Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
The Fantastic Four has finally arrived in the MCU, but not in the way anyone expected. Rather than another tired origin story, we're dropped into Universe 828—a gorgeously realized retro-futuristic world where Marvel's First Family are already established heroes beloved by the public.
What makes this film truly special is how it balances cosmic spectacle with intimate family drama. When we meet Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben, they're facing their greatest challenge yet: impending parenthood. Sue Storm is pregnant, and Reed's anxiety about what their altered genetics might mean for their child drives much of the emotional narrative. Pedro Pascal brings a fascinating vulnerability to Reed Richards—a brilliant mind constantly plagued by feelings of inadequacy, always believing he should be able to do more.
Vanessa Kirby delivers what might be the definitive Sue Storm performance, finally showcasing the character's immense power that comic readers have known about for decades. The climactic sequence where she confronts Galactus while literally in labor is both visually stunning and emotionally resonant—a mother's fierce protection taken to cosmic levels. Meanwhile, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach bring fresh energy to Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm respectively, with their relationship capturing that perfect balance of friendly ribbing and genuine brotherhood.
The film's visual aesthetic deserves special mention—Universe 828 feels like tomorrow as imagined in the 1960s, with flying cars, impossible architecture, and a sense of optimism that's been missing from recent superhero fare. This distinct setting, coupled with the post-credits tease of Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom appearing in Franklin Richards' nursery, suggests an exciting direction for the future of the MCU.
Whether you're a longtime Fantastic Four fan or completely new to these characters, this film offers something genuinely fresh in the superhero landscape. It reminds us why these characters have endured for over sixty years—because at their heart, they're not just superheroes, they're family. And that's fantastic.
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New Video: The Divine Structure Hidden in Superman’s Timeline: https://youtu.be/iHgcBcCSJgM?si=9xmcl76NZR3Sdx3w
Welcome to episode 128 of Project Geekology. We, here, the Fantastic Three, are going to give you all the news about the Fantastic Four, or Five, depending on who you ask. I am one third of your host, anthony, and joining me, as always, is Dakota and I love that.
Speaker 2:The Fantastic Three Alright, yeah, and that's a really good point. Depending on who you ask, depending on how you count, there may be four, there may be five fantastic individuals in this movie, uh, maybe even more, depending on you know what you decide to count. You know, like, we'll find out in a bit, uh, but we're joined, us always again with rich.
Speaker 3:I'm really excited to be here. I'm just I don't know if we could do this podcast today, guys. The truth is, the price might be too high. So I don't know if you guys are going to hear a podcast after this, because the sacrifice that we're all making, that we're being asked to make, is just way too much.
Speaker 2:Specifically by Galactus. Yeah, he asked for a Switch 2.
Speaker 3:Do you know how hard that is? You got to get a tracker on your laptop, ignore all of your classes and then just wait until you can get that system. And then he asked for Grand Theft Auto VI. That's not coming out until like 2029.
Speaker 2:If that, yeah, now Galactus asks a price way too high. But before we get into any of that, let's jump into what we've been up to this past couple of weeks, because we've been a awful week. If you'd like to skip to our discussion of fantastic four, jump to minute marker 1745. Uh, anthony, want to start us off?
Speaker 1:yes, I can, uh nothing too major. I have been messing around with the battlefield 6 beta, uh that that dropped, uh I was playing the the early access for that and then just, uh, just to kind of like I guess, touch my bait, the basis I don't. I want to, um, get a little bit more of like a concise overview of my time at uh, super con without I guess going, guess going too deep or too much time into it. But yes, I know, I think the last episode we recorded I talked a little bit more about it. It was kind of broken up a little bit, but I really did want to kind of talk a little bit more of my overall thoughts of super con this year.
Speaker 1:Super con this year I felt a little bit more disappointed than than last year. Last year I felt like they were really like trying to like move up. They had they had, like this I, I guess a partnership going on with crunchy roll. They had all of critical role. They had a bunch of baldur's gate three people they there's just a lot of people that I felt. I felt like there was a. There was a large step that was being taken last year and I felt like that step was like a step back this year because, like last year, even like their, their badges had, like you know, anime and Crunchyroll themed stuff, whereas this year was, I mean, which it's fine, because it's miami, you know, it was a bunch of like miami stuff, like a beach. One had like a beach in a beach chair, um, another was like a gator, another was, like you know, one of those like walk up cafe places that you would go to, you know, for your cuban coffee, but you feel it was a step down from the cultural impact that a con should have.
Speaker 1:Right, it felt a little smaller too. It was still big but it felt a little smaller. I don't know if more people went this year. I think a lot more people went last year. I mean the traffic was still bad, but for some reason the traffic just didn't seem as bad this year. I was like man, are there? There's like a lot of people, but like I, it was noticeable. There was like to me a little bit of a noticeable difference. But you know, I mean I had fun. Yeah, I went around, I shopped. You know, I had like the, the offerings I I told I already had told you before that your, your buddy star wars theory was there, but overall did you have a good time oh yeah, of course I always have a good time.
Speaker 1:Uh, I just hope that that read pop really, like you know, puts in maybe not at the same scale as new york comic-con, but a little bit more, if that makes sense, I really do hope that they they work on that. Um, you know, maybe, you know, maybe there's a little fatigue because, also because I do go almost every year, I think I need to find a new con to, uh, to actually, um, you know, visit and you know, cause.
Speaker 1:Each con feels the same, but the offerings are different, you know. And then you know the people that were there. You know they had Billy Piper and Christopher Eccleston. 10 years ago I would have cared about that, you know. You know they had Chris Sabat and and Eric Vale. They're like really, you know, they're they voice in Dragon Ball Z Chris Sabat, does you know All Might and and my Hero Academia, uh, eric Vale, uh Trunks, and then, and then he's also sanji from one piece. So I mean they had some decent people there.
Speaker 1:I just I feel like it was smaller. The scale was definitely smaller, which isn't bad to me if I'm going to a smaller convention, but if you're trying to be like the largest convention in south florida, don't scale back. I guess I don't know they had enough. There was enough room. There's a whole other side. Last year they were using the backside of where the will call area was. This side, that whole side was like, you know, just the will call, just that alone. So I was like it already felt smaller, like when I walked in. So but I mean, you know, I guess that that could be. You know, that's just like a gripe that might not hit too hard, you know, for a lot of people. But you know, yeah, just just my, my overall thoughts, um, let's uh throw it over to rich. What have you been up to rich?
Speaker 3:richard, let's see, uh first. Uh, I just came rich related my uh, my wife and son are actually gonna go to anime con up here in new york city on the 24th of august, so after that show I am not going. I am persona non grata in my house for not agreeing to go months ago. Fantasy football draft that day. But I uh, I don't know he's been getting into it. He just came home today with a vegeta. He went, they went to japan village in brooklyn in the city and they he got a pick. He got a couple of dragon ball z guys that he's very excited about back up.
Speaker 2:There's a japan village in brooklyn yep where have you been?
Speaker 3:dakota I can ask my wife more information? I usually those are just like see it. A lot of it is the fact that the anime is like their thing, almost you know, sure, okay, so it's their bond. Yeah, and like he, I don't, I look I we just probably video games for you too yeah, yeah, video games and sports for for us, you know, um, but I'm not uh.
Speaker 3:And also, like you know, they'll get ramen and I. We just had ramen the other day, so I was like I'll peace out on that, but he got some cool stuff from that. Of course, I've been to a lot of baseball and it's been depressing, but I won't really expand on that too much, although I did have a huge victory. My mother-in-law is a huge Mets fan and she never goes to games ever, despite the fact that I go to 40 a year and invite her all the time, and I actually did invite her.
Speaker 2:She made it to one.
Speaker 3:She made it Nice, so she said she had a good time Might go again, so you never know you never know. And I guess the other thing is I'm kind of like Roger Ebert now, I just go to the movies all the time. So since we last, since the summer right, we've done Superman, I obviously saw that, saw Fantastic Four, saw Jurassic Park Rebirth, saw Jurassic Park Rebirth, and then we're going to go see Bad Guys this Wednesday Bad.
Speaker 3:Guys, a couple of good movies, really enjoying them. I thought Jurassic Park was what it was going to be. It was just cool to kind of see it overall. Hot conflict yeah, it was really weird to see that chick from the Red Room suddenly be with dinosaurs.
