Tag Archives: f4

Doomed (2015)

Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s the Fantastic Four (2015)


A documentary that tells the history of The Fantastic Four (1994), which was executive produced by Roger Corman.

Contains footage of Roger Corman, Lloyd Kaufman an Stan Lee as themselves. 85min imdb

Documentary 85min

Trailer

Recap:

In 1994 they finished the movie of the Fantastic Four, and while the cast and crew tried their best concerning promo and stuff, the producers Roger Corman and Bernd Eichinger made no move to release it. In fact, the release eventually was canceled. But why? The official story says that Bernd Eichinger made this movie only because his contract on the F4 movie rights was running out and he had to do something for ha renewal of this contract. This docu suggests that maybe the Fox intervened because they wanted the F4 as a toy for their new Wunderkind Chris. Columbus, and then there is Avi Arrad who claimed that he bought the movie to get it out of the way to make room for his own, bigger Marvel projects.

This documentary does ask some interesting questions, but it answers not too many. Still, it’s quite interesting to watch.

Related movie:

The Fantastic Four (1994)

First movie of the F4, done in a rush and without a budget, never released, long lost. 90min imdb

Movie 90min

Trailer

Recap:


The movie starts with Reed and Victor trying to capture the energy of the Colossus comet. Though Ben tries to save him, Victor dies in an accident. Only that he doesn’t die but is saved by his latverian henchmen. Ten years later Reed wants to use a giant diamond to repeat the experiment, but the diamond is replaced by the Jeweler (who resembles the Mole Man a little) with a replica to impress Alicia, so it all goes awry again.

This movie was done on an abysmal budget and never released. The official explanation is that Bernd Eichinger had to shoot it to keep a hold on the movie rights and never planned to show it in the first place. In the documentary linked below we learn about two alternative stories: maybe Fox bought the Fantastic Four as a toy for their new Wunderkind Chris Columbus, or maybe Avi Arrad is the megalomanic supervillain who made this movie vanish to make room for his own big movie plans.

Who knows? Who cares? The second movie and first reboot is clearly my favorite because it has what a superhero movie needs: action, comedy, romance, drama, a budget and special effects. But everybody knows what happened then. The third movie was so incredibly bad that the fourth one had to be the the second reboot, carefully throwing every story element in the trash can except for the characters names and superpowers, which of course didn’t work so that the fifth movie will be the third reboot. And seeing how incompently Micky Mouse treats his purchases, I have very little hope for the future of the F4.

So I’ll say that this #1 is much better than #3 and #4. It’s also better than, say, Daredevil or Elektra or Spiderman 5 (Rise Of Electro). What it’s not: it’s not the magic supermovie that many nostalgics claim it to be. It’s nice, it’s entertaining, and it’s charming because this lowbudget underdog is better than so many blockbuster wannabes. Oh, and since it’s no longer a lost medium it has its fanbase simply because we are suckers for lost treasures.

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