be moving into it pretty directly (not like how Fox went into X2, where it seemed like several different concepts were played around with, and three years came and went by the time it was released).
I have to agree with the cast that the second one holds much more promise, because it'll be free of so much of the exposition that bogged this one a bit down. They won't have to explain " self regulating unstable molecules" and how their powers work, how they gained them, mastered them over time. Like with the first X-Men, this was sort of a pilot episode, and with the kinks worked out, it'll be much more ironed out as to what works best, and what doesn't. X2 comes to mind.
I was really happy to hear that the cast had the same reaction to Laurie Holden walking out into the streets of New York in her nightie that we all did. Chiklis says he even said something to Story about it at the time. Man, if only they *all* did. That sequence was the only real groaner for me in the whole thing (not counting all the Doom is just a regular guy from the Ultimates kind of moments). They go to all this trouble to make you buy into the "fantastic", only to throw you with the prosaic.
The only other sequence like this to make me really groan, was Doom's reaction to finding Ben has smashed through a solid wall and escaped. Here, something unbelievable has taken place, something astonishing, something that can be happening to Von Doom himself, and he dismisses it as something less than an annoyance. It almost plays as if Ben had simply walked out of the room without saying goodbye to him.
When you see how they made that bridge sequence, how literally nothing of what you see around the girders existed at all, it simply staggers the mind that Story could pull *that* off with his team, but so completely fail with *this* most basic content.
Still, it's not as disasterous a thing as, say, the climax of X-Men One. You know, four superheroes standing around explaining to the audience why *none* of them can use their powers to save the day, and send the *least* powerful among them ( a man made of metal no less to fight a man with magnetic powers) to the rescue while the director *literally* shows them standing around watching. Oh, or how the climatic battle is between an old man, so weakened he can't even stand, against a man with exacto knices sticking out of his hands. It's all give and take I guess. X-Men one got all the nuances right, all the prosiac human moments perfectly, but missed the superheroics. Fantastic Four gets "the Marvel Magic" down, but falters with realism (what made Marvel stuff great was the balance of both).
With the second X-Men, Singer balanced this out. Let's hope Story can do the same. I'm sure after this first one the cast will have become possesive enough of their characters, and feeling confident enough to *really* express any such concerns as they had with this bit, and have such idiocy eliminated next time.
There's so much I didn't notice about this movie till the cast pointed things out. For example, when Reed kneels to propose to Sue, the camera shoots back to them looking into each other's eyes as if he *didn't* kneel. Then, we see a full shot of the two, and his body is elongated so that he's in fact making eye contact *while* kneeling! Then, we see him shrink down to proper proportions. It was a nice touch, so subtle that I missed it the first couple times around. Cool how they had them using their powers in was that would seem very natural to them.
Anyway, I can't help but wonder if Fox would allow so much talk of a sequel to be present on the commentary track...if there wasn't going to be one. From their conversations between one another, that belie conversations with the producers on the subject, they're convinced as to who will be in it, and that it's just a given, something stated to them personally. It's so much different than how, say Dunst talks about a Spider-Man sequel, even when we *know* that's in the bag. For one thing, nobody contradicts Alba's statements over what'll happen in a follow up. They only try to censor her giving anything away. To me, this indicates they know exactly the same content she does and that's very different from Dunst naming names and characters all on her own.
ToM
Now, of course, every director comes up with "some" concept or other for a "possible" sequel. So, alone, these comments didn't impress upon me too greatly at the time. But combined with remarks made by *all* of the cast on the commentary track, I'm taking more notice of them.
There were the obligatory references to a sequel that go along like, "Oh, well, the first one was so much of a learning curve, the second one will be so much easier." It really struck me when Alba said as sort of a response to Gruffudd's remark, " The second one will be *so* much better." Then she pauses and rethinks, saying, "The first one was great, but the second one will be so much greater."
Later still, Alba comments on the role of Kerry Washington, saying , "She's going to be in so much more of the second one *because* they're making her into, they're having her be one of the puh..."
Chiklis: "Aaaah!! Aack!"
Alba: "Puh..."
Chicklis: Aack!
Alba: "Puh, surprises. I was just saying that she's going to be one of the surprises. That it'll be a surprise that she's in so much of the movie! There's nothing wrong with saying that!"
Chicklis: "Oh, okay, for a *second* I was afraid you were going to give one of the secrets away."
