"Fantastic Four" - Sony (not Marvel Comics) - Movie

I've been a fan of the Fantastic Four since I was 8 or 9 (a 'lotta years) so I was looking forward to the new Fantastic Four movie.  I actually liked the last two movies ("Fantastic Four" and "Rise of the Silver Surfer") as they captured something of the essence of the comic.  I even liked the "never released" Corman FF movie (1994 - to maintain the rights to the FF, a movie had to be done by date X - apparently Corman didn't know they had no intention of releasing the movie).

I was pretty open-minded about the re-boot - I don't typically read reviews because the movies I typically like (comedies and super-hero movies) don't perform well with critics anyway.

The good:
I didn't mind the casting, nor the basic outline of the story.  It starts early, with elementary school Reed and Ben, and ends soon after an accident transforms them into the Fantastic Four.  This is a little out of kilter with the comics (Reed and Ben met in College, Doom was an arrogant fellow student), but it worked out OK.  This movie is more based on the Ultimate Universe characterization of the Fantastic Four than the 616 Version (the Ultimate Universe was a re-created universe around the year 2000 to re-start characters in Marvel without the "baggage" of 40 years of history - e.g. a fresh take on Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-men, Avengers ("The Ultimates" in the Ultimate Universe) - and it was a pretty good idea, until Marvel killed it over a few summers, including this one).

Kate Mara as Invisible Girl/Woman (not sure if they actually named the characters in this movie) was a nice take on the Ultimate Universe version where Reed and Sue met at a special school for gifted students housed at the Baxter Building in Manhattan.  Her brother Johnny was played well by Michael B. Jordan who captured the adventurous Johnny before (and after) the accident.

FF (2005) - 1st Movie (post Corman)

The Thing was done well - the look and tone were good.  The character could have been developed better (see below).

FF (2007) - 2nd Movie

The Unnecessary and Bad.:
Michael B. Jordan (Human Torch) is black, his sister Kate Mara (Invisible Girl) is white, and their father Reg. E. Cathey (Franklin Storm) is black.  In 2015, I think that is enough, however Sony must have thought a mixed-race family needed explanation, so they had a very out-of-context discussion between Reed and Sue where Reed assumes Sue is adopted, which proves to be the case.  Seemed really unnecessary, and forced an odd speech from Dad reminding Sue that family bonds matter when he felt Johnny was making dangerous choices.

1994 - not released Corman FF movie

The Fantastic Four was always a different comic because it was based in family- Reed and Sue were dating/engaged/married/parents over the first few years of the comic, Johnny was Sue's brother, and Reed's  bro-in-law, Ben was a longtime best friend of Reed, so they were bound by history before they were granted powers, and they survived the stresses they lived through partly because of that.
In addition to the adopted relationship between Sue and Johnny/Franklin Storm, they also marginalized Ben Grimm for much of the movie.  He has a small roll in Reed's elementary school experiements (basically helping him steal equipment from the Grimm family recycler), but basically disappears before there is much bonding going on, and he misses all the development of the older Reed making his scientific breakthroughs.

Thus, it seems gratuitous to call Ben in the middle of the night to join the adventure.  Why would the rest of the team be OK with endangering someone who has no business being there?  Why would there not have been a more suitable addition (e.g. Sue, or one of the many techs who run around in the background)?

The discovered dimension and the energy fields are OK to cause the accident that created the Fantastic Four, and the wish to be first before NASA gets involved and sends our new astronauts to explore the dimension is OK (though not strong) as a reason to sneak to the other dimension.

As the characters weren't fully developed (e.g. hints at Victor and Sue having a past, early Sue and Reed chemistry, Ben looking longingly at Sue on first meeting her) it is difficult to care much about the relationships after the "event".

