TPToA Podcast 415 – Fantastic Four: First Steps

Dion 

Ohh hello and welcome to the pairing Table of Awesome. It is time for a foursome of a different kind on today. The Tuesday. What time? What time is it? 

Speaker 3 

What time is it? 

Speaker 6 

Blame on us? Yeah, it’s it’s. 

Speaker 3 

Fun it’s it’s podcasting time. 

Dion 

Butter in time. Wait, that doesn’t quite work. I don’t know. And right now, Pete, which she was invisible. Yeah. Yeah, well done. 

Speaker 6 

oh 

Speaker 3 

Sorry. 

Quinny 

Very well done. I love the feeling now, really. She’s. 

Dion 

Hold on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Embrace hope. She’s yeah, probably. Still there. Can you hear? 

Jill 

Really gone. Just gone. 

Dion 

Us in the void. 

Peta 

I’m invisible. I’m not silent. 

Speaker 

Yeah. Yes. 

Dion 

That’s true. They didn’t use that enough in the film. I don’t think they’re just having Sue just kind of being like, what are you guys talking about and freaking people out because, you know, I do, if I were the Invisible Man. 

Jill 

Yeah, she’s not seen, not heard woman. 

Dion 

Yeah, not seen, not heard. Wow. Hello. Back after a week. Off. Off. Yeah, yeah. Small, small break. 

Quinny 

Wow. Hey, I said, everybody feeling enthused and like, upbeat and stuff. 

Jill 

It was nice. To have a little break to be honest. 

Dion 

Yeah, yeah, I hate those months with the five Tuesdays. What? What weirdness is that ********? And now? Ohh, it’s it’s gone. You’ve gone all glowy and. 

Peta 

Yeah, I’ve, I’ve. I’ve smudged the camera so. 

Quinny 

And ohh well. Yeah, I know. She’s she’s actually doing the exact effect from the movie where it’s just a little. 

Jill 

Yeah, yeah. The Vaseline lens. Yeah. 

Speaker 3 

Bit of. 

Quinny 

Now, now pets. No. 

Dion 

Can I stretch my hand over here? 

Quinny 

Pun. Serve absolute can’t with your face while you. 

Jill 

Do that. Yeah, there it is. 

Dion 

There you go. Perfect. 

Speaker 3 

And now I’m going to do some cooking, OK? 

Dion 

Ohh dear and you know what I hope for everyone. Hello to everyone in the chat mainly for. I hope you all got to do the home. 

Speaker 

Hey. 

Dion 

Work. 

Jill 

Yeah. Did everyone enjoy the movie? I. 

Dion 

This particular day. 

Quinny 

Mean I could. See it? Yeah, Tari looks like that. She hasn’t seen it yet. She’s saying that she that please be good. Ohh. Interesting. 

Speaker 

Oh. 

Speaker 6 

Ohh. 

Dion 

Fascinating. What? 

Jill 

Yeah. 

Dion 

Look. Yeah, we Fantastic Four has been out since last Thursday. Officially, we saw it last week which? Was quite fun. 

Jill 

Yeah, there’s even some early screenings on Wednesday for the public. 

Dion 

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s out. It’s part of Marvel’s Phase 266. 

Quinny 

Yep. First film of Save 6. First film of, say Phase 6. God, that’s. 

Speaker 6 

Dion 

Why couldn’t have made it the first film of Phase 4? 

Quinny 

Because that was quite some time. 

Dion 

And then it. Would have been. Ago. Right. OK. Look, the fourth attempt at the Fantastic Fours and I I include in that the the 1994. 1. Which was never released except IS is is hovered around. Yes, there was a 1994 one. 

Jill 

That would make this the 5th 1 then. 

Dion 

Yeah. No, no, it’s it’s, it’s, I say this as in the fourth go at it because there were two with the same cast. So you have the, yeah. 

Speaker 6 

Ohh OK. 

Dion 

What are you talking about? This is. Our fourth thing. We have had, yes, it’s the fourth thing, you know, Michael Chiklis did a great job getting covered in rubber. 

Quinny 

That is true, Yep. 

Peta 

Yeah. 

Dion 

You know, and then you know, we’re up to this one. 

