Mark Millar on FANTASTIC FOUR’s Failure and Josh Trank’s Brilliance
Yep, Fantastic Four was a fantastic failure, and Fox lost about $100 million on the movie. There’s a handful of people out there that seem to have liked it, though. For those of you who don’t know, comic book writer Mark Millar is a consultant at Fox to help with all things Marvel. I’m not sure how much of a role he had in the development of this film, but I guess it doesn’t matter now because what’s done is done.
During an interview with IGN, Millar addresses the film's failure, but doesn’t dismiss the movie entirely. He also calls director Josh Trank "brilliant" for some reason:
"It's a shame because I think elements of it were good. Some bits were good. I remember the first half in particular works well. [Josh Trank] is brilliant. Chronicle was my favorite superhero movie in 2012 -- and be reminded Avengers was out that year. I really love Chronicle. It's just a shame sometimes things don't work out as planned. Nobody goes in hoping it's not going to work out. Everybody is trying their best and those guys worked their asses off. It didn't quite come together as well as they hoped, which is a shame."
Yeah, Chronicle was NOT better than The Avengers, and Trank is obviously not brilliant. Millar is smoking crack. I enjoy the comics the guy writes, but now I don’t think I trust his judgment in movies. He goes on to talk about the future of the Fantastic Four franchise:
"I think everything's open to discussion. No decision I think has been made on anything yet like that. There's chats everyone's going to have on the phone at some point, but the Marvel brand is such a powerful brand. Marvel doesn't always work out great — Thor 2 didn't work out especially well, Iron Man 2 didn't work. But then Iron Man 3 comes along and it's great. These things can be uneven sometimes. Avengers 2 is nowhere near as good as Avengers 1."
Fox would be crazy to try and keep this franchise rolling without Marvel. Millar says that the Marvel brand doesn’t always work out great, but it kind of does. All of those movies he mentioned as being lackluster still have a ton of fans, and they are all financial successes. So in all reality, they were all successes. Let's look at the Rotten Tomatoes ratings on the films he mentioned: Thor: The Dark World - 66%, Iron Man 2 - 72%, Iron Man 3 - 79%, Avengers - 92%, and Avengers: Age of Ultron - 74%. I’d say that’s pretty consistently solid. What is the score for Fantastic Four? 9%. So with Marvel on board to help out with Fantastic Four, it’s pretty much guaranteed that they could help get the franchise above 9%.
Millar then went on to address Steven Spielberg’s comments that superhero films were going to go the way of the western. He said:
"The human race will go the way of the Western. Everything has to end at some point. [Laughs] We're just going to be atoms. It's inevitable. I think [the superhero movie genre has] got at least another good five years. The stuff that's coming up is so strong."
I think the superhero genre has got a lot longer than five years! By the time the Avengers: Infinity War films are released, there’s no doubt that fans are going to want more. As far as Fantastic Four goes, that franchise is dead, and it will be as long as Fox has ahold of it.