Spoilers:
It is unfortunate that Sony chose to have Ben and Johnny train to be soldiers - not particularly out of context and a nice fit to the universe they are in, but Ben, in particular, is shown killing in war zones.  A key component of Ben Grimm in the comics is his unwillingness to be a "monster" and the great lengths he goes to to not kill/maim.  If he was forced into this role in the movie, they should have played up the angst, maybe threatening to kill/imprison the others or something.  Without that threat or rationale, he actually is more like the monster that he should be rebelling against.  The "we are looking for a clue" and "Reed left" are too weak to support being used as an assassin.

Similarly, Ben should be having mixed feelings about Reed - lifetime friendship, feeling that he was put into danger (unknowingly), betrayed that Reed fled.....which should be causing him great angst, rage and confusion (which occurred various times in the comics).

When the team leaves a seemingly dead Doom in the other dimension, they don't really seem to care... a little - "We have to go back" and "Come on Reed" and Doom's is abandoned.  This guy was not an enemy, nor was he even portrayed as a big ass like he was in the Marvel comics - he was a co-worker and fellow genius - they should have felt bad, and maybe gone to jail for taking an un-authorized trip into danger, while intoxicated, and killing a team-mate - presumably a problem.

The movie felt long - checked watch a few times, which is odd.  The "backstory" was very long and the action was very short.  What was most disappointing was the weak motivation for Doom to want to destroy the earth - he had some displayed arrogance and felt there was a generation that was dooming the planet that should be held responsible for their actions (which fits great with Doom as potential Emperor of earth), but does not explain what he gained by destroying the earth and living as the only person in the new dimension.  Having "more power" when you are alone and already control the planet makes no sense - there weren't hints of other worlds to conquer, or other dimensions to search where being super-powered would be advantageous.  Even if he was cherry-picking people to save onto his newly created world to start over (e.g. create a pseudo-earth with the "chosen people" where Doom reigns), there would have been motivation that worked - the FF would save "our" earth from being swallowed into the new one.

From an audience member perspective, I found the movie slow, and the resolution (e.g. the defeat of Doom) was very quick - he harnesses the power of a planet, but just buries Reed, Ben and Johnny in rocks and forgets about them - they each get out (without any teamwork) or interaction, and each punches Doom and he falls into the planetary siphon, seemingly dead.

There wasn't much interaction between the FF and Doom, even though they had worked together pre-accident very closely, no apology for thinking him dead in the new dimension, no promise to work to heal him.....  Again, Sony seemed to miss the point of the FF as a family, and did not replace it with anything else (e.g. no big action scenes, no "we've lost and we're hurting, lets work together and bring down this guy"...no "last chance Doom - we can work together, don't force us to work against you" ).

I don't particularly regret watching the movie - it was OK.  With the budget and special effects, paying a few dollars for a script would have made it a much better movie - more in line with the Avengers franchise Marvel is building.  I must say, though, "not regretting" is a pretty low bar, and faint praise for a movie.

Sequel?  As I said, I liked the casting and the basic outline - Sony can work to make a better plot, the cast, effects etc. will play out nicely.  Not much to go on from this movie - they need to do some basic character work to make the next movie more interesting.  Had they taken the time in movie 1, movie 2 could start on action right away.  Right now, I'm not sure if a seemingly dead Reed or Sue would affect the other characters very strongly - Franklin Storm's death didn't seem to be the big "Why, Why, Why....." motivation to give the extra boost to overcome adversity - it wasn't particularly mentioned by his children.

Finished (E-Reader) - "Joyland" - Stephen King

I just finished Stephen King's "Joyland".  I read King when I was younger (maybe in my teens and '20s) and stopped for a while.  I must say that I like the cover art - a throwback to the pulp magazines and comics of the '50's.

I read "1963" which I though was excellent, and got back into reading a few Kings.  Unlike the earlier books (or my memory of them, anyway), the newer King books don't rely as much on the horror/shock as on telling a story that contains an element of the supernatural.

Joyland fit that bill - the story was basically a story told retrospectively of a summer spent as an amusement part worker, dumped by first girlfriend, making new friends for the summer, eveyone leaving the following fall for various homes and campuses.
That story works, and is a nice simple read.  The "supernatural" element is that the park had a murder a few years before and the victim has been seen in ghostly form on the ride that she was killed on (not really a spoiler yet, that is 1st chapter setup up for the book).