Jill 

Can’t remember the other guy. 

Quinny 

That’s gonna get off in the life. And remember who played the thing in Fan 4? Stick. Ohh my. 

Dion 

God fan 4 stick. 

Jill 

I know. 

Quinny 

That was, that’s what it’s called. 

Jill 

Fan Fant Fant 4 stick. 

Quinny 

I don’t know, but I I just. 

Jill 

Yeah, I think that a was in the. Middle not at the start. 

Quinny 

Ohh OK, I just call it fan 4 stick because it’s it’s easier to say. 

Dion 

Ohh, that’s right, it’s Jamie Bell. 

Quinny 

Ohh God that’s. 

Dion 

Right, you remember. 

Speaker 2 

Whoops. 

Quinny 

He was the young. 

Dion 

Billy Elliot. 

Speaker 3 

Yes. 

Quinny 

And and the young, chipper guy out of of the first king or the the King Kong movie that Peter Jackson did. 

Dion 

And he was also tin tin. But that was who made. 

Quinny 

It so not really who you would think. Yeah, would fit in a giant thing. 

Jill 

Memorable. 

Dion 

That he was the. Thing, yes. 

Quinny 

And Karina makes a good point, a arresting piece to Julian McMahon, who was the 1st Doctor Doom actually. Sorry, 2nd Doctor Doom. 

Speaker 

Yeah. Yeah. 

Dion 

Yes, because there was a doom. 

Jill 

I did rewatch the 2005 version on the weekend just for a bit of nostalgia. Yeah, I like those trashy ones. They’re great. They’re so campy and stupid. 

Speaker 

Did you? 

Quinny 

What did you think of it? 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Jill 

And I look back on them. And I’m like, wow, the simpler times where we did comic book films. And we really, really did make them comic bookie. 

Speaker 

Yeah, man. Yeah. 

Dion 

And finally. 

Jill 

Well, we weren’t going. For all of the realism and stuff. 

Quinny 

Yeah. And they didn’t have to fit in with some. Gigantic *******. Thing. 

Jill 

I will tell you practical effects. Thing I don’t know I like. Yeah, CGI 1 is like that, feels like. A cheap cop out. 

Quinny 

Right. OK. OK. Fine, no suit. 

Jill 

With balls on it and not put in. Any effort and? Just animate it. 

Quinny 

You know what? 

Dion 

Wait, do you mean wait? 

Peta 

The fine effort. 

Jill 

Hey, it’s a different kind of effort. I’m like, let’s get our hands dirty and make a ******* stinky suit out of foam expanding. Foam or something like that and. Of course, some lung disease. Let’s get into. 

Dion 

I’m I’m going to like, I’m just going to take it on part of the actors there. Sometimes I’m just going to be like, yeah, maybe they don’t. 

Jill 

It. 

Quinny 

This is Jeff. 

Dion 

Want that? Maybe they don’t want to spend 16 hours in a makeup chair to to to do. Yeah. 

Speaker 6 

As a cosplayer, I I would agree, but I would also disagree because I think it would be fun to make it. 

Dion 

Sure. I mean ultimately it’ll be that great thing of like they make someone do that and then they just go oh. 

Quinny 

I’m. I’m just. 

Dion 

We’re just gonna CGI it. 

Quinny 

Well, The thing is, there was a there was a lot of the thing in this one that was actually practical. Like there’s quite believe it or not, there’s there’s shots that they hired a a pretty big wrestler to be the body for it. So on set. A lot of the time there was a practical suit, dude of roughly the right size. Is. 

Jill 

So we’re not talking about a guy that’s just standing in there in a green zentai. 

Quinny 

No, I mean when when they’re doing it with Evan Moss, Baccarat, then he was in the uh, whatever the **** he said. Backup, backup, backtrack. 

Dion 

Doctor rap. No. Baccarat. That’s a. 

Quinny 

Alright. 

Dion 

Game I know. 

Quinny 

Dion 

Know you’re in a casino in Monte. Carlo yes, guys. 