Speaker 3:Romanoff yeah, it made sense, though, because a mercenary, so uh, uh, which I thought was kind of she had that skill set yeah but that's really yeah, that's been uh, just kind of uh, you know summer, so I did another lord of the rings rewatch and uh, of course, that's about it. How are you deck? What have you been up to?
Speaker 2:really quick, anthony. You you said that you you watched the naked gun recently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah I was just thinking about that. Yeah, I, I saw the naked gun. I went with, um, my, my stepfather, uh, I was. I was pleasantly surprised. It was actually like really good, and it pulled it off because, you know, I don't know if you saw the original with uh, leslie nielsen, but, like you know, it's like very kind of slapstick, just you know, very brunt, stupid humor. But I and I was like man, how how is uh Liam Neeson gonna do it?
Speaker 2:I'm so used to him being the action guy, right, yeah and so or the very stoic guy he's never been comedy guy in my, my book, yeah and so he, he maintains that he is the stoic guy but he does it like funnily, you know, like he's funny with it.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, no, I was really surprised they they had some like running gags going on throughout the film. That like really was funny. Yeah, no, it was good.
Speaker 2:I, I had fun and and I don't know if you noticed that like it rated like pretty high so everyone that I see in my my circle on twitter, uh, I, I'm, I'm primarily in like film twitter section of twitter.
Speaker 2:They seem to have really enjoyed it because of the fact that you're gonna laugh at some point, you're gonna laugh a lot actually because there's about a, there's a joke every 20 seconds roughly, you know like it's that, like packed with gags, so, um, and a lot of times like they, they play off of each other, apparently the gags. So yeah, I've heard good things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, definitely it was a fun time.
Speaker 2:Good Jumping over to me. I had a lot going on this past couple of weeks, but stuff that I've been getting into recently is I watched the Big Lebowski for the first time. That was mind blowingly funny, like that was literally the funniest thing I've ever seen. It's been a while, but yeah, it is funny. I I do like that talk about movies that are played straight but are just like so incredibly ridiculous that really I I'm gonna be watching it again and yeah, I'm going to iceland in like a week and a half or so, or no, I'm gonna be in iceland in a week no iceland for you no iceland for me, but there is a Big Lebowski themed bar in Iceland that has a bunch of white Russian cocktail mixes.
Speaker 2:So I'm so excited, I'm so excited to go. I was there like last year.
Speaker 3:I wish I would have known this, I didn't even know Anyway.
Speaker 2:So, big Lebowski, good time, I have introduced my wife to Smallville. So we're like seven episodes deep into season one.
Speaker 1:Dude, I started watching that again too, man.
Speaker 2:We got to cover Smallville season one soon.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, I'm on season three now, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, would you be interested in doing Smallville season one for next week?
Speaker 1:Yes, let's do it.
Speaker 2:Because I'm planning a Smallville day tomorrow.
Speaker 1:We're going to just bang it out, all right, yeah, let's do it. Rich, you got to jump on it All right next week.
Speaker 3:Smallville. I mean I could do it tomorrow. You want to do it in 12 hours, like, let's go, I'm ready.
Speaker 2:I love that show. I am.
Speaker 3:I can't wait to talk about the mystery of the mystery of the week. Well, the twin. Um, what? The? The? The, the guy who played Iceman in the first X-Men movie? Yeah, like his twin is in the show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I think like he, I think they both are. I think like one of them plays like Jimmy or something, and the other one plays like one of like the dangers of the week, but they were like five seasons apart, so right, something like something weird like that, but I'm, I'm, oh, I'm excited yeah, so I experienced, or, yeah, I'm introducing my wife to this novel.
Speaker 2:She's really excited, she's loving it. Um, it's just that, it's just like a one of those amazing times for tv, in the sense that, like you were going to get 20 plus episodes a season easily. Like that was a guaranteed thing back in the days of cable and you'd get it once a year. You don't have to wait three years for the next season to only drop three episodes. You know, like it's, it's just that good. Um, and it was just one of those. It's, it's a, it's a time that's kind of nostalgic at this point where, like, like no cell phones in sight, you know.
Speaker 1:It's a perfect time capsule for the time.
Speaker 2:It really is.
Speaker 1:When you watch it, you're like ah, yes, the early 2000s, when we were not taken over by technology.
Speaker 2:Yes, all right, so that happened. I also want to take a brief moment to talk about a play that I saw recently. It was the debut of a play that a friend of mine was a friend of mine it was. A part of his name is Ryder and it was. You know, it's a very low budget play it was. It was free for those in attendance, like if you can get a free ticket. It was free, but it marked the 80th anniversary of the bombing in Hiroshima and it was August 6th of 1945. That was the day that the first bomb was dropped on Japan.
Speaker 2:So the play itself is called the Diary of Yoko Moriwaki and it's a story of, it's a true story of a 13-year-old girl who was given a diary at school to, you know, like, just go about her day over the course of a couple months, and it's a couple months leading up to her death, basically in Hiroshima. So it's through her eyes, the war from home, and it's just such a fantastic time capsule of a period that I've never even heard of, not that I've obviously heard of the bombing, but the point of view from a teenager, a 13-year-old teenager who is very much pro-Japan but very much of the mindset that everything is terrible in her homeland and how that is leading up to the destruction of almost 100,000 lives in a second. It's a really crazy story and it's a true story. So I was very happy to have witnessed that uh in a play form and I really I hope that that play gets picked up, uh for more showings, because it was.
Speaker 2:It was like again it was a free play, that uh was specifically for the 80th anniversary of that bombing and uh. But it's a story that deserves to be told and I'm really profoundly moved by the art of it and being able to translate that for a modern audience in America. So I may seem like I'm currently out of breath right now and that's because I've been dealing with a lot personally this week. So just right before I went to go see that play, I was heading home from work and my car got sideswiped on the highway by a car going 100 miles an hour and it took out my driver's side mirror.
Speaker 1:Did it hit anything else like your door, or was it just the mirror?
Speaker 2:It was just the mirror, thankfully.
Speaker 2:So it should have been an easy fix. Went through insurance. My deductible was like $, just the mirror. Thankfully, so it was it. Should it should have been an easy fix. Uh, went through insurance. My deductible was like 700, so that would be the amount that I would need to pay. If anything past that point my insurance would pick up. But, uh, yeah, so not a not a great deductible. But when I ended up like taking it to the place that they recommended, they charged me like 350 ish. When I picked it up it was almost exactly $700. Just now, like I literally just picked it up.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:I'm looking at I'm looking at the prices, dude, they. They dragged me through the mud and there's like app, like so they, they ordered the wrong part to begin with. They return that part, but then they hid that first part that they ordered in the miscellaneous. Like I'm looking at the prices, like of the original estimate and the current price that I paid. They definitely hid that price of the original item that they returned in my miscellaneous. And then they charged me for painting of the part that they got. But the part is like a matte black, like it's it's. It's like black plastic, like there's no paint on it. Like so they, they charged me for that. Um, they charged me to quadruple the original price of the the mirror. It was like they absolutely scraped me across the floor. So I'm I'm really excited to you know, fight with them on that, because um yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no. Yeah, there was some sort of scamming going on there.
Speaker 3:For future reference, if you knock off your mirrors. I'm quite skilled in the art of replacing side mirrors for people, whether they be low electronics or even high electronics, with heated mirrors and all the rotation and stuff.
Speaker 2:If it happens again, give me a call.
Speaker 3:I've done it myself.
Speaker 2:I'd much rather go to you and give you a few bucks than spend seven times the amount at a place that clearly they were committing insurance fraud without reaching the price of the insurance uh, the insurance deductible, like so any higher and they would have had to charge the insurance company and the insurance company would have fought that. They don't expect me to fight that, but I will, um, because it it's clear fraud and never patron that place ever again yep, yep, um.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I'm so sorry we are rambling and we have some fantastic stuff to talk about, like absolutely at least four, four fantastic things to talk about. Uh, maybe five gotta give anthony we actually do. I, I would have totally. I, I completely forget about herbie every single time. Um what are your guys?
Speaker 3:initial thoughts on fantastic four so I thought this was in terms of casting. I, my wife, did point something out that she thought that the the visual difference in age between um, reed and sue threw her off a bit. Like she and she didn't have a problem with Johnny or um or Ben Grimm when he was in his humor form, but she just felt like that Sue looked a lot younger than Pedro Pascal's Reed. And I have to, you know, I mean I tried to argue like hey, you know she could be older, but she, you know, gets her hair done so she doesn't have any grays showing, unlike Reed does. Or I also tried to explain that Reed kind of went gray a little early.
