The Fantastic Four (film)



In 1992, The Constantin Film production company held the film rights to the Fantastic Four comic book, but they were about to lose said film rights unless they began production by December of that year. Since both the budget and the technology necessary for such a venture were lacking at the time, they instead opted to do a very low-budget film Produced by Roger Corman and directed by Oley Sassone; purely as an Ashcan Copy to maintain the rights, and never released it in theaters, VHS, DVD or any other form. Although a release date was set for 1994 and the cast and crew were told the film would be released, this turned out to be Blatant Lies. According to some fans and critics who got their hands on the movie (circulated via bootleg video in comic-cons and such) not getting released was the best thing about it. Other viewers exhibit rabid devotion to it and demand its official video release. Most people are unaware that the film even exists.

More info here; in case you're interested. Or here, if you got the time. Not to be confused with the 20th Century Fox film.

Tropes found in this film include:

 * Actually a Doombot: Seems like one, or else Doom's gloves are living beings.
 * All Your Powers Combined: Doom's brilliant plan involves taking the team's powers and adding them to his own.
 * Cyborg: Dr. Doom.
 * Intergenerational Friendship: Reed and Ben are college students and apparently good friends with Johnny and Sue who haven't even hit puberty yet.
 * Dawson Casting: Two examples.
 * Reed, Ben, and Victor are seen at the beginning of the film as college students. None of them are college age.
 * When we first see Johnny and Sue, they can't be any older than 12 considering the actors playing them. When we see them ten years later, they should be in their late teens/early 20's (they still live with their mother). The actor and actresses appear to be close to 30 years old.
 * Disney Villain Death: Happens to Doctor Doom at the end.
 * Disability Superpower: Alicia Masters is blind but when Ben Grimm bumps into her, she can "sense" that he feels sorry about it. Sure, she has no super powers to speak of and Ben did get through telling her how sorry he was, her blindness just gives her that ability to sense peoples' emotions somehow.
 * Distracted by the Sexy: Reed tries to tell Johnny that it is too dangerous for him and Sue to go to space with them until he sees Sue for the first time in years. She's apparently sexy enough for him to lose his train of thought and abandon reason all together.
 * Dull Surprise: Reed doesn't seem to react at all during the scene where the Four are irradiated, as opposed to the rather exaggerated reactions of the other three.
 * Evil Laugh: Doom's laugh is so epic that it appears in the background of a scene that has nothing to do with him, and even follows him to his death.
 * Expies: The Jeweler is without question supposed to be the Mole Man. It's unknown why they didn't keep his original name.
 * The Grotesque: The Thing
 * Head Bob: Dr. Doom has a severe case of this.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Young Sue Storm is Harmony.
 * The Jailbait Wait: Reed apparently did this for Sue.
 * The Jimmy Hart Version:Eric and David Wurst's score is essentially slight alterations of many popular John Williams pieces.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: A two million dollar 35mm film can only be seen on noisy second generation VHS tape dubs burnt to dvd.
 * Large Ham: Joseph Culp's performance as Dr. Doom. Strangely, as the Agony Booth's review notes, Culp actually gives a sinister, understated performance in the early sections of the film, only to go batshit insane about half an hour in.
 * Which is absolutely right for Doom.
 * Lost Episode: Lost movie. Well, it was supposed to be lost.
 * Manly Tears: Reed starts to ball when the ER doctor tells him that Victor's burns "were too severe"
 * May-December Romance: Reed's relationship with Sue should be this, although they don't look that much different in age once she grows up.
 * Mood Whiplash: The movie is campy and owes a lot to the old Adam West Batman series but we still see a surprisingly violent shootout between the Jewler's men and Doom's.
 * When Ben wanders the streets, it's a surprisingly dark and depressing scene that might seem appropriate in some gritty 70's drama.
 * No Budget: It was made for $1.4 million and on a shooting schedule lasting only one month, as its only purpose was keeping the filming rights.
 * Personality Powers: The reasoning behind their powers.
 * Precocious Crush: Sue had one on Reed when she was younger. It developed into a relationship years later.
 * Shout-Out: A few examples:
 * Believe it or not, the scene in which Sue grabs the zero-g pen while in space was obviously a direct homage of 2001.
 * Then there's the line, "Holy Freud, Batman." See the Personality Powers section for more info on that one.
 * It may not have been on purpose but when Reed sees Sue for the first time since she grew up, it is almost identical to the shot in Blue Velvet in which the protagonist meets his love interest. David Lynch used the same shot in Eraserhead.
 * Spared by the Adaptation: Mrs. Storm, who in the comics died when Sue and Johnny were relatively young, is depicted as still being alive when the Four have their accident.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Alicia and Ben both instantly fall in love when they bump into each other. They don't even say their names. Alicia immediately goes home and sculpts Ben's face and is even seen licking some of the clay from her fingertips.
 * Likewise, the Jewler has apparently been stalking her and falls in love with her.
 * Take My Hand: Even in his moment of victory, Richards lacks the courage to deliver the final blow.
 * Those Two Guys: Kragstadt and Trigorin.
 * Title Drop: Mrs. Storm does it with enthusiasm and little explanation.
 * Urban Legend: Rumor has it that Marvel bought the film and locked the master copy in a vault so it would never see the light of day. Other accounts claim that Avi Arad burned the negatives himself.
 * Was Once a Man: Doom feels this way.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: The Jeweler was mostly responsible for the Fantastic Four's transformation (long story) and kidnapped Thing's girlfriend, yet most of the main characters never meet him. He simply walks off camera in a scene with Dr. Doom and is never seen or mentioned again.