Quinny 

Anyway, when he was on set, yeah, they they had this entire certain stuff like that. But there were quite a lot of it that was shot any time they needed, like a wide shot and everything. They actually had a dude in a suit with the. Ohh head and everything. Cool. Alright. Yeah, I’ve I’ve seen the the pictures of that, but I’ve also in the chat just put a link to the 1994 one and the thing in that Jill, you would love that one because the the suit actually looks more like the comic book character than any of the others have. 

Jill 

I love the terrifying dead. Eyes. 

Speaker 3 

I know. 

Dion 

I mean, it’s great. It’s yeah, it’s very thingy. 

Jill 

That’s. Yeah, that’s. 

Speaker 6 

Look at that thingy over there. That thingy. 

Dion 

Yeah, that, that, that is definitely something I’d go. What is that thing? If I saw it in a in a thing? 

Jill 

With that young man with fake grey sideburns. 

Quinny 

I know, right? 

Dion 

Yeah. Hey guys. I’m trying hard here, Joe. What? 

Quinny 

Honestly, if you could find that film. Like this. This is I love this one because my my thing with Fantastic Four it it started with this film because I was one of those ******* nerds who heard that there was a film that got made and was never released. So I then went and hunted. 

Speaker 

For. 

Quinny 

It and I, you know, back in the days of VHS trading, got somebody to send me a *******. VHS of this film that had never been released, and I’ve watched it. It’s terrible, but it’s actually got a lot of, like, it’s trying really hard. 

Jill 

And. Nice. 

Quinny 

To do all of the things that are fantastic, four movie should do just with no budget. Hmm. So yeah, like it’s got Doctor Doom. It’s got the mole, man. It’s it’s got them all doing their powers. But like Reed, stretchy arms are like pool noodles with a with a *******. A glove on the end. 

Jill 

I mean that’s still image alone is giving vibes of like 70s Italian Spiderman. 

Dion 

Yes, got a bit of that. I mean, you’ve gotta. What’s what’s the what’s the the crossover slash league like the Marvel Group, you know, secret wars thing. It’s the 1989 Punisher. Dolph Lundgren. It’s the the Captain America film. It’s the Fantastic Four film. 

Quinny 

Hmm. 

Dion 

You know, it’s all of those ones Pre Marvel Universe. Mashed together. And you’re like, what is this strain? ******* place, but we don’t. Here, we’re in a different, strange place this time. We’re in much more budget, some bigger names and some. 

Quinny 

Yeah. 

Dion 

Finally, they sort of kind of got people who give a ****.

Quinny 

Yeah, yeah. 

Dion 

About doing something fun. 

Quinny 

Yeah. 

Jill 

And that’s nice. Surprising what you’re going to accomplish when you put in some time and effort. 

Speaker 

Yeah, isn’t it? 

Dion 

Isn’t it’s kind of like oh. 

Quinny 

And when you? And when you’ve had three goes at it before and gotten it wrong three times. You kind of go. Well, **** it. We’re gonna hold off on this one because, I mean, Fantastic Four has always been seen as Marvel’s first family. Like, you know, they’re they’re one of the very earliest Marvel superhero groups. And you know, we’re what, 40, you know, 39 films in now something. 

Speaker 5 

Sure. 

Dion 

More, I don’t know 112 where 112 films in now. That’s how many there are. I I won’t be fact checked. 

Quinny 

And we’ve, yeah, and now we’ve just introduced the very first Fantastic Four stuff. So yeah, it’s it’s an interesting one. I mean, obviously they were tied up in rights for. A long time. 

Dion 

But yeah, I mean. Look, it’s fine. We’re just going to ignore the rest of those fan 4 test. Stick, whatever it is. 

Quinny 

Can’t ignore them. 

Dion 

We have to stick, then forget stick. That’s what I. Yeah, we’re gonna ignore that. 

Quinny 

Not. The autistic fans. 

Dion 

We’re going to, we’re going to ignore that. Michael B Jordan, he’s also Johnny Storm. Yes, I know, right. No, he’s not Killmonger. He’s definitely Johnny storm. We’re also going to ignore that Captain America. 

Quinny 

Ohh yeah yeah, he was one of them. 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Jill 

Was also Johnny Storm and Captain America. 