Speaker 3:But uh, other than that little gripe, I really I really enjoyed it. I mean I thought it was, I thought it was fun. I didn't like superman, it didn't really insult me by reintroducing every single idea to me, um, and I think the only thing I really have negative to say about it is that I I'm really upset that john malkovich wasn't in it, that he was cut from the movie yeah, so if you watch the trailers for the film, uh, you will notice that, uh, john malkovich has what seems to be a pretty substantial scene, like it doesn't seem like he's the kind of character that is just in a one-off moment, you know, like.
Speaker 2:So I'm curious what the original intent of that was, and it's clear that they cut a lot of things out so that they can get the film under a two-hour uh benchmark. But, um, yeah, yeah it's. I find that that's a really interesting cut that they made. Uh, anthony, what are your thoughts on fantastic four?
Speaker 1:I thought it was pretty good. It was definitely one of the better marvel movies that we've seen, you know, in some time. Um, it's the best fantastic four movie we've gotten since, like the first one years ago, you know, even the. The second one of that one was not too good, and then the one that we got, I think, what 2014? That one was just a straight travesty I actually haven't seen it.
Speaker 2:I've never seen the 2014. Is that the one with?
Speaker 3:the 17 year old playing reed. Yes, okay, yeah, I I didn't. I have not. I I didn't watch it either.
Speaker 1:Yeah it just yeah, that one. It was really, really weird, but it was pretty good. I liked the world. I thought that the world was really cool. It gave me and I really love the aesthetic that it has. It's like very Fallout, you know, retro-futuristic, you know, like their technology is like like outdated but like more futuristic than us at the same time, like how does that work? But yeah, no, I I liked it, you know, and it's, it's cool. I noticed that. Uh, well, I guess we'll go a little bit deeper, but yeah, this is my initial thoughts. But yeah, man, it was good. It was good, I I it, which is a hard thing to say about Marvel movies these days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't want to like I was probably going to say something similar where I have been on a Marvel low end in terms of like, what I've enjoyed or what I've allowed myself to partake in. There's a couple of things that I just I haven't had the time to watch, haven't cared to watch Recently. I haven't watched Ironheart. I didn't watch Agatha all along. I know that there's Eyes of Wakanda. I probably will watch that, but I'm not in any rush. I still haven't watched Thunderbolts. I think that just came out for Disney+ or at least home video. So I'm I I am excited to see that one because I have heard that it's fantastic. But again, I, um, I just I'm not excited to watch it, if that makes sense. But I I knew I wanted to see fantastic four and I wanted to give marvel my money for finally doing something that I wanted to watch, and I've been asking for Fantastic Four for a long time.
Speaker 2:I've been asking for X-Men for a long time. Really quickly, let's just talk about X-Men. They got the rights for 20th Century Fox in 2019. So it's been six years since they've had the rights to that, six years since they they've had the rights to that. They are just now, like within the past month, like saying that they are looking for writers for these films, that they're potentially casting roles for the x-men films. I think that that's actual ip suicide. Like, why why would you, as Marvel, wait six years to even start working on potentially the biggest franchise within your franchise? You know you do not own Spider-Man, you will not own Spider-Man ever, if Sony has anything to say about it. Why would you wait so long to do anything about Fantastic Four and even longer to do anything about X-Men? If this was any other company, they would have had a movie within two years. I'm not saying that they should have rushed it, but they should have started working on something immediately, because currently they are floundering In the box office.
Speaker 2:Like Fantastic Four is a fantastic movie, I really enjoyed it. Like fantastic four is a fantastic movie, I really enjoyed it. It's again, it's not perfect, but I I do think it is worth more than the global cume has, you know, collected at this point. So it's it's interesting to know that. Uh, you know, like we are currently seeing a very, very low, like almost like phase one numbers for movies, um, for marvel and that's that's. That's bizarre to me, because they were such heavy hitters for so many years. You had films like black panther, captain marvel, a number of captain america films that were all breaking uh, a billion dollars at the box office. And it was easy, but it was easy money.
Speaker 3:I I think part of it is. I think that they're releasing on Disney Plus too quickly, Like look how fast Thunderbolts is already there. It could be that.
Speaker 3:It could be that If it's not something that you feel like you care if you get spoiled, right, if you're not into that, like right now. Like you, you're a perfect example, dakota. You've kind of fallen out. You don't watch a lot of the stuff, right. So now so much comes out that you can just kind of comfortably wait, and it's on disney plus, so correct, I mean, and you're a moviegoer, right. So like I, I am since the pandemic, like I love the streaming option, like I kind of liked when some of the stuff came out and it came out the same day on disney than it did in the theaters, right, that was fun, that was a fun time, you know, and I think that spoiled a lot of comic book fans and I think now it's like, well, this stuff is not that great, I can just wait yeah, I was gonna say we, you can't put off the fact that like the quality has gone down and even then, like you know, you know so.
Speaker 1:So, like I did end up seeing Thunderbolts. Well, I would say that Thunderbolts is definitely one of their better movies that they've come out with and, like the more recent years, it still is missing that quality that we used to have with marvel movies, like there was definitely some qa that was going on back in the day. That is just gone now and you know it's like they're and it's not even like and it's the crazy thing is is like they're not even like taking, it's not even like risk taking. You know they're like playing, it's like trying to play it safe, but like it's not even like quality. You know it's. You're, you're getting like a knockoff. You know you're getting like a knockoff movie rather than, like you know, an mcu movie. You know it's, know, and I'm going to throw it to you, dakota, you know, because you're repping Superman today, would you say that the MCU movies of today do they match up or do they hold up to the Superman the movie 1975, gold standard 1978.
Speaker 2:Oh 1978. Yeah, the gold standard, uh, 1978, oh 1978. Yeah, uh, the gold standard. The reason anthony says that is because on our zoom call I have a superman.
Speaker 2:The movie background currently from our previous episode. I just I haven't changed it um, anthony has a wonderfully um appropriate fantastic four background for this episode and rich has a wonderfully appropriate battle star galactica um uh background. No, we call it battle, it's actually just the death star behind it. Yeah, and Rich has a wonderfully appropriate Battlestar Galactica background. We call it Battle, it's actually just the Death Star behind it. So, anyway, your question is do they hold up to the standard of the original Superman or are you being facetious?
Speaker 1:No, well, I was kind of joking. But I remember what you said that Feige was saying about Superman. And then when Superman came out he was like oh well, it's not superhero fatigue, because people went out to go see that. And then you said that he would go and show people this movie Superman, the movie from 1978, to show them what quality is Right from 1978. To like show them what quality is.
Speaker 2:Right, okay, so let's uh, let's back up just a hair, uh, so I can explain what I'm what I said. Uh, so according to a couple sources, including the, the novel, uh, the reign of Marvel studios, um, which is a book that came out a couple of years ago, which is a fantastic read, I I highly recommend the reign of marvel studios to any fan of just movies in general. You don't even have to have watched marvel studios films to enjoy it, because it's a history of the studio coming into its shape. But apparently in that book, uh, and and other interviews, feige has mentioned that he takes people to watch, uh, specifically directors when, when they get cast to join the MCU for a role or whatever, he brings those directors to watch the original Superman movie, and that is basically his gold standard for the dawn of superheroes and not to be encumbered by the weight of Marvel Studios. I guess, because that's something that the original Superman movie does it's not weighted down by what we expect from a superhero movie, and that's what's so freeing about it. But I cannot say that that ever happens in a Marvel movie past Phase 1.
Speaker 2:Every Marvel movie, with the exception of Guardians of the Galaxy, has felt very much like a Marvel movie. It's just part of the DNA, it's part of the production process, it's part of the factory system that they have going on with Marvel Studios. So as far as whether these movies have that original sheen that is the gold standard of what Superman produced, produced in 78 I would say, you know, in many cases they're better movies. Some, some of them, are much better, but they don't have that, uh, that vibe of the original one. And as far as like marvel today versus marvel on the like phase one, phase two eras, they have nailed down a formula that they try to encompass with every movie. It's a three-act phase of each film that leads towards a bigger picture, and that is the case for pretty much every single Marvel movie that has ever been made.
