Watched on YouTube

The 1994 film version of "The Fantastic Four" is considered one of the worst films of all time, which is almost impossible to watch legally. Only the "Star Wars Holiday Special" with the singing Princess Lea is more shrouded in mystery. How it came to be is a lot more interesting than the plot of the actual film.

Comic book publisher Marvel did not show a very happy hand before the film adaptations of Spider-Man and the X-Men in the early 2000s. Until the early 90s, every attempt to bring a character from the Marvel universe to the big screen ended miserably. "Howard The Duck", "The Punisher" with Dolph Lundgren and "Captain America" are the worst excesses of this run of bad luck. It therefore became quite difficult even for a low-budget filmmaker like Roger Corman to raise enough money for a comic adaptation. But the jack-of-all-trades had acquired the rights to "The Fantastic Four" from Bernd Eichinger's Constantin Film and was now in danger of losing them. The legal situation was so tricky that the cheapest solution was to complete a film for 2 million dollars. Corman, a man who will do anything if it doesn't cost too much, therefore started production under the umbrella of New Horizons. Marvel guru Stan Lee later confirmed that Corman never revealed to actors or technicians that he never intended to release the film in theatres.

Of course, distribution by video would have been a way to still make some profit. But Fox objected, as they were working on a more expensive version of the material and didn't want to let the Fantastic Four's reputation be ruined by a ridiculous cheap film. To this day, the film is only circulating as a bootleg at comic fairs and, since the expansion of technical possibilities, also on Internet file-sharing networks and YouTube.

Today I saw something that fully lived up to my expectations. Budgetary reasons forced the makers to improvise. Invisible" becomes "not there at all". Instead of The Thing looking a bit like a sun-dried Ninja Turtle, when fighting there is a spinning camera like in the old Batman films. And the "elasticity" of Mr Fantastic is a glove on a broomstick. Lacking the money to portray superpowers, maybe superhero films shouldn't be made. On the other hand, I actually quite liked the majestic score. True, it is only a total of two melodies during ninety minutes. But they are surprisingly catchy and seem to have been played by a real orchestra. The costumes, on the other hand, are really embarrassing. Dr. Doom still looks the same in the remake. Whether that speaks for the '94 version remains to be seen. At least it seems to correspond to the original. But what the heroes have to wear defies description. What can one expect from something that Sue Storm has simply sewn and thrown at the feet of the others, who are pondering fiercely about how they can put their DNA back in order? At least Richards seems to like his uniform. He still wears it as a groom during the wedding. Or was there no money for a dinner jacket? The acting achievement consists above all in not immediately blurting out what coincidences the script once again has in store.

The Roger Corman version of "The Fantastic Four" is complete nonsense. Cheap trash to binge on during a drunk video night with friends. Sad but true.

If you want to watch this, please click here: youtu.be/eN0FoR_FlZg