The main character meets some interesting folks and learns a little of carnival life - the handing off of running speeding machines to untrained summer help with a "here you go" training session, having to perform in the heat of the summer, having to treat sometimes rude and abusive customers with decency...

The story does end with some action - running around in the rain, firearms, etc. but is doesn't fall into the horror category - the action is more along the lines of a typical spy or detective novel shootout - the supernatural elements just give it a Stephen King touch.

Not a bad book to spend a few hours reading.

Spoilers***

The supernatural appears in a number of places - the ghost of the murder vicitm, the palm reader of the carnival who seems to have some real ability along with the showmanship, and a young boy with muscular dystrophy who also has some psychic ability.

Finished (E-Reader) - "Under Fire" - Tom Clancy (written by Grant Blackwood)

I've been a big Clancy fan (the Jack Ryan series anyway) for a long time.  I've liked the "insider" feeling of the stories - I know (kinda') what it feels like to be in a nuclear submarine from "Hunt for Red October" and understand the motivations for both the defecting Soviet crew and the Americans.  I got a feel for the world of espionage from "Cardinal of the Kremlin", and doses of action from a number of different sources.
It seemed that post-911 the novels became a little more one-sided - there didn't seem to be an attempt to understand the motivation(s) of the terrorists that showed up in the books - not that you had to agree, or that the motivations had to be legitimate to an impartial observer, but the books seemed to lose something when the villains became stereotypic.

Unfortunately, Tom Clancy died in 2013, though his books exist in various series being written by partners.

As Clancy's Jack Ryan series was a serial story - each story referenced earlier stories and the characters had a consistent history - he ran into the same problem facing comic-books - what do you do with an "old" spy?  Clancy handled this by having Jack (Sr.), his original character, age and progress in his career, eventually becoming VP (on paper anyway) and President.  He kept the "Jack Ryan - spy" idea going by having Ryan (Sr.)'s son Jack become an intelligence analyst and field operator as his dad had before him.
I haven't been quite as enamoured with Jr.'s stores.  The latest being "Under Fire".  The book has action, but it doesn't seem to have the heart and soul of the Jack Ryan (Sr.) books a generation before.  I haven't re-read those older books, so it may certainly be me, not Jack Ryan who's aged out of the category.

I don't find myself immersed in the intelligence underground with these Jr. books, and the "narrow escapes" seem to be too frequent, too farfetched and too lucky - it tends to make the stories a little too one-dimensional action stores, not a rich expose of clandestine activities taking place under our noses, erupting into action periodically as a result of the investigations.

Anyway, it is what it is.  If you're stuck, the book is OK, but you can probably find something else to take up your time this summer.

Finished (E-Reader): "The Wright Brothers" - David McCullough

As with the Erik Larson's "Dead Wake" (about the Lusitania), the basic outline of the Wright Brothers story is well know. (I mention the Lusitania as I was concurrently reading "Dead Wake" - Erik Larson about the Lusitania;  it was odd to see that when the Wrights flew a demonstration in New York, the flew around the Statue of Liberty and right over the decks of a loaded Lusitania).

McCullough's book is good, and covers the story, but I didn't find that the story had enough drama to make the book as compelling as I might have liked for a summer read.  A the turn of the century (19th to 20th century) a debate raged about whether or not "heavier than air" travel was even possible.  Balloons, Dirigibles and Zepplins flew using hydrogen (and later helium) and hot air to make the craft ascend, but powered aircraft were an unknown.

There were no lack of inventors - France, in particular, hosted many, and the U.S. had several of their own.  I suspect that knowing the outcome, the drama of the "race" was somewhat lost.

The Wrights were cycle mechanics, and generally well rounded mechanics and engineers.  They set about studying birds and how their wings worked, and researched all that was to be found on attempts with gliders and other craft.  They were surprised at the lack of detailed understanding of the science and the engineering that was known at the time.