Speaker 2:But I think the original Phase 1 films have a certain level of uniqueness because they didn't have a boiled down formula at that point. So there there is some. There's a big difference. You know and you can even feel that formula in fantastic four. You know there's a lot of cut stuff from it, but you can you can totally 100 if you did not know that this was a marvel movie and you watched this movie but you'd seen other marvel movies in the past, you would be like, oh, this kind of reminded me of some of the other marvel movies that I've I've seen, but in a unique way, and I don't want to denigrate uh, fantastic four, it's just, it is formulaic, like that's, that's just part of the the baked in structure. You know you're gonna, if you're gonna bake cookies, you have to go a certain route. You know you have to crack the eggs at a certain point, you have to add the sugar at a certain point. It's just part of the the process for marvel yeah, you know um I do but go ahead.
Speaker 3:I do think that another part of the problem that we don't talk about a lot is the next generation is not reading comic books. Sure, right, like they're not into soup. Like when the when phase one came out and I'm I'm a years older than you guys, but it was like, oh my goodness, this right, because we never got that. Like, we had sure we had Superman, and then I was gone and we had, you know, we had Michael Keaton, batman for a little bit, right, but we didn't have great Marvel showings like this. So I just think that, like it caught the. I think it caught the right generation at the right time, right, I'm 43 and I would say that very few of my friends outside of you guys that are my age are getting excited about the stuff. They're it's and it's almost like it's too much, so they feel behind. Like I have friends who love this stuff, but they're like it's like homework and I'm I'm behind, I'm a semester behind you know you mentioned something.
Speaker 2:Uh, you mentioned that there was a certain level, a certain level of specialness. When they first came out, this was something that hadn't happened before. Oh man, this guy, this, this producer, he's saying that this is all going to lead to the avengers. So wait, thor is going to team up with Captain America and Iron man and maybe even the Hulk. Wow, and they're more recognizable too. There's nothing special about going to see a Marvel movie these days besides the big team-ups. Obviously those are special.
Speaker 2:Or the finales of certain things Like Guardians of the Galaxy 3, that was a very special movie. It was a fantastic story. It was just well crafted and it was the end of something, and it's something that we don't experience a lot of in the mcu, and ends are good. When it comes to narratives, you know like you need solid endings to things for you to have resolution, and if that ending never comes, you will just drift away from the story over time, and I think that's what a lot of people are experiencing currently. And there's this I can keep going with with the mc we need some competition, man.
Speaker 1:We need honestly, we need to dc you like, we need those movies to like. Keep on kicking it, bro, like we need a great job with superman. You know that was good. You know, hopefully, supergirl solid. You know, I know that they're working on some. You know castings for other, for other characters, but you know, I I feel like, I feel that we can, we can trust that that sean gunn's gonna do some, some solid stuff. Man, you know, I thought his version, his iteration of the suicide squad was pretty good and yeah, man, superman.
Speaker 2:So so yeah, and if you, if you guys have seen the uh, the set photos that are coming out of the spider-man uh brand, uh, brand new day uh film that are coming out. If you look online and look up spider-man photos, it looks phenomenal, like they. That actually looks like it's going to be a really really good spider-man movie because they're filming everything practically. They're filming the swinging through the the city, practically. It looks amazing. And, um, it actually looks like the actor is swinging from a web. It's actually really, really cool. So I I'm not over marvel, I'm just having a low period and I I do plan to get back into it and I'm excited to see thunderbolts. And getting back to the topic at hand, I really did enjoy my time with fantastic four. I was reticent to see it because of my malaise currently, but I was. I I immediately like, re-watched it. I I went to go see it a second time. It was just something that really felt new for me, even though there was that formula.
Speaker 1:Wait a second. You said you went to go see it a second time because of the Avatar trailer.
Speaker 2:Okay, we've got to take a step back. I did actually. That was something that I was deeply, deeply excited to visit and then revisit. You know, like, let's talk about that Avatar trailer. I know, rich, you haven't even seen the movies, right?
Speaker 3:No. I know, I have like a rough idea that, like you know, scientists were able to basically like inhabit someone of, like go into the world um and interact with, and there's like a war.
Speaker 2:Alien life form. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know like the general strokes, the broad stroke okay, um, it's, it's james cameron's, like it's his, it's his star wars you know it's his baby it's.
Speaker 2:It's the project that he's wanted to work on since the early 90s and he's finally capable of doing it because uh, cgi has made its way and he, he, you know. But anyway, so the the trailer for, or the teaser rather for, uh, fire and ash, the third avatar film, has uh dropped and it's just mind-blowing visuals, like it's just there's gonna be so much in that movie. That is just. I'm so excited about um and this is the wrong podcast to like gush about it, but I did really think it was cool and, uh, apparently they did this everywhere. You watched all the trailers leading up to the movie. Then they show the ads for the cinema or whatever it is, then the lights turn off and then they show you the avatar trailer as if, like, you're starting the movie, so it's actually attached to the picture and I think that that's just. It was brilliant and it made that trailer feel like it was part of the ticket price and that was cool. That was really cool.
Speaker 2:But let's take it back. Let's continue to talk about Fantastic Four. We keep getting sidetracked four. We keep getting sidetracked and there's so much that um is bottled up in the world of fantastic four and, like the, the behind the scenes of the movie, that it's so easy to get uh derailed by the discussion of culture as a whole. But, um, I think the movie does deserve to be spoken about, you know, just as is, because I really liked uh universe 8, like I thought that was just gorgeous. Was it 828 or was it 818?
Speaker 1:No, it was 828.
Speaker 3:Because Kirby's birthday is like 828 something.
Speaker 2:That's correct. Yes, they showed that at the end. I wasn't sure because I know that in Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness we go to Earth 818.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2:So I might have got those confused, but yeah, all right. 828 um, let's talk about that. Just because it was such a unique setting, um, it was far different from anything that we had seen in marvel before. It almost has like a post-modern, uh sci-fi look. You know like it's. It's something that you would expect from like before the bombs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, something like that, or like original concept art for, like, in Disney World or Disneyland, the Tomorrowland section of Disney World. You know like it's that this is what the future is going to look like. It's going to be rockets everywhere. There's going to be flying cars. There's going to be towers that are just random shapes when are they? Where are they? Where are they? There's going to be robots uh, you know like, serving us food in our 60s styled, uh, abodes. It's. It's just a really.
Speaker 2:You know, like, when marvel decides to bring all these universes together, when they bring, like, eventually, these characters are going to make their way into 616 or whatever. I think that they're. No, I don't think I know that they're not going to do this, but because and I and I think that that's ridiculous that they're not going to do this but they absolutely should take advantage of this opportunity to bring the entire marvel universe into 818, 828, like I think that that is such a world rife with opportunity. I think that whole setting change is perfect for throwing in the X-Men when they finally get into the picture. You know, because it's still 60s-ish. You know like they have a lot that they can work with in this world and I feel like they're barely tapping the surface and, yeah, I think that's really cool, the surface, and I'm yeah, I think that's really cool.
Speaker 2:Um, so let's talk about the actual fantastic five. Like what? What are, uh, our thoughts on? So rich? You mentioned that, um, uh, your wife had an issue with the age gap between pedro pascal and vanessa kirby, and there is an age gap there that I think they're 13 years apart, like the actors themselves.
Speaker 3:But what did you actually think of the, the portrayals of the character out characters plural outside of you know that discrepancy, so the way I derided the other fantastic four movies, saying that reed looked like he was 13, like it wasn't that game-breaking for me. Um sure, and maybe it's because, like I mean, you know, I mean it's, it's not out of the question. I mean, in the comics I'm fairly certain that they're closer in age than 13 years, but that didn't bother me too much. I thought Reed did a really good job, not Reed, sorry. Pedro Pascal did a really good job as Reed. I mean, I did speak about my Pedro Pascal, what's it called?
Speaker 2:You have an actual Pedro Pascal fatigue. Yes, yeah, pascal, um what's it called? You have an actual pedro pascal fatigue? Yes, yeah, I'm just.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of people do you know I love him, but I want him to be who I want him to be certain people and like I, I guess my, my thinking is and it seems like he's signed on right, like he's gonna be in 616 yeah, presumably right.
Speaker 3:So it's, you know, it's it's gonna be a while with him, uh, and you know it's not like these movies are coming out quickly either. You know it's. It's gonna be a while with him, uh, and you know it's not like these movies are coming out quickly either, you know. So I wonder if that age difference will maybe even be more pronounced looking in a couple of years, uh, when they finally come out with another movie. But I thought that he did a really good job.
Speaker 2:I I really felt reed's feelings of inadequacy yeah and he does have that in the comics, like he's a very competent person, but he struggles with the limits of his own mind.
Speaker 3:And I love that it wasn't just. He's a brainiac, right? He's a brainiac who then allows himself to actually feel worse about everything because he believes he has the ability to do so much it's, yeah, such a great dynamic.