Dion 

Was also. Stone. Yeah. Yes, exactly. We’re going to ignore all of those things and focus very. 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Dion 

Much in Comic Daddy and his family and Pedro Pascal’s not not happy just being space Daddy, Apocalypse Daddy and General General Daddy. 

Jill 

Yeah. Thanks, daddy. 

Dion 

Now he’s also comic Daddy. 

Quinny 

Hmm. 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Dion 

Yeah, along with. 

Quinny 

Is there anything he can’t, daddy? 

Dion 

You know what? Hollywood will not let him. Not daddy something. He’s in there now forever. Like. Yeah, he will just. He will just keep doing it until everyone collectively gets sick of him. And I’ll be able to return to an anonymity. 

Quinny 

Hmm. I just realized it is the summer of Pedro, it’s. 

Jill 

Summer picture. 

Dion 

Yeah. 

Speaker 

Been just realized. 

Dion 

Multiple summers. 

Quinny 

It was another ******* attempted Fantastic Four. 

Dion 

Oh. Have you? Yes, grey tailed. 

Quinny 

Well, technically. There was another Reed Richards. Ohh John Krasinski but that. 

Jill 

Yes. Yeah, that’s right. 

Dion 

That’s in Multiverse of Madness, which is so the. But that’s not the Fantastic Four. 

Quinny 

Yes, from. Marvel Universe. He’s one of the breeds. 

Jill 

He was. He’s Mr. fantastic. 

Dion 

Is he though? 

Jill 

Yes. 

Quinny 

He’s Mr. spaghetti by the end of. It but anyway. 

Dion 

Yeah, like I mean, yeah, that’s just on film, but it it, it wasn’t the Fantastic Four and this is what we want to focus on. It’s about these group of people and. How they’re represented in cinema? Yeah. What you’re not. 

Jill 

Capturing in the audio is our eye rolls. 

Quinny 

Massive massive eye roll. 

Dion 

Come on. 

Quinny 

Beyond wiping away John Krasinski from the from the entire multiverse of of anything, and we’re all going. No, no, no. 

Jill 

Yeah, that’s because they don’t. Can’t do a convincing cosplay of John Krasinski’s Mr. Fantastic. You can only do the Pedro. 

Dion 

No, I cannot. 

Jill 

Dion 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and if you squint, the Ian Crawford one. 

Speaker 6 

You’re clean shaven for that one. 

Quinny 

I’ve just had an eye. Yeah, my eyes are not that ******* blind. 

Dion 

OK, then fine. I’ll go with this one if this. If he’s part of the Fantastic Four Canon, you need to cast the other three members of the Fantastic Four in those universes. Who is it going? 

Jill 

That’s true. OK. Oh my God. Yeah. Can we come back to this at the? 

Dion 

No immediate. OK. We’ll give you time. Time. Yeah, time. 

Jill 

End of the show. We’ll be here for 15. 

Dion 

Minutes. Yeah. Yeah. So if if if John Krasinski’s Mr. Fantastic and chat go and throw some something we. 

Quinny 

Man. Need to sleep? Yeah. 

Speaker 6 

******* Emily Blunt. I would go. Emily Blunt force. 

Jill 

Storm. 

Quinny 

**** yeah. Yep, Yep. You down to? 

Dion 

That yeah, Karina, just like gonna get to the. Synopsis yet guys. 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Peta 

You know, keep getting pushed. 

Speaker 

Push. 

Speaker 6 

Push by the chat. Let’s go. 

Speaker 2 

Yeah, that’s a wow. 

Quinny 

I’m being bullied by the test. 

Peta 

This film about. 

Quinny 

What is this film about it? No, I’m not gonna. I’m not gonna do the synopsis now because I’ve been told. I have to. 

Jill 

No. Ohh yes. 

Speaker 6 

Jesus. 

Dion 

Christ. 

Jill 

That sounds like me energy. 

Dion 

Peta 

Settling into that demand avoidance there. 

Dion 

Come on. Tony, have you got? Have you got some synopsis? 

Peta 

Yeah. 

Quinny 

For us it is. I have got a. Synopsis for everyone but Karina. 

Peta 

To be fair to Karina, it’s been 20 minutes. 

Jill 

Can you do it in a Brooklyn accent? OK. 

