Okay, I am not trying to be a flakey fan boy here but the announcement of the new cast for the movie reboot of the Fantastic Four (FF4) has got me feeling some kind of way. Nothing is set in stone as of yet, but multiple reports are circulating that have Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell and Michael B. Jordan attached to it. Though the FF4 have long since been relegated to something of a second tier super hero team relative to Earth’s Most Powerful Heroes the Avengers and the Uncanny X Men in comic book lore, the team featuring Ben Grimm aka the Thing, Sue Storm aka the Invisible Woman, Reid Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, and Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch, was once very popular with several cartoon shows and even two recent, albeit poorly conceived, films in 2005 and 2007. Although the actors portraying the characters were talented, the scripts was hot vomit in a garbage bag that belonged in a dumpster. Most people familiar with the franchise were woefully disappointed.
With Michael B. Jordan, Teller, Mara and Bell attached to this project, the FF4 franchise will have a group of actors whose respective career arcs are trending upward. But I’m not so sure as to the validity of Jordan’s casting. The film will be based on the contemporary comic book reboot of the comic franchise called Ultimate Fantastic Four, which reimagined the characters as younger individuals. The one thing that absolutely gets on my nerves to the umpteenth degree is when people are cast in films, not because of their ability to portray the character, but because of their growing popularity or some subconscious effort to appear politically correct.
Not for nothing, but why was Michael B. Jordan cast as the Human Torch? How are they going to write this into the script? Sue Storm and Johnny Storm are supposedly brother and sister and, last I checked, Kate Mara and Jordan don’t exactly look alike. Yes, this is a black man saying this. I know there are people out there that are going to be like “Oh, it’s just a comic book. You should be more open-minded. It’s no big deal.”
Oh yeah? Well, don’t get mad when you see a remake of Shaft starring Jake Gyllenhaal or a Black Panther comic book movie adaption starring Matt Damon as T’Challa. I am aware that Samuel L. Jackson did a very good job playing the originally white Nick Fury in the Avengers, Thor, Captain America, Hulk and Iron Man movies, but at least Marvel explained that he was actually the son of the original in their Ultimates series.
The FF4 project is not ready to begin shooting yet, and I ain’t trying to take food out of nobody’s mouth. But I am giving this a major side-eye from the rip. We’ll see though.