Speaker 1:You know like he's too much into his own head yeah yeah, so I what did you?
Speaker 2:what? I'm sorry, um sorry rich. Go ahead, keep going no.
Speaker 3:So I thought what did you guys think about reed anthony?
Speaker 1:um, he, he's solid, I it. I do kind of feel you about the, the, the Pedro fatigue. He has been in a lot and it's like you know we've got some other actors that could be portraying some of these characters. I'm not saying you know Mr Fantastic in particular, but you know, yeah, they have been casting him for a lot and you know you got to allow for people to miss something, to for them to want more. You know, and you know you, you can't just like allow everybody to be gluttons and to, you know, receive all this content with this one particular actor. No man, you gotta put him here, put him there, you know, and just allow people to enjoy it. You know, not to shove their face. But as far as his, his portrayal of of reed richards, uh, I think he did a pretty solid job. You know, yeah, like you said, some for somebody being so brilliant to be so like trapped in their mind, you know, about being able to do more, feeling feelings that they should be able to do more.
Speaker 2:You know yeah, um, jumping on the uh, pedro pascal fatigue. I don't want to like beat it to death, but it is funny because, um, when fantastic four first dropped, he was in two other movies currently playing in theaters, and the story is not just I've seen that dude, I've seen that video.
Speaker 2:He's in materialists and he's in eddington. And not only that. Not only that, he was slated to be in the movie weapons that just dropped this week. Uh, the horror movie weapons. Um, he was. He was supposed to play the character that josh brolin currently plays in the movie, but he was too booked so he was they recast the whole movie uh engagements, or six projects that he's working on he was.
Speaker 2:He was stretched too thin, but not as, oh, actually, no, there is a moment in this movie where reed is stretched a little too thin, um, but uh, let's, let's jump over to vanessa kirby, because I think that she is magical as a sue storm like she, my god, the, the ending, uh, the, the. The fact that, like you know, they finally use sue storm to her like potential, like in their comics. She's, she's one of the more more powerful individuals, um, and we barely got that much of that in the previous movies, but now they really showed.
Speaker 1:You know, she can one on one with Galactus, and you know we haven't really gotten her in in like physical or, uh, in movies, where, where she's done you know that kind of scale of fighting and she's really yeah, yeah, she was I. I thought that that vanessa kirby did a fantastic job as sue storm it's almost like that mother strength that you sometimes hear about.
Speaker 2:You know, like when a kid is like underneath a car, mothers will suddenly find the strength to lift the car, and it's a known thing that can happen based on, just like, mother's instincts and adrenaline just taking over. So the fact that you know she is such a powerful individual, plus Galactus had her child in that moment, it was just like a recipe for disaster for galactus because, like you're not going to stop a mother, uh, you know, trying to save their child and I, I love that. I, I really love that. Um, I think she did a fantastic job. Um, what did you think, rich of vanessa?
Speaker 3:she was, I think I mean other than mole man. I think she was the strongest, the strongest, uh, strongest actor like because the casting, because she's amazing, I can't. There's nothing I'm going to add to what you guys just said. Right, because it's yeah, sure, yeah I feel the same way. But what's a paul walter hauser or whatever? Uh, as mole I I, I was giddy, like I was excited, like you know, I was like oh the moloids and, uh, I'm glad that you know, I know, you know they ended up cutting out.
Speaker 3:Um, what's his name? Red ghost, which was, which was the character, uh, the actor we spoke about earlier being cut out, and they did that kind of montage of of of their past fights. But when I saw the literal cover of the first appearance of Mole man, right, and even they had the cover of them battling the giant green guy, who's the one I forget now.
Speaker 2:Yes, which is from the very first cover. Like, they almost showed the exact cover of the first Fantastic Four comic, which I was blown away by. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they almost showed the exact cover of the first Fantastic Four comic, which I was blown away by. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That was some really good.
Speaker 2:Some deep cuts for the fans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was solid. Like I did notice that also myself. Oh yeah, so the actor of Mole man was also in Naked Gun.
Speaker 2:Oh is he? Yeah, he is. He's so funny. He's so funny man, nice. I liked the dynamic of him and Sue. They don't really explain it.
Speaker 3:He's just like he respects Sue. There's a prequel comic or like a pre-movie comic, that if you read it they explain the dynamic between the two of them.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm going to read it. I love tie-in comics. I love tie-in and novels. I did not realize that was a thing. Um, I I tend to actually consume more thai and material than I consume the material itself. Um, which, dude, if you look at my audio like audible library, it's like 250 books and like 90 of its th's tie-in novels of like Star Wars and different franchises. I'm a monster. But what did you guys think of Johnny Storm played by Joseph Quinn? We've met Joseph Quinn in Stranger Things, eddie.
Speaker 1:Munson, I don't know who.
Speaker 2:Rich, you watch Yep. So he played Eddie Munson in Stranger Things and a lot of people didn't think that he had the acting chops for a character like Johnny Storm, but I was 100% sold.
Speaker 3:I kind of said to myself, eddie Munson, I was like no way, and it's definitely a different, and I think I appreciated it. I don't know, I don't think I read tons of Fantastic Four growing up, I just wasn't. I also think that I may have been a little bit phased out because of the whole. The FF were kind of phased out a little bit, as were X-Men for a bit. X-men was always my jam so I was never going to let go of them. But when Fantastic Four was no longer widely available, I'll call it like you know, or being pushed by marvel as much I wasn't reading.
Speaker 3:So a lot of my johnny storm is from like chris evans um movie and like the the ribbing and I. I'm used to a little bit more of a contentious friendship with Storm and thing, but we've seen that. So I liked this change in the dynamic. I don't know if I buy him being like a super. I guess it makes sense right that he's also a scientist, because that's a change they had here, where he's this amazing scientist who basically, with like four words, is able to uncover an entire language.
Speaker 2:Right, he's able to start piecing together. I like that they did that.
Speaker 1:Because, dude, this guy's an astronaut.
Speaker 2:Come on now.
Speaker 1:You can't make him a meathead Like he's got to know something. I mean, you got to be, you have to have somewhat of a brain to like be able to go up to space, you know. So I do like that. They did that.
Speaker 3:And then katie perry um, sorry, I just said katie perry out loud. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that and then um what he said you have to be. You have to be smart to go to space. So I just said katie perry's, just that's my, my.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that was let's keep it going, let's keep it going.
Speaker 1:But but I I did like that. They did have, like you know, they, they, they did have some like jab kind of jabs here and there between Johnny Storm and thing Ben Grimm.
Speaker 2:I like that. I like the banter. That's something that always has to happen in these movies to some degree. There has to be some level of like, not necessarily disagreement, but um playful banter and jabs at each other's expense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that, yeah and and the actors kind of like do that in real life too. I don't know if you've seen that if you watch the video of them, like in an interview and and then, like joseph quinn's, just like looking over at um what oh yes, that's such a funny and he's like making him laugh and and the funny thing about it is that we've all been there.
Speaker 1:We've always had, we've all had that friend that have been trying to get us to laugh in like the worst times I love that, I love that.
Speaker 2:I love their dynamic so much. And just to jump on like uh, the the johnny storm parade, I guess, uh, I really I think it was a cool idea for him to. You know, he he has been clearly interested in these alien messages for a while. He has like 20 something tapes all like for, uh, the current silver surfer. I think her name is shara, shara bell shala, is that shala? I keep getting confused with uh, shara bay, which is in in star wars. Uh poe dameron's mother, I, I, their, their names are very similar. I will always and I will continue to mess it up, but anyway, I love that all these messages are are sent to her, um, and they, they kind of explain it in a certain way and he's able to try to like translate it based on, uh, that, that one phrase, um, that colloquialism that she was able to impart on him. I thought that was so cool. That was so cool.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about the thing really quick, not really quick, actually. Let's, let's give him, let's give him a little spotlight. I, I think, uh, hold on. What's the actor's name? I always forget it. His name is Eben Moss, bakrak, bakrak. I mean, the cadence of the character's voice was kind of like perfect it was it's always what I kind of envisioned the thing to talk like and to like act like the certain swagger that he added to the role. You don't need like a really gravelly voice, you don't need a really deep voice or anything, you just need someone who's your best friend, you know who you play video games with, that's, that's, that's the thing right there, and I I think that he kind of nailed that role and, uh, I I want to see more of that actually they gave him like that og kind of look also, you know, like the way that the thing high brows yeah, yeah I, uh, I, I really liked, I like, I liked, I definitely like the portrayal better this time around.
