July 8: Fantastic Four and Murderball

Fantastic Four

The Story: On mission to an orbiting space station, five ordinary people hit with cosmic rays that alter their genetics, giving them extraordinary… err… fantastic powers. Four of them (Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis) become the widely-known and popular superheroes the Fantastic Four. The fifth (Julian McMahon) becomes Dr. Doom, the widely known yet strangely less popular supervillain. Stuff blows up… clobberin’ time, flame on… you’ve seen this trailer, you know what happens.

The Good: The tiny little look we get at Julian McMahon before the mask goes on. He looks like he has a long and storied future of villains ahead of him. One can only hope he survives this movie to be able to fulfill this. And Chris Evans looks like he’s having a great time. The fire effects look like they’ll be some kind of fun – maybe a preview for Ghost Rider coming up.

The Bad: Just about every piece of footage released for this one so far. And Chris Evans looks like the only one who is having fun, which is something that looks like it may extend to the audience as well. Comic book movies have gone two ways: they’ve been truthful to the books, but still done the movie thing, which turned something into a living, breathing big-screen comic book, a la Spider-Man 2, or they’ve gone shot for shot in a recreation of the comic book, not changing anything they could avoid changing, as in Sin City. Fantastic Four looks to fall somewhere else in between – sticking painfully close to source material in costume and style, but failing to drag something intriguing – like a fully constructed plot – out of it. And after Sin City, you need to work hard to make me not want to see Jessica Alba in spandex for an entire movie.
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And The Thing’s costume just looks goofy. This better not be foreshadowing Beast in X3.

The Verdict: Will I see Fantastic Four? Yeah probably, though it might be out of curiosity more than interest. This one scares me, and I think you’re looking at a superhero flop the size of The Punisher.

My Guess: * 1/4


Murderball

The Story: This documentary is about wheelchair rugby – before it became an Olympic sport, it was known as murderball. Now, the people who play the sport show the world what it’s really like. In the process, they allowed filmmakers into their lives to see every detail, touching on families, rivalries, sex, honor and competition, parts of the human experience that are alive and well even if you can’t stand upright. The documentary follows the ups and downs of a rivalry between Team USA and Team Canada – the latter being coached by a former USA player.

The Good: Just about everything, so I’ve heard. It won the Documentary Audience Award at Sundance this year, along with an editing award. The trailer makes me very interested. Plus, for all of you suckers for heartwarming stories, these are people who refuse to let their disadvantaged state negatively affect their lives. And they prove that they are still the men they used to be. They just can’t stand up while they do it. Tear-jerking, really.

The Bad: Umm… it’s a documentary about wheelchair rugby. Even with the popularity of docs on the rise, that might still fit in the niche category.

The Verdict: Anyone who sees the trailer ought to be intrigued enough to check this one out. I’ve heard nothing but praise, and I hope/expect to add my own soon enough.

My Guess: * * * 1/2