11 Criminally Underrated Superheroes Hollywood Totally Ruined
7. Fantastic Four
This one stings, because not only have Marvel's first family had about four attempts at live action, but all have been fantastically naff. Roger Corman's 1994 attempt lives on solely through nightmarish set photos of The Thing, and 2005's series - while nailing three of the four with some great casting choices - tanked on repetitive melodrama and a strident inability to portray Doctor Doom correctly, something that the 2015 reboot managed to actually make worse.
Struggling to adapt the four is understandable to an extent, but genuinely, why is it that we're yet to get a proper version of Doctor Doom? Y'know, the iconic evil Latverian dictator whose whole shtick is that he's just plain bad? It's the most basic premise for a villain and yet we repeatedly have to sit through contrived and often wholly unnecessary attempts to wed the character to Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben on an almost familial level. Just let Doom toot as and when he pleases. God.
The frustration gets compounded further when upon the realisation that Marvel Studios could do so much with the FF license (Galactus and Silver Surfer interacting with the Guardians of the Galaxy is enough cause for excitement). Worse still, the situation regarding the Four's onscreen rights has led to the group being totally disbanded in Marvel's comics, with only the occasional cameo and reference gracing the pages of some of the publisher's premier books.
It's clear that the Four haven't had it easy this last decade, and with Fox set to hold onto the rights in spite of their latest failure, it looks as though our favourite family are staying put for the foreseeable future. Here's hoping that Noah Hawley can make it worthwhile.