So there's a new Fantastic Four movie coming our way. The casting news released a few months ago caused a typhoon of nerd outrage on the internet, with the African American Michael B. Jordan cast as the not-traditionally African American Johnny Storm, a.k.a The Human Torch. Teeth were gnashed, garments torn, and the online comics community proved, once more, why no one takes it seriously1
. All that said, I too was generally disappointed in the casting for the Fantastic Four, though my problem is not that Michael B. Jordan is black. The problem is he's too damn young.
It's not just him either: the entire cast skews, if not towards early 20s actors, then towards actors who could convincingly look that age. This youth movement carries over to the director as well; Josh Trank, whose first film Chronicle, while very good, paints a worrying picture for the filmic future of the Fantastic Four. Chronicle used the found-footage model to tell the story of a group of teenagers who stumble into super powers, and the horrible decisions they make along the way. It's a good movie, a nice twist on superhero mythology and the classic tropes of teenage rebellion. But it's also the kind of grim, gritty, and overall bleak film that the Fantastic Four is pretty much not, in any way, shape, or form.
Please note this is not all just baseless speculation. Simon Kinberg, the writer, had this to say: "It’s a much more grounded, gritty, realistic movie than the last couple movies....Josh Trank’s instincts are to be as realistic and grounded and real with this stuff as possible. In many ways I would say it’s definitely more of a drama than comedy. Realism is fine, and drama is great. And in that same interview he goes on to say that it's no Dark Knight, in terms of tone. But words like 'gritty' are beginning to become red flags, no more so than when they're used to describe a property like the Four.
The Four are probably the most unabashedly "comic book-y" superheroes out there: scientists, whose primary adventures involve trips to distant worlds and interactions with aliens and other beasties that are pure Science Fiction. In a word, they're the Star Trek to, say, the Thor movies Star Wars. They are, on a fundamental level, unrealistic. Reed Richard's main super power is building impossible machines to save the day. Trying to tie that in to real world science on anything more than a decorative sense is not just a bad idea, it could potentially wreck the movie.
But all this is a deviation from the original point: the age issue. Beyond being adventurers, beyond being SciFi heroes, the Four are one thing: a FAMILY. The best Fantastic Four movie made so far was called 'The Incredibles'; it perfectly captured the idea that the superhero team is essentially a family unit, with all the insecurity, petty bickering, and, and this cannot be understated, LOVE, that comes along with it. The Four have kids for a reason: Reed's character is fundamentally informed by his fatherhood, Sue's by her motherhood, Johnny and Ben by their unspoken competition to be the favorite Uncle. They're fundamentally mature characters, ones who have gone through a transformative process and are ready and willing to share the wisdom they gained with the world. Yes, you could say that this is the story of when that happens, when they learn that maturity, but do we really want to see another cut and paste superhero movie where, "At first they don't get along, but then they learn to trust each other!" Perhaps unique to the world of superheroes, the Four are ADULTS (Johnny excepted). They've found their place already, and it's fighting for a better tomorrow. To write off this central pillar in the hopes of chasing some ephemeral tween demographic is a fundamental disservice to the characters, and to the whole concept of the Fantastic Four.
1. Can we go ahead and make the collective noun for nerds "an outrage"? As in, I saw an outrage of nerds outside opening night for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice↩
No comments:
Post a Comment