My image of their first flight was on a beach in North Carolina, likely near a town, with a crowd watching off-frame from the famous photograph.  I was very surprised to find Kitty Hawk was very isolated and took days to reach by boat and hiking, and was a very small settlement of fishermen.  Impressively, the Wrights had to build a shop at Kitty Hawk, and survive pretty fierce storms, heat, cold and mosquitoes depending on the month, with only the help of a few locals.  What Kitty Hawk had going for it was reliable winds running pretty much constantly, small hills to provide a launch opportunity, and sand to provide a less deadly landing environment.
It is pretty clear that the Wrights did fly, and did beat other American and European competitors, there is little doubt about that, even their contemporaries admitted such.  The Wright's plane flew much better than I imagined, capable of flying for an hour or more and running circuits (e.g. figure 8's, to the next town and back, back and forth across a field), and later versions could take a passenger.

When the Wright's created a plane that worked, they used it to get money for invention - the primary sources were contests (e.g. anyone who can fly for 10 minutes wins $10,000 type events) and military contracts.  The first to express interest were the French, who were worried about their German/Austrian neighbours.  The Wrights were to receive money if they successfully demonstrated their invention.  Thus, Wilbur went overseas to demonstrate the aircraft.

Both brothers had crashes, though neither died from them (I had always though Wilbur died in a crash for some reason).  Wilbur died of Yellow Fever in his 40's, and Orville lived into his '70s, having seen what his invention was capable of doing in wartime.  Though Orville didn't like the destruction his invention could cause, and the blurring of what are wartime targets that came along with it, he never regretted the invention itself.

Finished (E-Reader): "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" by Erik Larson

Erik Larson's "Dead Wake"

David Butler's "Lusitania- a Novel"

I had heard the tale of the Titanic since before I can remember, but I discovered the Lusitania story about the time I started at the University of Windsor.  At that time, I was really looking around for procrastination items, and found the Fantastic Four comics from Marvel and found a large novel, "Lusitania - A Novel" by David Butler, which served my need for something time consuming and "needed to be read".

I can't remember too many details, but the basic storyline that a passenger carrying ocean liner was struck by torpedo(s) from a German U-boat in WWI.

I found "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" by Erik Larson much more recently, and gave it a read.

Even though I knew the basic outline (which I don't think are "spoilers" in a 100 year old tragedy), I found the book a really compelling read.  Larson wove material he gained from letters, postcards, survivor interviews and war records into a narrative outlining the voyage from both the Lusitania and the U-20 perspectives.  Larson also does a good job of setting the world political scene - Wilson (the U.S. president mourning his lost wife and becoming interested in a new love, wanting to keep the U.S. out of the European conflict), the goals of the Germans, to end the war quickly by stopping all supplies to England (similar rationale to the U.S. decision to use the atom bomb in WWII - a faster end to the war saves lives on both sides - at least, that's how the rationalization goes), and the English realism that a sea disaster involving U.S. passengers may be what would be required to get America into the war.

There appears to have been some real dissension in the German government re. the sinking of passenger liners, with different rules of engagement playing at different periods of the war.  U-boat commanders did retain a very high degree of autonomy, and their key performance measure was not necessarily kills, but tonnage - Lusitania was a single kill, but a very large tonnage win for the U-20 commander.  The "stop all incoming traffic" strategy adopted by the Germans was a promise to end the war in 6 months - it was very nearly successful, as the U.S. entered the war likely months before it would have ended with a German victory.

The angst felt by mariners on both sides, with respect to sinking non-military targets, and whether or not to assist with the rescue of survivors was well expressed.  The U-boat commanders took various forms, some assisting and some leaving the scent - their main concern was maintaining concealment - the U-boats were pretty fragile and any collision typically favoured the surface ship - on the English side, there was concern that attempting rescue with valuable ships (e.g. military vessels) would allow easy traps to be set by U-boats (sink a ship, hide, shoot the rescuers when they are sitting, or slow to assist).

All in all, a very good read which does a good job of personalizing the disaster.