Speaker 3 

Forced ohh. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, the Fantastic Four must defend Earth from a ravenous space God called Galactus and his enigmatic herald the Silver Surfer. And guess what? It’s clubber and die this. 

Quinny 

Ohh, cool, that’s it. That’s the whole book. Was an opposite. Trust me, there was an even shorter one. 

Speaker 

Is that it? 

Speaker 6 

Yeah. Wow. 

Dion 

I love sofas, yeah. 

Speaker 6 

Silvers, soyfer yeah, soyfer. 

Dion 

Some some more continents and vowels in there that I remember from. 

Speaker 3 

Hey, I’m going down the street and I’m going to start some some flights. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Dion 

Yeah, that’s about it. 

Quinny 

Hey, get that man some cookies. Thank you. I. 

Dion 

Would love some cookies. That’s kind of what the movie is about and I’m, I’m I’m with it like this isn’t one of those films that you went and saw and you’re like, oh, great, we get to have an origin story of how did they get their powers, how did. They do this like how do we go through that? They were like, no, you know what? 

Quinny 

Ohh thank God. 

Jill 

Yes, we just got a tidy. Little vignette, and that’s all we needed. 

Dion 

Yep. Quite a long vignette really explaining like how they fit into the world and how suddenly the the brokers of World Peace and everyone looks up to them and they’re the world’s family. 

Quinny 

Yep. 

Jill 

Yeah, I kind of love it. 

Dion 

I mean, OK. 

Jill 

They’re. They’re paragons. 

Quinny 

Yeah. And we, the the important thing to note is that we’re in a different world here we are in. We’re not in the regular Marvel Universe. We are in a weird kind of quasi 60s future pop, yeah, different reality. 

Speaker 

Mm-hmm. 

Speaker 3 

It’s. 

Dion 

It’s 60s futurism, so it’s just it’s there’s a divergent. 

Speaker 

Hmm. 

Dion 

From our history to where it has ended up in this Earth history, and I’m I dig it, I dig the style, imagine in the 60s if four people got shot into space and came back and had all these powers and solved a bunch of problems. 

Speaker 

Hmm. 

Dion 

And a bunch of other things happen. That’s how that kind of goes. It’s like, yeah, well, you know. 

Quinny 

Yeah. And the difference. 

Speaker 

I mean. 

Quinny 

Not actually stated what year this is, is it? 

Dion 

No, no, it’s just the different earth. 

Quinny 

Yeah, right. 

Dion 

And what that is. But people don’t have. 

Jill 

Yeah, it could be current day 2. 616 Earth we don’t. 

Quinny 

Yeah, yeah. 

Jill 

Know that’s just what this earth. 

Dion 

Yeah. Looks like there’s big. There’s big kind of LED screens, but no cell phones. 

Speaker 

Slide. 

Peta 

Yep, well, it’s kind of like they’ve kind of gone. We don’t need to put energy into making TV screens flat. We’ll just have giant non flat TV screens and faster than light space travel. Yeah, yes. But we’re gonna do with that extra energy. 

Dion 

There’s there’s like. 

Quinny 

No. 

Dion 

You know. Yeah. 

Peta 

We don’t need to put energy into like inventing MP threes. We’ll just keep records. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And teleporting. 

Dion 

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Peta 

Think of what we could have done as humanity. 

Quinny 

I didn’t know. 

Dion 

Exactly all of our computerisation goes on tape. 

Jill 

Yeah, I mean. Yeah, we invented cassettes and then CD’s and then digital format music. And now we’re back to ******* records again. 

Quinny 

So yeah, but they just didn’t bother leaving the the records. Yeah, because they realized it was the the superior format from the start, especially if you print them in. 

Dion 

Yes. Gold. And if you haven’t got a troop of players in your lounge room. You know, yeah. Eventually we’ll get to there, won’t we, like? Oh, this is my 9 musicians that follow me around and. Play music to me. 

Speaker 

Yeah. 

Quinny 

Yeah. I mean, yeah. Karina and Casper both kind of make the point. It’s very jetsons. 

Dion 

Yeah. And that’s kind of great because that’s very familiar to the people who knew fantastic for for when they were growing up based on the cartoon, which is the the sort of. 

