Posted by Arturo Bandini at 66-168-209-20.charterga.net on May 12, 2003 at 01:43:07:
Funny stuff, typical Roger Corman, worth the price of the tape (plus I cleaned up the audio when I transferred to DVD, helped alot)
One problem, though: In his interview with Kevin, Stan Lee claimed that the movie was something that was just thrown together so that the producer wouldn't lose the rights to make the movie in the future (I think Kevin made a reference that implied that only principle photography had begun, which Stan did not refute). The point was that this was never meant to be a "real" movie
The movie would seem to contradict this -- yes it's cheaply done with a somewhat poorly thought-out script, but they hired Roger Corman for chrissakes! They made a complete movie (albeit for a rumored $2 million--less than what was spent on Mallrats!) that, despite it's flaws, is a "real" movie. Why would a producer hire Roger Corman and let him make a complete movie if all he needed to do was spend a few bucks on some basic "territorial" manuevering?
First I thought that Marvel was just ashamed of the movie and created this story to cover up for the fact that they simply didn't want to release a shitty movie. But at the same time, why would Marvel hire Roger Corman and give him less than the budget for Mallrats to make a F4 movie?
Neither circumstance seems to make sense, but I'm just glad they made the movie. If only for the final shot of Reed Richards waving his elongated arm as his limo drives into the distance...