Rob Price
Sometimes you watch a film and think that movie should have never been made, and sometimes before a movie can even be previewed it is shelved forever, never releasing it to the public. Such is the case with the 1994 version of Marvel’s Fantastic Four which was produced by Roger Corman. In this article we will look at the documentary called Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four, which explains what happened to the film and why it never got released along with looking at the movie itself and the following films that have been produced.
Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four (2015)
This is a documentary that uses interviews with the original cast, director, casting director and editor, along with Roger Corman himself that explains how the movie got made, what it was like while making the movie, the postproduction woes and the self-promotion and marketing of the film all before it was officially yanked from ever being seen. Constantin Films got the rights to the Fantastic Four in the mid-1980s, and in 1992 Eichinger, the head of Constantin Films, teamed with Roger Corman to produce the film for a budget of $1 million and to be released by his distribution company New Horizon’s Pictures. This would be one of the largest budgets for a Corman film, but production had to be fast tracked and had to start before the end of 1992. They started shooting on December 28, 1992, and shot for only about 25 days. The actors all connected with their parts and really believed in the film they were making. During postproduction, the special effects person they had hired couldn’t do what was being asked, so a new special effects company had to be brought in, for next to nothing in budget. The music composers hired an orchestra using their own funds to produce the soundtrack. The cast started promoting the film, mainly using their own money to get to conventions and to drum up hype for the premier which was going to take place at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota on January 19, 1994, but before that could happen, a cease-and-desist order was put on all further promotions and all copies of the film were supposedly destroyed. There are rumors that the movie was made and was never intended to be released. It is also said that Avi Arad, the future founder of Marvel Studios, made a deal with Eichenberg and bought him and Corman out of the film.
I feel sorry for the cast and crew on this film. Whether it was set from the beginning that the film would never be released or if it was a deal that was made after the fact, the cast and crew believed in what they were doing, spent their own money to promote it. This documentary really showed how much this film meant to the cast and how devastating it was to them when it was pulled from distribution. Everyone involved in this film thought this would be a stepping stone to bigger and better opportunities, but for most of them it was not.
The Fantastic Four (1994)
While in college together, Reed Richards (Alex Hyde-White) and Victor Von Doom (Joseph Culp) are attempting to harness the energy from a comet passing very close to Earth, but during the process, an accident badly burned Victor and he is believed to have died of his injuries. Ten years later, Reed is attempting to complete the experiment by taking a space ship he designed close enough to the comet to collect the radiation which failed in the original process. But a piece of their ship has been sabotaged and the crew consisting of Reed, Ben Grimm (Michael Bailey Smith / Carl Ciarfalio as the Thing), Susan Storm (Rebecca Staab) and her younger brother Johnny Storm (Jay Underwood) are all exposed to a massive dose of the radiation. The ship appears to explode, but the crew find themselves back on Earth unharmed, soon realizing that they all now have superpowers. Reed can stretch his body, Sue and turn invisible, Johnny can produce fire, and Ben’s body is now covered in a stonelike substance. The crew are collected by the authorities and taken to a lab for testing, but it becomes obvious that there is something amiss. Victor is not dead but was trying to complete the experiment himself first, and destroy Reed who he blames for his deformity. Victor was royalty and now goes by the title Dr. Doom wearing a mask and armor to hide his burnt body. The four heroes escape, but Victor has built a laser that could destroy all of New York City if they don’t return. The team must work together to defeat Dr. Doom and save New York and their friends.
This film is what I would expect from Roger Corman who is the king of B movies. It is a B movie version of a superhero film. The special effects are cheap, the story cheesy and the acting is corny. The music grace by David and Eric Wurst, which I thought was going to be the film’s one saving factor which started out good, but soon devolved into something more cartoonish. The one thing I will say is that the story and characters were a bit more faithful to their comic book counterparts, this isn’t necessarily a good thing as some things just don’t translate well from print to film.
The Fantastic Four (2005)
While testing the effects of cosmic energy with in a space cloud on biological samples at the Von Doom Industries Space Station, Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) and Dr. Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) are all exposed to cosmic energy when the cloud reaches the space station ahead of the forecasted schedule. The crew survives and returns to Earth, only to begin to manifest strange abilities. Reed can stretch like rubber, Sue can turn invisible and produce force shields, Johnny’s body can produce flames, Ben is transformed into a large rock-based creature and Victor’s skin begins to turn into a type of organic metal and produce electricity. Reed attempts to find a way to reverse Ben’s condition who is the only one that would not be able to live a normal life. Victor, blaming Reed for their current dilemma plots his revenge and this eventually leads to a superpowered showdown.
This film is critically panned and not thought of as being very good. I enjoyed it when it came out. There are some corny parts and some of the characters do not match their comic book counterparts, but overall, I didn’t think it was that bad. Chris Evans shirtless coming out of the shower is definitely a plus.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
The follow up to the 2005 movie using the same cast. A mysterious Silver Surfer comes to Earth and begins reeking havok, with the Fantastic Four working with a cured Dr. Doom to try to figure a way to stop this being from doing anymore harm. But it turns out the Silver Surfer is not the real danger and a huge being known as Galactus who consumes worlds is the one they need to worry about. Once the Silver Surfer is caught and Dr. Doom once again shows his true colors and steals the Surfer’s board to use for his own gain, the team must free this being from his prison and stop Doom and Galactus from destroying the planet.
This film was slightly better received but still not revered as a true or good representation of the comic books. I actually really enjoyed both films in this series although I think Ioan and Jessica were both woefully miscast.
Fantastic Four (2015)
A complete reboot and reimagining to the franchise straying drastically from the source material and creating a whole new origin for the characters. Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) have been life long friends and become part of the Baxter foundation a scientific organization that works with child prodigies and run by Professor Storm (Reg E. Cathey) whose biological son, Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) and his adoptive daughter, Sue (Kate Mara) are also part of the program along with his prodigy Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell). The children create a quantum gate that opens a portal to another dimension called Planet Zero and while on an unsanctioned expedition to this new dimension, Victor is thought to have been killed and the gate destroyed in an explosion which gives Reed, Ben, Johnny and Sue their powers, the same powers in all the other versions of the story. The team is sent to a facility to be tested like guinea pigs and Reed escapes becoming a fugitive and searches for a way to reverse what happened to them. He is finally caught by the other team members who have become government operatives, and they are tasked with rebuilding the Quantum Gate to get back to Planet Zero. Once there, they find Victor who was fused to his space suit and now has telekinetic powers. He has become delusional and fears Earth is a threat to Planet Zero and sets about to destroy his home planet to protect his new world. Of course, the rest of the team join together to stop him.
This is “the” movie that no one even mentions anymore and was just awful. The whole story was altered to fit into a darker, depressing and ugly world I believe trying to appeal to a different demographic who prefers the grittiness as opposed to staying faithful to the source material. Where I have watched the other versions of this film several times, I have only ever watched this movie once and feel no need to ever watch it again.
The Fantastic Four is considered the “First Family” of the Marvel Universe and yet has never truly been done well and with the correct cast. Marvel Studios has announced that a new movie that fits into the MCU will be released in 2025, but recent announcements about casting and the storyline have made it sound like this will not be an accurate or faithful representation of the original comic books either, which has worried many fans.
