10 Major Problems With The Fantastic Four No One Wants To Admit

Fantastic clearly doesn't mean what it used to.

Up until now, the Fantastic Four have been presented in a fun, lighthearted way in both comics and on celluloid, but the new Fantastic Four film is all set to break with tradition by portraying Marvel's "first family" in as serious a manner as possible. Quite frankly, that strategy is bound to backfire. By adopting a grim and gritty approach to the Fantastic Four, the makers of the latest film are inviting audiences to judge the film by the standards of similar, more normal movies. This approach will inevitably call unwanted attention to the inherent silliness of the characters. Audiences are willing to overlook countless absurdities in a story that's frothy entertainment but the second the film attempts anything approaching gravitas, the viewers will inevitably start thinking. And when it comes to the Fantastic Four, the last thing the film's creators want is for the audience to think. For a start, they might actually start applying logic to what they're watching. Rather fatally, the Fantastic Four can't even survive the most basic examination. The group consists of a man who's on fire but never gets burnt and a woman who can do some astoundingly useful things but who never actually does. Then there's the genius who prefers to stretch his arm over to the far side of the room to pick up an object rather than simply arranging his equipment so the stuff he needs is close at hand. Lastly, there's a big guy made out of rock who can somehow hear even though he doesn't have any ears. Casual film goers aren't going to care less about explanations shoe-horned into decades-old comics. They're only going to care about what they've paid to watch on the big screen. And here are the 10 biggest problems intrinsic to Marvel's greatest heroes that those casual film goers will gleefully be pointing out as they leave the cinema.

Contributor
Contributor

Mike has lived in the UK, Japan and the USA. Currently, he is based in Iowa with his wife and 2 young children. After working for many years as a writer and editor for a large corporation, he is now a freelancer. He has been fortunate enough to contribute to many books on Doctor Who over the last 20 years and is now concentrating on original sci-fi & fantasy short stories, with recent sales including Flame Tree, Uffda, and The Martian Wave. Also, look for his contribution on Blake's 7 to "You and Who Else", a charity anthology to be released later this year. You can find him on Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/culttvmike