Speaker 3:Uh, or I mean the way he looks visually like, definitely better than michael chiklis's uh, uh thing.
Speaker 2:I not, no, no, no hate on michael chiklis either like I, I I do like that role. But yeah, go ahead. You know, I think he looks better.
Speaker 3:I think he does. I think he looks better. I think he does. I think he looks better. I think he's portrayed as he reminded me very much of Raphael from the original Turtles movie in that first Fantastic Four where he's got to be the angry guy. It's almost like he's one-dimensional. He's angry because he's hurt. You know, you're talking about Chick-fil-A's character.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I feel like they didn't. They gave him a little bit more nuance here In one way. That hurt me, but I understand why they did it. So I love the clobbering time. I share this with both of you. I'll share this with the show. I'm share this with both of you. I'll share this with the show.
Speaker 3:Uh, I'm also a wrestling fan and I was watching wrestling and there's a wrestler whose name is cm punk. He's, uh in wrestling circles, uh, pretty good and uh, he's a pretty big star and for his entire career. When he comes out to the ring he gets on one knee, he taps his wrist and he goes and then he yells it's clobbering time and he's been doing it his whole career, you know. So, actually, at an event this weekend, uh, this past weekend, he came out in his gear but an homage to the fantastic four, and it killed me that. Uh, you know that apparently, in the movie, in the movie's canon, uh, ben grim never actually says it's clobber and time, it's just from the cartoon show and he kind of hates it, uh, so that was like it was funny, but he eventually embraces it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for all of its yeah because johnny storm eggs him on right, like, like, that's one of those moments where you like say it, yeah, say it yeah, I like that moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I I really. You know, what I like about this movie is that we get them already in a place where they've existed for a while. They're being celebrated, and now they're in a place where their lives are about to change because Sue Storm is pregnant. Yeah, that's a good point, it was so nice to see like people not running away from ben grim, like just walking down the street, the thing um yeah, like they actually.
Speaker 3:You know the kids were like pick up the car.
Speaker 1:Pick up the car you know like, yeah, I thought I that was a endearing, uh kind of moment. That was whole there is a deep.
Speaker 2:There is a deep sadness like that you see in the portrayal, uh, you see in the performance yes um, like, there's a great scene where he's like looking at an old, uh old footage of himself in in his, like, human form and, uh, the tv cuts off and then you see the, the reflection that he's actually looking at. It's like the, the true self, and he never lets it kill his vibe. He never lets it kill anyone's vibe. You know, even reed brings it up at a certain point, like I, what I did to you, blah, blah, blah. Um, I should, I should, have known better. And he never holds reed accountable for, uh, the fact that he turned into a monster. He turned into a thing.
Speaker 2:I love that, I love that portrayal and I it probably took time, because this is supposed to be four years after they all transformed, right, so it probably there was probably a period where he was angsty, he was angry and he was uh lashing out, but I think he's grown to accept it and I love that. They even brought in his, uh, his jewish side. You know, like they they didn't go too hard on it, but they they showed him enter a synagogue at a very important part of the scene or part of the movie, and it's just like he wasn't there specifically for worship, but he was there to see, you know, a woman, but it's. It is just like he wasn't there specifically for worship, but he was there to see a woman. But it is just a nice nod to the character's history and Kirby himself the original creator. So, yeah, I love those little things, but, anthony, you brought up the baby. The trailers barely even cover.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, they barely showcase any of the actual story of what the the trailers barely even cover. Yeah, yeah, they, they barely showcase any of the actual story of what the movie's about and that's that's showcased at the very start of the movie. You know, like we have, you know uh, reed and sue, you know they. She takes a pregnancy test, she shows them and that's the whole catalyst for like the next couple months of the movie is like getting ready for uh, the baby and reed is freaking out because he's just like well, we're genetically altered, so naturally the baby must be genetically altered, but he can't find anything. But when they eventually speak to galactus, galactus says he's hiding his, his true self from you. So the unborn child is it has the wherewithal to hide his true self from the scans of his parents. What are your thoughts on this? Or is Galactus just talking out of his butt Like is he making stuff up? What are your thoughts?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't think Galactus would be talking out of his butt Like why would he care about some like mere child? You know, with all the children in the world. You know, like why would he care about that one child? Unless there was something spectacular about that child. And enough for him. There's something spectacular. Yeah, enough, right, right. Enough for him to to be like if you give me that child, I will know, I will not go after your world. That's galactus saying that man is the world destroyer.
Speaker 1:Okay, so if he's making that, like trying to make that, that you know that swap right there then, obviously, yeah, I I do think that there was some, some merit to what galactus was saying I don't think he knows.
Speaker 3:I don't know if he's speaking plainly, like when he says that that uh, franklin's been hiding it.
Speaker 2:I don't know, you don't know that it's a conscious effort.
Speaker 3:On franklin's, yeah, I think like he said he's hidden it from you but that there could be so many reasons why he might think. You know, maybe reed's technology isn't advanced enough to pick this up in utero. You know what I mean. Uh, maybe it's something that doesn't develop until after he's out of the uterus.
Speaker 1:You could be doing it to protect sue from like you know, maybe she would be harmed if he was like like releasing, you know it could be like a preservation thing you know, because you know, if he wasn't ready, you know sue dies, then he will probably die, or he probably doesn't want to kill his mom. You know that kind of stuff. Yeah, there, there are many. Yeah, there's different reasons for for for being. It could be for good reasons, it could be for malevolent, is he a mutant?
Speaker 2:he is, yeah, technically. So they go back and forth in the comics whether or not Franklin Reed is a mutant or not, but most people agree that he has been termed a mutant in a couple times.
Speaker 3:But is this like I hate to be this nerdy about it so does he have the X gene? Or is it simply that the cosmic, the power cosmic, mutated his cells? Thusly he's a mutant.
Speaker 2:That's, that's part of the issue is that like you can make that. You can make the comparison. He's been dubbed a mutant in the comics, but is that because his parents have genetic mutation that has already altered them, or does he have the X gene on top of that and we don't really have a solid answer.
Speaker 1:Well, we kind of have like a similar dilemma with. But we know she has like the X gene gene gray, but then she has that cosmic force that comes down in the Phoenix. Right Phoenix force Right that cosmic force that comes down the phoenix, right, phoenix force, yeah right, yeah. So I mean, yeah, there could be some sort of x gene that's present in franklin, but that doesn't all. That doesn't exclude the fact that he also has cosmic abilities too, you know.
Speaker 3:According to google, google a1. I'm sorry, that's what um, our, our secretary of education, calls it AI? The response is no. Franklin does not kinetically possess the X gene, despite a period where it was believed he did. Initially, it was thought that Franklin's reality warping power stemmed from him having the X gene, but this was later retconned. He's now understood to have gained his powers through his parents' exposure to radiation, and his later ability to manipulate reality was revealed to be a separate power source. Okay, so that might be like yeah, I think it was that they originally felt that he had the x gene, or I think they were leaving it open, and then, I guess, somebody decided, hey, I don't like that, and they read condom here's. Here's what I think marvel will do.
Speaker 2:I think they will call him a mutant when the time comes, the the same way that they called Ms Marvel a mutant instead of an inhuman.
Speaker 2:Okay, to go back to what you were saying, rich, there was a period of time in the comics publishing world where Marvel Comics was not actively pushing the X-Men and they definitely weren't pushing the Fantastic Four, the fantastic four, and the reason was that, uh, they were trying to basically kill the fox movies so that, you know, the, the brand would be, you know, cheap enough for them to eventually acquire. So they were really pushing hard stuff like, uh, that's when they really started pushing guardians of the galaxy in the comics, that, that super group, and they really hyped up the inhumans, probably too much, um, because they've started to walk a lot of that back and certain Inhumans characters are now being dubbed mutants, which is what happened in the Ms Marvel show. But as far as Marvel Studios goes, I believe that they will simplify it to the point where, no, he has the X-Gene and perhaps this is just something that Reed did not not know to search for. He didn't. He, you know, his system just could not calibrate it because it didn't exist.
Speaker 1:It wasn't a oh, that's a great point yeah, I could see that being a thing yeah but uh.
