Fantastic Four (2005) is the 112th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Erica Russell and Andy Signore. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 2005 superhero film Fantastic Four as well as its 2007 sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It was published on August 4, 2015, to coincide with the theatrical release of Josh Trank's reboot film Fantastic Four (2015). It is 4 minutes 19 seconds long. It has been viewed over 6.4 million times.
Watch Honest Trailers - Fantastic Four (2005) on YouTube
"At a time when comic book movies began to show how good they could be, two films will remind us how badly they can suck." ~ Honest Trailers - Fantastic Four (2005)
Script[]
Before the reboot that will keep the characters out of Marvel's hands (Fant4stic), but after the Roger Corman movie that also kept the characters out of Marvel's hands (The Fantastic Four), come two other attempts at the franchise that prove these characters should really be in Marvel's hands by now:
Fantastic Four
And its crappy sequel (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer).
At a time when comic book movies began to show how good they could be, two films will remind us how badly they can suck…
The Thing: You guys look like an '80s rock band.
…as the director of Barbershop (Tim Story) is handed the reigns of Marvel's original super team, then steers it off a cliff. And don't tell me there's no way to make a good Fantastic Four movie! It's called The Incredibles, and it's perfect.
Witness a more-or-less faithful adaptation of the totally bananas 1961 origin story, where a space cloud gives four people completely different superpowers, leading to one movie about recreating the space cloud on Earth (Fantastic Four) and one movie about trying to save the world from a completely different space cloud (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer).
Silver Surfer: My people called it Galactus.
No, this is Galactus (shows Galactus from the comic). That is a space cloud (shows Galactus from the Fantastic Four movie). What is is with this era and evil clouds? Stop making cloud-based villains! (shows Galactus, David Banner's cloud form in Hulk, and Parallax from Green Lantern)
Meet the Fantastic Four, whose powers line up perfectly with their fantastic fore-shadowing.
Victor: Same old Reed, always stretching...So you're (Ben) still doing all the heavy lifting.
Sue: To be seen, and heard.
Nurse: Oh, you're hot!
Johnny: Why, thank you. So are you.
There's Reed "The Nerd" Richards, his crush Sue "The Girl" Storm, Johnny "The Human Chlamydia" Storm, and their overly attached friend, Ben "The Thing" Grimm, who's rewarded for his loyalty by getting made fun of, literally getting dumped on (shows The Thing with bird poop on his shoulder), made into an outcast, and getting rejected by his fiancee just for looking different. Man, I didn't think I could hate Andrea from The Walking Dead any more than I already did.
Together, each of the Fantastic Four must set aside their only character trait to take on Victor "The Green Goblin" Von Doom and the Silver T-1000 Morpheus.
Silver Surfer: All that you know is at an end.
But instead of the wild space battles and psychedelic showdowns you love from the comics, watch them use their superpowers in a bunch of super-boring settings, like taking up overhead compartment space, X Games-ing, dance battles, pooping, and skin care.
So before you see the third and hopefully final attempt to launch the Fantastic Four (Fant4stic), relive the original two disappointments, who gave their lives so that Chris Evans could be free to play a decent Captain America. Sorry, I-Io-ann...Eooooan...Ewan? Gruffuh-fudd.
Starring I-o-ann Gruffuh-fuh -- awww, not again. There's too many vowels and too many consonants (Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic) -- Elon Mask (Julian McMahon as Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom), Mercury Rising (Doug Jones and Laurence Fishburne as Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer), Battlecloud Galacticus, Jessica Albewbs (Jessica Alba as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), A Rotting Pumpkin (Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing), Scandalous (Kerry Washington as Alicia Masters), and Captorch Humerica (Chris Evans as Johnny Storm/Human Torch).
Honest title for Fantastic Four - Craptastic Bore. Title design by Robert Holtby.
Craptastic Bore
Make a Mexican woman put on a blond wig and blue contacts to play Sue Storm, and no one bats an eye. Cast a black guy (Michael B. Jordan) as the Human Torch, and everyone loses their minds!
Trivia[]
- Screen Junkies have also produced Honest Trailers for the 2015 version of Fantastic Four, and the "best Fantastic Four movie never made," The Incredibles.
- An Honest Trailer Commentary for this episode was recorded and was available on the Screen Junkies Plus until the website/app was discontinued. Screen Junkies don't currently have any way of releasing the video.
Reception[]
Honest Trailers - Fantastic Four (2005) has a 98.3% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Geek Tyrant said the video "beautifully tears apart the 2005 version of Fantastic Four and its sequel." SlashFilm remarked that the Honest Trailer pays special attention "to the fact that both movies hinge on the inciting incident being caused by two different space clouds." In the same article, SlashFilm wrote, "perhaps the most frustrating part of this Honest Trailer is that I had completely forgotten about some of the sheer stupidity on display in these movies." IndieWire appreciated Screen Junkies commercial explanation for why the Fantastic Four film exists, noting "as this video highlights, the studio also needs to keep using the characters or else the rights will revert back to Marvel." Uproxx wrote that Screen Junkies "got it right" about The Incredibles being the perfect Fantastic Four film.
Production credits[]
Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - Fantastic Four (2005)
Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey
Title design by Robert Holtby
Series Created by Andy Signore & Brett Weiner
Written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Erica Russell and Andy Signore
Edited by Anthony Falleroni and Dan Murrell
External links []
- Honest Trailers Calls Clobbering Time On The 2005 Version Of ‘Fantastic Four’ - Uproxx article
- The Fantastic Four Movies Get Shredded In This Funny New Honest Trailer - CinemaBlend article
- Screen Junkies Get Honest about 2005’s “Fantastic Four” in New Film Breakdown - CBR.com article
- The Fantastic Four Honest Trailer: Relive the ''Disappointment''! - E! Online article
- Honest Trailer For FANTASTIC FOUR (2005) - Geeky Tyrant article
- Watch: Honest Trailer For ‘Fantastic Four’ & ‘Rise Of The Silver Surfer’, A Reminder How Bad Comic Book Movies Can Be - IndieWire article
- Honest Trailer: ‘Fantastic Four’ (2005) - Geeks of Doom article
- ‘Fantastic Four’ Honest Trailer: The 2005 Movie and ‘Rise of the Silver Surfer’ Are the Worst - SlashFilm article