Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic
Search results
Jul 8, 2005 · Fantastic Four: Directed by Tim Story. With Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis. A group of astronauts gain superpowers after a cosmic radiation exposure and must use them to oppose the plans of their enemy, Doctor Victor Von Doom.
- (345K)
- Action, Adventure, Fantasy
- Tim Story
- 2005-07-08
- Appearances
- Plot
- Cast
- Cast Notes
- Crew
- Notes
- Reaction
- Deleted Scenes
Featured Characters:
•The Fantastic Four (First appearance)
•Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) (First appearance) (Joins)
•Invisible Woman (Susan Storm) (First appearance) (Joins)
•Human Torch (Johnny Storm) (First appearance) (Joins)
•The Thing (Ben Grimm) (First appearance) (Joins)
Reed Richards, a brilliant-but-timid and bankrupt scientist, is desperate to get funding for a space mission to study a cosmic storm, approaches multi-millionaire industrialist Victor Von Doom. Victor agrees to let Reed and his friend Ben Grimm use his facilities, but decides that he and his assistant (also love interest and former girlfriend of Reed) Susan Storm accompany him, and the mission is piloted by Von Doom astronaut Johnny Storm (Susan's brother and former subordinate of Ben).
On the Von Doom space station, Ben is sent to arrange plants for experiments with the cosmic storm, while Reed monitors its approach. Whilst Ben works, Reed finds the storm is accelerating much more than he anticipated, and tries to get Ben back inside before it hits.
When Victor refuses Reed's plea to abort the mission, the station is engulfed by its vast energies. Whilst Victor is seemingly safe behind the station's shields, the others attempt to rescue Ben (who was space-walking at the time) and are exposed to the cloud.
The astronauts make it home intact and are taken to Victor's private hospital to recuperate. There, they begin to experience physical changes. Reed find his body is able to stretch far past normal lengths. Susan finds she is able to turn invisible, and Johnny finds he can engulf his body in flames without being harmed, and has some limited flying ability. Ben, however, is traumatized by his transformation into an orange, rocky creature of superhuman strength. Ben flees the hospital, heading back home.
In New York, Ben contacts his former fiancée, but she is terrified by his new appearance. Dejected, Ben retreats back into the shadows. He finds himself on a bridge, where a man is contemplating suicide. In attempting to help him, Ben inadvertently causes a massive traffic accident. He goes to help, as the rest of the team turn up. Using their new-found powers, Reed, Susan and Johnny help to save everyone involved in the accident, and are hailed as heroes in the media.
Victor, meanwhile, is developing his own powers. The head wound he sustained begins to spread, and reveals a metallic layer underneath the flesh. He also finds an ability to affect electrical equipment and that metallic objects near him begin to vibrate.
•Ioan Gruffudd as Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards)
•Jessica Alba as Invisible Woman (Susan Storm)
•Chris Evans as Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
•Michael Chiklis as The Thing (Ben Grimm)
•Julian McMahon as Victor Von Doom
•Hamish Linklater as Leonard Kirk
As in almost all of the previous Marvel Comics-based films, Fantastic Four co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance. He is Willie Lumpkin, the mailman who greets the team on their way to the Baxter Building elevator.
A number of other actors and actresses auditioned for roles in the film. These include:
•Paul Walker auditioned for the role of Johnny Storm / The Human Torch but lost the part to Chris Evans at the last moment.
•Several actresses tried out for the role of Susan Storm / The Invisible Woman including Rachel McAdams, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Keri Russell, Claire Danes, Julia Stiles, Kate Bosworth, Elisha Cuthbert, and Elizabeth Banks. The role was later given to Jessica Alba. Elizabeth Banks was already an actress in a Marvel Comics film, Spider-Man, as Betty Brant. Rachel McAdams would play Christine Palmer in Doctor Strange. Bosworth and Cuthbert's screen tests can be seen on the special features of the DVD. Kate Bosworth would later star as Lois Lane in Superman Returns, a DC Comics film.
•Brendan Fraser and George Clooney auditioned for the role of Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic.
•James Gandolfini auditioned for the role of Ben Grimm / The Thing.
•Director: Tim Story
•Producers: Avi Arad
•Bernd Eichinger
•Chris Columbus
•Ralph Winter
•Screenplay by: Michael France
•Fantastic Four is a superhero film released July 8th, 2005, telling the origin of the superhero group The Fantastic Four, and their first battle against arch-nemesis Dr. Doom.
•The film is based on the Marvel Comics comic Fantastic Four. It was directed by Tim Story, and released by 20th Century Fox. This is the second live-action Fantastic Four movie to be filmed. The previous attempt, a B-movie produced by Roger Corman, was never officially released.