Well, rather obviously is she was about to give something away, and it had to do with Alicia Masters, and it started with "Puh", it's pretty obviously to do with the Puppet Master. As in, she's going to be one of the puppets, maybe?
To make it even *more* obvious that what Alba "didn't give away" (to what Gruffudd called "a secret no more" ) she *instantly jumps from that last breath to saying, "I'm really excited about the Fantasticar!" And Chiklis is as well. Alba asks who they think Fox will have building it. So,whatever Alba was going to say prior, it *was* to do with story details for a sequel, and was recognized as such by both Chiklis and Gruffudd *instantly* as being such. To me, this implies, if a mere syllable could have them recognizing what she's about to say, that they *all* at some point heard the story concept for a sequel.
So, if they already have "secrets" in store for audiences, things about the second one they don't want given away in terms of story, if the first fifteen minutes are actually in one way or another part of that? That seems a pretty pre-formed concept. And it suggests a complete expectation on the part of the actors that they're shooting a sequel. To them, it's a given. And if so much of the story concept is formed, this also suggests to me that they're going to be moving into it pretty directly (not like how Fox went into X2, where it seemed like several different concepts were played around with, and three years came and went by the time it was released).
I have to agree with the cast that the second one holds much more promise, because it'll be free of so much of the exposition that bogged this one a bit down. They won't have to explain " self regulating unstable molecules" and how their powers work, how they gained them, mastered them over time. Like with the first X-Men, this was sort of a pilot episode, and with the kinks worked out, it'll be much more ironed out as to what works best, and what doesn't. X2 comes to mind.
I was really happy to hear that the cast had the same reaction to Laurie Holden walking out into the streets of New York in her nightie that we all did. Chiklis says he even said something to Story about it at the time. Man, if only they *all* did. That sequence was the only real groaner for me in the whole thing (not counting all the Doom is just a regular guy from the Ultimates kind of moments). They go to all this trouble to make you buy into the "fantastic", only to throw you with the prosaic.
The only other sequence like this to make me really groan, was Doom's reaction to finding Ben has smashed through a solid wall and escaped. Here, something unbelievable has taken place, something astonishing, something that can be happening to Von Doom himself, and he dismisses it as something less than an annoyance. It almost plays as if Ben had simply walked out of the room without saying goodbye to him.
When you see how they made that bridge sequence, how literally nothing of what you see around the girders existed at all, it simply staggers the mind that Story could pull *that* off with his team, but so completely fail with *this* most basic content.
Still, it's not as disasterous a thing as, say, the climax of X-Men One. You know, four superheroes standing around explaining to the audience why *none* of them can use their powers to save the day, and send the *least* powerful among them ( a man made of metal no less to fight a man with magnetic powers) to the rescue while the director *literally* shows them standing around watching. Oh, or how the climatic battle is between an old man, so weakened he can't even stand, against a man with exacto knices sticking out of his hands. It's all give and take I guess. X-Men one got all the nuances right, all the prosiac human moments perfectly, but missed the superheroics. Fantastic Four gets "the Marvel Magic" down, but falters with realism (what made Marvel stuff great was the balance of both).
With the second X-Men, Singer balanced this out. Let's hope Story can do the same. I'm sure after this first one the cast will have become possesive enough of their characters, and feeling confident enough to *really* express any such concerns as they had with this bit, and have such idiocy eliminated next time.
There's so much I didn't notice about this movie till the cast pointed things out. For example, when Reed kneels to propose to Sue, the camera shoots back to them looking into each other's eyes as if he *didn't* kneel. Then, we see a full shot of the two, and his body is elongated so that he's in fact making eye contact *while* kneeling! Then, we see him shrink down to proper proportions. It was a nice touch, so subtle that I missed it the first couple times around. Cool how they had them using their powers in was that would seem very natural to them.
Anyway, I can't help but wonder if Fox would allow so much talk of a sequel to be present on the commentary track...if there wasn't going to be one. From their conversations between one another, that belie conversations with the producers on the subject, they're convinced as to who will be in it, and that it's just a given, something stated to them personally. It's so much different than how, say Dunst talks about a Spider-Man sequel, even when we *know* that's in the bag. For one thing, nobody contradicts Alba's statements over what'll happen in a follow up. They only try to censor her giving anything away. To me, this indicates they know exactly the same content she does and that's very different from Dunst naming names and characters all on her own.
ToM