Peta 

So jetsons. 

Dion 

The carry over of where people would sit from the Saturday morning kind of cartoon and. You know it it it sets the tone that everyone could easily get into and I went, I’m here. I immediately know what’s going on. It has a different Marvel logo, it has a different kind of a soundtrack. It’s setting itself in a in a particular period and I was like, I’ll go with this. This is totally different to every ******* thing else. This isn’t a dark and gritty reboot. This isn’t. Anything really to do with the rest of the Marvel Universe? Yeah, kinda. Which makes me happy. And I was like, I’ll go with this. I’m immediately just going to be like, all right, what do you got? 

Jill 

Yeah. I think the thing that’s so immersive about it is the visual language that they’ve lent into so strongly and so thoroughly like the the set design and production. All the set pieces, the costumes, everything like that was like. Beautiful, like there was such attention to detail and there was not like a wasted moment on screen. It was so interesting that we’re talking about like, how like futuristic retro it is but. Like the. Costuming wasn’t futuristic. That was still like grounded in 60s fashion. 

Speaker 

Hmm yeah. 

Dion 

I had a really good time just watching the sets and the costumes. I was like they have actually paid a lot of detail to the costuming, not only of the signature folk, but the people around them too. Looked sharp as ****, I gotta say. 

Quinny 

And. 

Jill 

Yeah, like the the space suits and their hero suits were were still like. Grounded within like that 60s, like retro futuristic style, but had like the the strong 60s fashion elements as well in terms of like the textures of the fabrics and things that they used but the the colour theory throughout was fantastic and yeah just the the visual language that they. Used in this film was just so Cohen. 

Peta 

It’s a joy for. The arts, hmm. 

Dion 

Joy for the eyes until we get to the failure of the film. 

Quinny 

Wow. Jesus. OK, so, so just a reminder folks, the deal also sat through Superman and huffed. 

Speaker 

Go further on. 

Dion 

I did. I did half. He did half I wanna also. Caveat that I did see Fantastic Four, but beforehand I had. 

Speaker 6 

So. 

Dion 

To watch. Beforehand I had to win. The Avatar trailer 17 times. I don’t. I don’t know how to explain that in terms of everything else, but I had to sit through the Avatar trailer. Too many ******* times, and that may have influenced my decision. And how I enjoyed that film slightly too many times. 

Jill 

Anyway, yeah, it’s almost like they strapped you to that chair and made you watch them 17 times. 

Dion 

They kind of did. Yeah. You know, because you know, as we all know, in those kind of cinema things, the seats are gold. And if you leave one, you’re done. It’s going coming back but anyway. 

Speaker 3 

Yeah. 

Dion 

OK, enough of that. Fantastic for what? What are your first four impressions? 

Quinny 

I just wanna know why you’re getting ready to throw it. 

Speaker 2 

Hello. 

Quinny 

Under the bus. To you ohh. 

Speaker 2 

No, no. 

Quinny 

Like there have been a couple of times that you’ve already kind of started. Coming out of. Swinging. I wanna know why the big. 

Speaker 

There is. 

Dion 

Rubber punches out. Well, first, I mean, we all hate John Krasinski. And. No, I’m just joking. That’s. Three just threw that out there for. 

Peta 

Come on for John Krasinski. And he’s not like. 

Jill 

He can’t even defend himself. 

Quinny 

He’s such a nice guy. Everybody talking. 

Dion 

About, I’m talking about how effusively I love the costuming, the design, the aesthetic, the way that it just kind of moves the story along really, really quickly. It throws in some amazing nods and references to the historical stuff, like there’s covers of famous Fantastic Four issues thrown in very quickly. I know you’ve got. 

Quinny 

Oh my God, that made me so happy. 

Dion 

Classic villains like Mole Man and the Red Ghost. Yeah. Ish red. Red ghost off. 

Speaker 3 

Well, sort of. 

Dion 

Like all of that stuff is kind of great. Herbie is amazing. The fantastic car, which I think often gets ignored.

Quinny 

Yeah. 

Jill 

Uh-huh. 

Dion 

In, in a lot of, this is part of the fun about the Fantastic Four is all of the bits and pieces that Reed comes