Speaker 2:But on the other hand, you definitely have, uh, galactus suggesting that it's the power cosmic, which is a a much older, much more powerful force in the universe than the X-Gene would naturally be. So it could be that Reed didn't know what the power cosmic was and I think he does research it later because he starts writing it on his chalkboard and all that. Yeah, so there's a bunch of potentiality there. But let's jump over to let's keep talking about Franklin, because we actually do have him use his powers. At a certain point he alters reality to a degree. That is pretty OP. We have Sue Storm who stops Galactus, but oh, I've been calling him Franklin Reed, that's my mistake, it's Franklin Richards, I apologize. So Reed Richards tells Sue that she's going to die if she keeps this up, because it's too much power for her to maintain, and she does. She actually dies after, you know, pushing Galactus into that wormhole. What did you guys think of the resurrection that the Franklin Richards exhibits?
Speaker 1:It looked like it was set up to happen. Like you knew, something was going to happen, especially if they were kind of building up for this baby to have some sort of ability. I feel like there was going to be some sort of display of that.
Speaker 3:And that's what we got. I, I think the only. So I, I mean I, you know, kind of saw it coming. I think, as anthony said there, it seemed like it was set up for that and none of them dying in this movie could have been real, right like um. I mean, I know sue's death is technically real because she did die and then reality is bent, but what I mean is, in the, the larger scope of things, there ain't no way one of them was going to die.
Speaker 3:So I hate that in a way, because that moment could have been. I'm a parent. The idea that if something happens to me, that Charlie could will me back to life because he loves me, that much is unbelievable. But I did. I didn't. It didn't hit me as hard a complaint that my wife had was that she that she wished that franklin had had like the power cosmic, like at least a little bit in his hands. Like his hand got a little blue when he touched his mom, instead of it just being that he touched her and then her eyes went blue. Uh, because it didn't seem like he was. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:Like usually when somebody is wielding something like this yeah there is a physical indication, whether it'd be his own eyes turning blue and going blank or something, uh, his hand having a little bit of the power cosmic, that's so I think, actually, I think actually, like if you re-watch it, there is there is a slight purple glow underneath his hands, like where her chest is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that does that does pop up and I I thought I saw it the first time and I definitely saw it the second time, so it is there, it's just very, very subtle okay, all right.
Speaker 3:So I only saw it once and I definitely yeah, you know that's so, I guess I just wanted to. And when she said it I thought back to it and I was like you know, I don't remember something yeah like super overt, you know, like like when jean gray becomes inhabited by the phoenix force, you see, you know, kind of like that, that transformation a little bit, uh, but that's really my, I guess that's my biggest gripe, because there's no way for them to do that moment and have anybody I don't think I can't imagine anybody in any of the theaters is like oh, my goodness, sue's really dead. Right, like that. I don't think I don't know if it would have hit anyone that way. I mean, my wife, like, will cry at a Folgers commercial, and you know she definitely gets attached and she didn't.
Speaker 1:I think. I think they also spoiled that with the fact that, like, when they were showing, was it like all those seats? For what? Was it Secret Wars or was it Doomsday uh? Doomsday it showed her name she her name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so all the fantastic four sitting right next to each other. Yeah, in the moment I didn't think about that, but after the fact, like oh, yeah, that was clearly like well well, yeah, I.
Speaker 1:I just I didn't think that like it was a real death in that moment, like I didn't feel like there was any again it would be.
Speaker 2:It would be ip suicide, like you can no longer call it the fantastic it's like no, actually technically they they could, you know, just Franklin. Yeah Well, Franklin, we don't know. We don't know his fate after this movie.
Speaker 1:True, true.
Speaker 2:Some interesting stuff happens. We'll talk about that in a little bit. The coolest scene I think I've one of the coolest scenes I've seen in a Marvel movie, a superhero movie in general, was uh shallabell surfing the waves of the uh event horizon. Dude to act, first of all, to actually see a silver surfer surfing gorgeous, not only were they surfing that, they were surfing through like uh warped, like warp speed. You know that are they were. They were going ftl they're faster than light. Um, and she was surfing those waves behind dude, I was no, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That was such a crazy scene, like you know that, like you had all that going on and then you had sue richards who was going through birth, and like there's just so much going on in that moment, and it was just like nuts yeah, it was nuts.
Speaker 1:Uh, I, I thought that was actually really cool too. Is that? You know that this, this, the, the uh setting of this movie is like a futuristic 60s and they have interplanetary travel. You know, they can actually go. They went over to, they went over to to galactus, which, like that scene was really crazy too, like when you saw him like get up or like no, he didn't even get up like.
Speaker 2:He just like kind of sat there but he was massive dude, that was like my mom, but then when he did actually stand up in uh, when he got to earth yeah, this is a movie that the imax definitely, yeah, added added to the viewing experience I liked.
Speaker 1:I thought it was interesting their initial plan of like what they were going to do with Galactus heading over to them that they had gotten the entire world to like. They sold the world on. Like this plan to move Earth to some other like solar system and you almost got it made you think, oh, they're gonna bring them to the mcu dude, I thought something like that was gonna happen too man, it makes you think that you know what, though they pull the, they pull the rug out.
Speaker 1:You know what, though that might be the way that they get there, though that might be the way it's possible.
Speaker 3:It's possible was the ultimate. Now, if I recall correctly in the comics, the way they got rid of galactus the first time was the ultimate nullifier. Am I misremembering? Because that's like such a like, such a ridiculous device uh, that this is, this is beyond my knowledge oh, okay, so you're on your own here, rich, you explain it to us all right.
Speaker 3:So basically the ultimate nullifier let me just pull it up is a powerful cosmic artifact in the marvel universe known for its ability to erase anything the wielder chooses, even entire timelines or concepts. So it was something that was actually found aboard his ship and then, uh, it was kind of used to kind of keep him.
Speaker 2:Do they use that in secret wars as well?
Speaker 3:to get rid of, I believe so. So the nullifier, it's weird to me that, I don't know. I just thought it might show up in the movie and I felt like they went with this kind of overly convoluted I mean it was. You know, look, I liked the idea that obviously this is a different world and everybody's pitching in and that was kind of cool. Oh, before I forget, the surfer is surfing. I I don't know if you guys read the don slot run, uh, so in it his board actually has a name. So like one day he's hanging out with this uh earth lady and he ends up taking her out like the whole series, the whole run is like him traveling the stars with her and she's like what's your board's name? And like when, when she had heard him say, uh to me, my board. So she's like is his name to me?
Speaker 3:and that just ends up being his name is to me, uh, because like she overheard him say to me my board and I, I I just thought it was such a nice because they end up anthropomorphizing the board. The board becomes kind of like a character. He's kind of got like a little bit of a personality.
Speaker 2:Right, they actually. Johnny has this like inner monologue throughout a portion of the movie that he's only speaking to himself, where he's trying to figure out if the board is part of her body or not, and he, like, finally gets the aha moment. They're separate. So I kind of want to.
Speaker 3:I mean, obviously they didn't have the time for that there, but I thought that was great. I thought the Galacta stuff was great. When he rose, as I was saying before, it reminded me of walking in past curfew and the lights were off and my mom was like do you know what?
Speaker 3:time and you're like oh my goodness, I didn't even know you were there. Uh, you know so that, uh, I've been here the whole time you know I love that, uh, so, yeah, no, I I think that the like the villain side or whatever, they did a really good job. You know, I think there needs to. There does need to be more exploration, like, silver Surfer is a guy or a character for me. That, that's the. That's a guy or a character who should have like a mini series, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's such an interesting story I don't need a movie I'm not, I'm not going to go to the movies, just to go see Silver Surfer or a special, yeah, like a, like an hour-long special, like they, I think that would be perfect, like they did with the guardians of holiday special that's or I think they're doing that for uh, or like they did um werewolf by night.
Speaker 2:That would be another one of those um like special. I think they're doing a punisher special as well, if I remember correctly. Yeah, let's, uh. Let's round this out by talking about the post-credit scene, because I think it is a, or a mid-credit scene, because I think it is a mid-credit scene. I think it's a pretty notable setup for what we're going to be experiencing in the two-part Doomsday slash Secret Wars event that Marvel is leading up to, and it actually did get me excited because it started getting the juices flowing in my head like, oh, so that's what they're doing.
Speaker 3:What were your thoughts? Go ahead you. I just want to ask you, this is such a minor quibble. The the mid scene got you excited, right. So now, when you waited to the last one, were you slightly irritated? Because I feel like if they would have flipped them and given us the cartoon as the mid scene, I've been like, oh, that's cool. And then I would have seen the last one and be like oh snap. Instead I was like oh snap, and then I was like I waited around another six minutes for this all right.
