Meedyah Morsels #91.

Parts #1-90.


So, I finally saw "Doomed!", (about the Roger Corman Fantastic Four) so let's talk about that....

• See here for my old review of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four.
• See here for my old thing on "Doomed", when it was coming out.
• See here for my big geek documentary compilation containing "Doomed".

All right, so here's my updated review of the Roger Corman Fantastic Four.

Oh, it's bad, but it's not the worst thing in the world.
It won't ruin your life.
Hell, it's more fun than the Josh Trank one.

And it's comic accurate.

The creepy moment where Sue crushes on Reed as a little kid, then he sees her again as a teenager, and lusts at her back?
That's in the comics.

You thought Anakin and Amidala invented that trope?
Aw, Hell no!

Thing's suit is cheap, but it's more comic accurate than the Tim Story or Josh Trank.

The FF suits are cheap, but spandex is what they wear in the comic.

Doctor Doom looks like an action figure, but again, that's the comic.

The only thing not comic accurate, is The Jeweler, he's supposed to be Mole Man, but there were rights issues.

And, in the old review, I warned against ever watching it.
You know what?
Fuck that.
Watch it.
It's out there on Youtube.
Go for it.

All right, so here's what I learned from watching "Doomed".

The guy who played human Ben Grimm was the guy who played Super Freddy in "Nightmare On Elm Street 5"!
And he was bigger than the guy in the Thing suit!!

Also, the producers brought the property to not just Roger Corman, but Lloyd Kaufman!!

Lloyd says he passed on it, because, FF is a"religious level property", and there was nothing to gain in it for him in pissing off Marvel fans, pissing off Troma fans by doing something clean and mainstream, and alienating Stan Lee (they were friends) by turning in a version of his characters he didn't like.

Corman jumped at it though, he has no shame!

And indeed, it was never meant to be seen, but it wasn't to hold on to the rights, it was to scare Fox and Avi Arad into a bargaining position to buy the rights from the producer guy so he could make a fast buck.
Actually, it was a bidding war between Warners and Fox, and Fox won, and made the Tim Story ones.

You may ask "why go through the motions of making the actual movie, and screwing the director, and actors, and effects guys?'.

Well, I don't think it was intended to be made.
I think it was supposed to be an "Argo", situation,

But Fox/Warners wouldn't blink until they (the Corman folks) were ready to put it out in theaters.
It was a game of chicken, and the big boys are good at chicken.
But, they did blink.

In the end, the actors went on to other things, and the director got to do other Corman movies, and Corman himself got a million dollar check that paid off the production costs, so he came in even.

So, that's the summary of the whole thing.

The documentary goes more into the finer details of the production, and stuff.

I recommend it.

There, that's a better and more thorough review of the Corman FF thing, and now I can add this to my Marvel/Fox history thing I'm building up in drafts.