–Generals, “The Funniest Joke in the World,” Monty Python’s Flying Circus
I have to say (without having seen the movie) that I’m thrilled Fantastic Four did as well as it did. Why? Simply because I find watching conventional wisdom form before my very eyes…annoying. And man OH man did everybody want this movie to bomb. Everybody was dying for this movie to bomb. From the celebrity snark specialists to the MSM critics to (in a relentless full–court press–how quickly we forget! (UPDATE: Whoop, we remember.)) the establishment comics-movie-crit types, the knives were out.
And not only does it not bomb, it breaks The Slump!
Since everybody I know personally who’s seen the film has told me (at worst) it’s better than they thought it would be, if not that it was in fact a really fun movie, I had a hunch the supposedly hideous opening weekend and subsequent poisonous word-of-mouth weren’t likely to materialize. Again, I haven’t seen the movie, so maybe I’ll dislike it. Then again, I tend to dislike the superhero movies that the Establishment refers to with reverent awe–Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, The Incredibles, Batman Begins, Hellboy–so seeing as how the reactions here are along the lines of the reactions to Daredevil (my favorite of the post Batman & Robin superhero crop, probably, though I like the X-Men movies too), I’m guessing I’ll kinda dig it. Sure, I’ll probably pine for Jack Kirby’s visual genius and Stan Lee’s instinctive knack for character. But mainly, for now, I’m just feeling schadenfreude that so many were so wrong about so much. (Insert smiling emoticon here.)
Post inspired in part (as is quite a bit around here, actually) by Jog.