Speaker 2:So for more like to marvel's credit pretty much pretty much ever since.
Speaker 1:That was me.
Speaker 2:Thank you pretty much ever since uh avengers in 2012, they've been doing the dumb scenes at the very end like that that's. That's when they entered, like the the shawarma shop and they're all just like eating shawarma around a table and it's such. I love that scene, but it's stupid, you know, like you're waiting around for like what else? What else are they? What they got planned and it's just them eating food.
Speaker 1:So they mention it in the movie, though they mention it.
Speaker 3:They do yeah so it was kind of relevant, you know. But no, this one.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I I don't know if you could stack this one too. I mean, it was a cute little cartoony thing, but I do feel like the placement would have been better if it was swapped.
Speaker 2:I I agree with I gotta, I gotta look up, got to look up, I got to look up. So, no, I actually disagree with both of you. I do think that they need the bigger reveal shortly after the credits, like after the mid portion of the credits. And the reason they do that is because you're still in the movie, vibe, you know, you're still feeling the energy of the movie. If they cut you with a cartoon, the energy of the movie, um, if they they cut you with uh, you know, a cartoon, a lot of people are going to leave. They're not going to see what you want them to see. That's just a little flavor text at the end. You know, like and they've been doing it for a while, it's, it's not the shawarma scene, isn't, uh, the only time that they've done that.
Speaker 2:They've done that a couple times now well, I would say, I would say howard the duck, howard, the duck at the end of like guardians, uh like useless, but it's so funny like it's well, I would say like you, maybe, you know, change up the formula a little bit.
Speaker 1:I mean, they are floundering, you know, you know okay, all right, all right, all right whatever to to make things go, but um what?
Speaker 2:what did you guys think of?
Speaker 3:uh, what they showed, because some people are theorizing that that's actually a scene from avengers doomsday I mean it could be because you know, yeah, uh, if doom has in the comics I'm pretty sure doom basically kind of either invented the same form of travel that reed did, the platform, the time platform thing, so if that's what he's using, uh, it makes you know you can play with it in any which way you want okay right, because because it it would.
Speaker 3:I mean, obviously, doom has magic as well, but you, he just appears there. There's no sign of, of, you know, forced entry. Uh, there was no loud crash, it was a very quiet invasion, if you want to call it that. So, almost like a secretive invasion, um so, um, so it actually what?
Speaker 2:I just looked it up, that was robert downey jr in in that costume. So I have to assume that they wouldn't have, you know, paid him millions upon millions to, you know, film a scene for this movie and that it is a scene from another movie. I think it is probably filmed for Doomsday and they used it in this movie just because it totally works. But I think the scene is very important, like extremely important for the future of marvel studios because if you think about, or if you, you know, if you know, uh, franklin richards, and you know his power side, franklin richards creates universes like he, he's able to create universes and, in some cases, multiverses like he, just he, he's literally, he makes little pocket dimensions that can be blown up into actual worlds Like he's. Like If he was equated to a mutant, he would be above omega level mutant, it's just there's nothing quite like it in Marvel In terms of reality warming.
Speaker 2:So I think that this is how they create Battle world In Secret Wars, when they eventually get there. So battle world For those of you who don't know is basically doom, uh, and it's not always doom uh, but they, they, they have doom in these comics. But I and I think that they're going to use doom as, like, the main antagonist here but um, he isn't the main antagonist in those comics, but basically, like they create this battle world scenario where they bring different, different characters from different worlds to bat, to duke it out, and then they realize, oh wait, we're mostly all on the same side and they find a way to get out of this battle world scenario. Um, and I think doom is going to use, uh, franklin richards to uh, not only traverse the multiverse but to create battle world and and basically bring all of these disparate heroes from the x-men universe, from 828, from 616, I think he's they're all just going to come um, using the power of this four-year-old kid, uh, so I think that could be a really cool connective tissue thing that they're doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because they use the molecule. I think Doom steals the powers of the Beyonders. Yeah, it's the Beyonders, that's correct. And then using Molecule man right, he's an important part of it because I think he's in every universe or something. So that'll definitely be a workaround here. I hope it. Did you guys play Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2? No, no.
Speaker 3:So they kind of do the battle world, but here what they do is like it's a slice of every reality, right as like as the map. So like you fly from like Suter to, you know, to the Kree home planet, whatever, like you're you kind of, yeah, it contains all of them in that. I hope that in some way we get to see like some sort of amalgamed battle world that has like elements, not just the people, but like elements of their world, uh, in it. I don't know, it's just a crazy idea, but I remember like they had the noir world. So when you went into that area, like everybody was black, you turned black and white.
Speaker 3:I hope they really lean into the differences, because he can create anything. He's a child, he's going to be imaginative. Who knows if he's misinterpreting where he's taking people from? I think it's going to be really awesome and I'm actually really happy. Think it's going to be really awesome and I'm actually really happy that doom is going to be iron man, because I think it's there's going to be a lot of layering there to why? Because you know, in the original comics they're they're like college roommates, aren't they?
Speaker 3:reed richards and and dr doom like a lot of what makes doom doom right is his like desire almost to it's two things he wants to be better than reed richards and he wants to save his mom's soul from mephisto right yes, that's, correct so I'm also interested to see if we're going to see mephisto come into play um, because he was uh, he was in iron heart.
Speaker 2:So they're definitely they're bringing all these these plot threads together. Uh, so it'll be interesting. Um, I think we should bring our podcast to a close, even though, like I, I feel like we could keep talking about the minutiae about this movie. But uh final thoughts. Anthony, what are your thoughts on fantastic four, now that we've regurgitated our opinions for an hour?
Speaker 1:It's Fantastic Four. It's a solid movie. If you are attentive about watching it, just know that I say that it is worth a watch. At least the visuals are really cool. So it is one of those movies that is good to see on a large screen. But I had a good time.
Speaker 3:I concur, I don't normally. You know, sometimes Jack Sparrow brings me some things that I get to watch. But aside from that, like this is one of those times where I got to agree here, you got to go to the movies for this, go to your Wednesday matinee, that's, you know know, five bucks or something. But I, I look it's summertime, it's hot outside. I mean, I, if, if you like popcorn and you like not sweating and you like fun movies, I I don't see how you can miss with this one. I don't, I can't picture anyone going to this unless you know nothing about the Fantastic Four at all. And honestly, my wife knows, other than the fact that they're a family, she knows very little of it and she enjoyed it, you know. I think anyone can really go and enjoy this movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's very little baggage when it comes to the MCU, when it comes to movie, because it takes place in an entirely different world. There's no other heroes that we know of on this world that we've seen before. Entirely new villains, entirely new concepts and, I would say, an entirely new story, like the idea of the child being the thing that they're trying to protect, but they're also trying to protect the world. It's a really fascinating take on the Incredibles. It's basically the incredibles, if you like. The incredibles it's. It's exactly the same formula, you know, like to a t, and I know incredibles was based off of fantastic four, uh, but even like the montage, the use of mole man as a character, uh, instead of what do they call them in incredibles? At the end, the Undertaker or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jack-jack being a foil for Franklin Richards like being the most powerful of the five family members, it's funny. It's a nice comparison. So, if you like stuff like Incredibles, which actually has a very similar visual feel as well, because it's almost, you know, that mid-century modern look that we get all over Fantastic Four, but without yeah, I'm going crazy here, but let's dial it back. Fantastic Four good movie. Top five MCU movie. I feel like I've been saying top five MCU movie for a while. It's almost as if I don't actually mean it, but I really did enjoy this one and, yeah, guys, definitely give it a watch.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for listening to us here for our 128th episode of Project Geekology. If you want to check out any of our socials, be sure to check down into the show notes. For all of that and more, I made a recent video on YouTube, guys, about the timeline of the latest Superman movie. Some people liked the video. It's gotten some decent numbers. I find a really cool Easter egg in it and I hope you check it out. We'll leave that in the show notes also. And for now, toodaloo guys, somebody save me.
Speaker 1:Tune in to next week or no? Oh yeah, tune in to next week or no. Oh yeah, tune in to next week for our episode on Little Town.
Speaker 2:Rich is dying laughing. I said save somebody, save me. I've been holding that the entire episode.
Speaker 3:I'm so angry at you. An hour and a half I was like I can't wait to just I had that on my phone.
Speaker 1:Now finish him.
Speaker 2:I blast that driving down the highway. I'm so sorry. You know you get to say it at the end. Alright, guys, have a good one. Bye bye oh god, save me.
