A topic for discussion:

Resolved: ROCKY II and RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART 2 are the first Rocky and Rambo movies; ROCKY and FIRST BLOOD aren't part of the series.

Because the Rocky series is perceived to be about a tough American icon, and Rambo is perceived to be about an all-American super-soldier. And that's not what ROCKY or FIRST BLOOD are.

Discuss, if you like.

There's never been a good FANTASTIC FOUR movie; what I would do if it were up to me

Lis has been linking me to some articles where various critics give their opinions of why FF have never been translated to the big screen well. The basic point they make is that it's because the Fantastic Four are all entitled dicks.

I think this is incorrect. I think Reed Richards is an entitled dick, but the rest of the characters have interesting possibilities.

What does Richards do? He gets his astronaut friend to either steal an experimental spaceship, or to fly Richards' own untested craft (depending on version). Even though Grimm CORRECTLY points out that it's dangerous, and CORRECTLY points out the failure mode that actually happens. But he also decides to bring his girlfriend and her brother with her, because why not?

Then, when they all crash because Richards is an egotistical dick, he decides to call himself "Mister Fantastic", and call the guy who actually had COMPETENCE "The Thing." Because Richards wants to crush Grimm's self-confidence, probably.

He marries Sue Storm, and abuses her -- he smacks her around a lot, but, mainly, he's emotionally abusive. When they have a kid, he abuses him, too. He's manipulative, controlling, egotistical, and violent.

In college, he becomes roommates with a brave refugee whose mother had died and whose father had sacrificed himself, wrapping little Victor in his own warm clothes to keep him alive while fleeing his country. Victor, a genius in his own right, works on projects to try to right the wrongs his parents suffered, and to help protect and restore his country, but Richards is such an arrogant asshole that he cuts Victor down at every turn, to the point that, when he actually DOES have a useful suggestion, Victor ignores it, and is injured in the failure of the experiment he was doing.

Richards cuts everybody around him down. He beats Sue, encourages Johnny to be a delinquent, cuts down Ben, and twists Victor. Reed is the bad guy.

And that's what I'd do if I were to write a FANTASTIC FOUR movie. It would be a movie about Doom coming back and helping the rest of them defeat Richards -- to realize what an abusive gaslighting violent megalomaniacal horrible person he is. How he uses both emotional manipulation AND control of their resources to keep them under his thumb.

In my version, Doom is the good guy.