Roger
Corman’s The Fantastic Four is an immortal bad movie. So bad, the legend goes that it never saw the
light of day. Some claim it was never intended
to be shown anyway. It was locked away
in the vaults (or presumably burned) and soon became the stuff of legend. Luckily, SOMEONE made a copy of it somewhere
and it became a fixture on the bootleg market.
That meant fans who wanted to see it finally could.
Knowing
that the movie was made long before a “Marvel Cinematic Universe” only existed
in a fanboy’s wet dream makes Corman’s version an interesting curio. (Trust me, it’s only worth watching as a
curio.) As bad as it is, it’s only
marginally worse than Josh Trank’s version.
Anyone who always wondered how Corman’s film came together (and subsequently
fell apart) will want to seek Doomed! out.
Many
of the principal actors, crew members, and even Corman himself are interviewed. We get a few interesting details on the
pre-production (some of the names of actors who auditioned for the Four will be
familiar) and get a good idea of what filming was like. Even as someone who has seen the movie and
thinks it sucks, I still admire the spunk of the cast and crew. They kind of had an inkling it was going to
suck, but they all put forth their best effort.
There’s a lesson there. It’s easy
for someone like me to make fun of the shitty effects. Once you realize how bad the production got
conned by the shady backstage machinations that were beyond their control, and
the fact that many of the crew members and technicians put their own money into
the film, you sort of how a new appreciation for it. (It’s still terrible though.)
As
a fan of Marvel movies, Corman’s Fantastic Four, has always been an interesting
what if. Many interviewees assert that maybe it was better like this.
Perhaps it will have a longer shelf life as an underground bootleg flick
than as a legitimate production. No one
is going to be tape-trading for Trank’s version any time soon, that’s for sure.