•The film was released in the United States on July 8, 2005. It was the third superhero film of the year, after Elektra and Batman Begins.
- 2005 Trailer
The critical reaction was overwhelmingly negative, scoring only a 27% at Rotten Tomatoes and 40% at Metacritic, both movie review aggregation websites. The movie was criticized for weak storytelling, poor science, and paper-thin characters — especially the bland Doctor Doom, arguably one of the hallmark villains in the Marvel Comics world. In addition, Jessica Alba's performance earned her a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress.
Many critics felt that this movie was widely surpassed by both Batman Begins and Sin City (also starring Jessica Alba), two comic book movies that were released in the same period. A major disappointment with the movie was the choice of casting, as neither Alba or Chris Evans have natural blond hair. Evans' hair was cut to make special effects easier but by doing so he loses the look of Johnny. The Storms while working for Doom were seen as "anti" Richards and Grimm.
Those who did like the film to some degree often praised Michael Chiklis for faithfully depicting his character's difficult adjustment to his transformation in a moving fashion while Chris Evans' character was considered a refreshing change of pace for modern superhero adaptations of a superhero who immediately takes delight in his powers without a resulting tragedy linked to them. However, many fans derided the producers' decision to place Chiklis in a bodysuit rather than using computer-generated effects or by the very least in a convincing body suit and make-up similar to what was seen in the movie version of the comic book Hellboy. Film critic Roger Ebert put this film at number 10 on his list of the top ten worst films of 2005. MSN ranked it #4 in their list of "worst superhero films".
proved a box office hit on its opening weekend. By September 2005, the film had totaled over $330 million worldwide with a domestic gross of $154 million. In addition the movie also did very well on the DVD sales.
Among the deleted scenes included on the December 2005 DVD release:
There are three slightly modified penultimate scenes concerning the attack on and subsequent defeat of Doctor Doom - one in which Reed uses his body as a funnel to direct a stream of water at Doom, one in which he doesn't, and one in which Doctor Doom's line "Is that the best you can do, a little heat?" is cut short, having the "..a little heat?" portion removed.
After the release of The Incredibles, the ending of the movie was rewritten because it was thought to be too similar. The scene where Doom electrocutes Ned Cecil was reshot from where Doom electrocutes Ned by a puddle of water to shooting a bolt through his chest.
There are two different versions of a scene which includes Jessica Alba and Ioan Gruffudd as Sue and Reed respectively. One version (the original) features the pair in the Planetarium, in which they communicate their feelings for each other properly without an argumentative tone. This ends in an inevitable kiss. The second version (used in the theatrical release) features the two outside, looking towards the Statue Of Liberty. Similar lines were used, but it ended where Susan turns invisible before Reed can kiss her. A joke was used during the line "a stronger man": Instead of Reed giving himself a square jaw (as he does in the theatrical release), he makes his skin look like the X-Men's Wolverine. Actor Gruffudd breaks the fourth wall and looks directly at the camera as he does this, suggesting the scene might have been filmed as a joke (similar to a practical joke filmed for the first X-Men film, in which stunt coordinator Scott Leva dressed up as Spider-Man and ran onto the set in the middle of a scene).
The novelization of the film contained a number of scenes which did not appear in the final cut; most notably a small number of scenes that drastically developed the character of Alicia Masters.
Sky Movies in the UK actually show a different version of the film to the theatrical or DVD releases. Among the changes, are the song playing in the bar scene not skipping when the Thing takes a step, the planetarium scene being reinstated and the masked Doctor Doom's voice changing from his regular voice to having an effect over the speech. Other parts of the film, such as Thing and Doom's underwater fight, are shortened whereas Reed's involvement in stopping Doom is removed.
Fantastic Four. Transformed into superheroes after surviving a disaster in space, The Fantastic Four struggle to reconcile their powers, responsibilities, and relationships as a dysfunctional family.
Fantastic Four (2005) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
Scientist Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) persuades his arrogant former classmate, Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon), to fund his experiments with cosmic energy.
- (214)
- Tim Story
- PG-13
- Ioan Gruffudd
Synopsis. Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), a genius but timid and bankrupt physicist, is convinced that evolution was triggered millions of years ago on Earth by clouds of cosmic energy in space and has calculated that one of these clouds is soon going to pass near Earth.
Jul 8, 2013 · Release Date: July 8, 2005 Marvel's first family of comic superheroes takes the world by storm as the longest running comic book series in history comes to the big screen.
- 2 min
- 230.9K
- TrailersPlaygroundHD
