Galactus is coming, so bring an umbrella!
April 25th, 2007 by Gavok | Tags: fantastic four, Marvel comics, movies, novelization, sandman, silver surfer, spider-man, spider-man 3, venom
This is pretty much what we have to look forward to during this summer’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Galactus is a giant cloud. Great.
I can verify this. We got the novelization of the movie at work the other day and I skimmed the latter half of the book. This, plus the goofy final battle, are enough to keep me out of the theater for the time being.
I like that Spider-Man 3 and F4:RotSS come out during the same summer. They’re as different as night and day. The F4 movies take some of Marvel’s most beloved villains and bastardize them to the point that it’s painful to even talk about them. Spider-Man 3, based on the novelization, does a great job taking a villain most comic fans hate (Venom) and a classic villain who never really did all that much (Sandman) and making them interesting and exciting. I’m expecting Sandman to make a major comeback based on the movie’s portrayal.
How the hell are they going to make merchandise for a giant cloud, anyway? You can’t give gas kung-fu grip.
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Not sure about the execution, but I kind of like the Galactus as metaphor angle the storm cloud suggests. (Didn’t Ellis do something similar with Ultimate Galactus, where he appeared differently to different species?) If that makes Silver Surfer the cosmic equivalent of the homeless guy with the “The End is Near” sandwich board, even better!
I definitely don’t want to see the Galactus of the comics depicted in the movie, though. That would be the most ridiculous thing ever. (scroll down)
I don’t think a giant purple man with a funny hat would work on the big screen, but a giant gas cloud is so boring and impersonal. Is the Ultimate Nullifier going to be a giant vacuum cleaner?
Oh, and the Galactus appearing differently to different species has been around for a while. I think John Byrne came up with that in his run on Fantastic Four, but I’m not entirely sure.
I’m waiting until we actually *see* it. Odds are it’ll be awesome, IMHO.
I’m pretty sure “giant gas cloud” is the worst comic book movie decision ever. If the audience can handle stretch man, fire man, rock man, invisible wo man, and silver man, then they can certainly handle Jack Kirby man. Really, wtf were they thinking.
Couldn’t finish reading. My spoiler potentiometer was goin’ nuts.
Ummm… did none of you “Cloud supporters” read Annihilation? THAT Galactus was not what you’d describe as “a giant purple man with a funny hat”. Follow the “Anthropomorphic Galactus is silly” logic and you might as well judge the whole concept of Superheroes just as silly. Why do this at all if you’re not going to go all the way with it?
Respect to Kirby.
When I was ten or twelve and I first saw Galactus I thought he looked pretty goofy, yet I didn’t think that when I saw any of the Fantastic Four. To this day, I think Galactus looks a bit sillier than the F4, what with his bright blue and purple clothes and handle-bar helmet.
I guess a problem of arguing over plausibility is that suspension of disbelief breaks in different places for different people,so it can become an arbitrary argument rather than a logical one.
Also, I don’t think it’s disrespectful to Jack Kirby to say that what he designed for a comic in the 1960s won’t transfer well to a movie in the 2000s.
UJ,
I see your point. I guess, having seen how “non-goofy” one can make a character like Galactus (the recent Annihilation miniseries), I would hope that, in the hands of the right people, it could be made to transfer well to the screen.
However, the “right people” don’t appear to have been chosen for this project anyway, so I guess my point is moot. They’ve totally neutered Doom and terribly miscast the role of Sue. For these and other reasons, I’ve decided these movies aren’t really worth seeing.
Psst…
People on the “real world” don’t care for the Kirbyesque, seriuosly ask anyone not into comics what they think about “the King’s” desings and you’ll find out why the cloud’s a better idea for the mainstream tastes
Also, Venom (once again with non-comic fans) is a heck of a lot more popular than even Green Goblin
That argument is still pretty moot when you remember that we’re talking about a movie based on a naked silver man flying through space on a surfboard.
A lot of the argument comes from the fact that Galactus is iconic. He’s arguably the top bad guy in the Marvel universe. The fact that he still looks generally the same after all these years should say something. It makes me think of Kevin Smith’s Superman screenplay. The producer gave him some guidelines, which included the rule that Superman can never wear the “fruity” tights and that he’s not allowed to fly.
Besides, Galactus looked awesome in Ultimate Alliance. If they used something even remotely similar to that in the movie, I’d brave through all the groan-worthy Dr. Doom dialogue to check it out.
I hope the origianl AICN poster doesn’t mind me copying his links, but it was too good to pass up:
Creative Differences:
Should have been this
Instead we get this