The Fantastic Four

Oley Sassone 1994

Back in 1994 the production company behind this version of “The Fantastic Four” hurriedly began shooting this film in an effort to prevent losing the rights. They never meant it to be released. However, they apparently never told the cast and crew that, many of who assumed this would be their big break. This film has now become a cult classic, a film that has gained a huge following thanks to the Internet.
Having not seen the more recent version (can it be called a remake?) I can’t compare the two, however it’s fair to assume that the newer one had a bigger budget.

Cult status can sometimes mean a poorly made, badly acted piece of cinema; and as a result I wasn’t holding out much hope as to the quality of this film. I mean it can’t be that great if they never released it!

Four astronauts; Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm are hit while powerful cosmic rays while in space and return to earth with new super powers and an archenemy to fight as well, oh its all go.

I loved this film. Bad cinema does not get any better than this, but then again I don’t really consider this bad cinema, I have seen far worse. The actors in this did a wonderful job despite the poor special effects and cheesy script that they had to work with. Rather amazingly Michael Bailey Smith makes the character of the ‘Thing” hugely likeable and very human despite looking like a walking turd. Alex Hyde-White brings a steely determination to Reed Richards and Jay Underwood has the right amount of youthful exuberance and hot headedness as Johnny Storm. Only Sue Storm (Rebecca Staab) was left rather undiscovered, going from lovesick teenager to love sick young woman without saying much in between.
Joseph Culp’s is prefect as Dr Doom, just the right amount of menace and wise cracks. My personal favourite Dr Doom moment comes when Doom leaves a bunch of his henchmen to finish off the Fantastic Four. However they defeat the baddies and escape. Doom returns, surveys the carnage, and quite brilliantly simply utters “oh”. Well you have to see it to get the full effect but it had me in stitches.

Sometimes the humour is unintentional, such as the blind girls point-of-view shot…think about it. However the film as a whole is not dented by these slight problems, in fact they seemed to make me like it more.
If you ever get the chance to see this film I don’t think you will be disappointed. There is a real sense of fun and enjoyment that you get from this movie, like everyone involved was having a good time, and that’s rare.